The French filmmaker Agnes Varda’s candid camera work, and the natural performances and settings in her narrative films and documentaries influenced no less than Jean-Luc Godard. As a result, Varda is considered to be one of the key influences in the development of the French New Wave.

In 1968, Varda traveled to America to shoot her short film Black Panthers — Huey!. Here’s what the Virtual Circuit site says about the movie:

This riveting documentary, “Black Panthers – Huey!”, directed by French filmmaker Agnès Varda transports you to the pivotal Free Huey rally held on February 17th, 1968 (Newton’s birthday), at Oakland Auditorium in Alameda, California. Newton, the charismatic young college student who, along with Bobby Seale, created the Black Panther Party, had been jailed for allegedly killing a police officer. His arrest–widely believed at the time to be a setup–galvanized Party support throughout the nation and led to a boom in Party membership, bringing a new level of public attention to the Panthers’ cause. Over 5,000 people attended the rally, which featured Party leaders and guest speakers including Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, James Forman, Bob Avakian, Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown and Ron Dellums. Through stark un-editorialized footage, this documentary chronicles the speakers outlining the Party’s platform goals, their strategies for freeing Newton from jail and more. B&W, 31 minutes.
Plus: BLACK PANTHER NEWSREEL (USA, 1968): The California Newsreel was an underground alternative to the commercial broadcast media of the 1960’s. This unique clip provides a chilling look at the California racial environment of 1968, including demonstration scenes outside the Alameda County Jail. A rare in-jail interview with Huey P. Newton, is featured, with Eldridge Cleaver and Bobby Seale also offering perspectives on the Panthers and what they perceive as police brutality on the black community. Essential viewing for anyone interested in American or Afro-American history, these two pieces provide an entertaining and educational look at a turbulent, incendiary time.

Here is the film.

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Stay Awake!

Iran. Iran so far away...

Clearly, I’m not someone to pay a lot of attention to mainstream media. I don’t have television and I obviously spend a lot of time seeking out odd sources of information. That said, I like to listen to radio at night and in the morning and lately all I’m hearing about is the inevitability of a war with Iran.

It’s not quite that clear-cut, but readers who lived through the recent Iraq war will sense a familiar story being told here. Listening to the pundits and the White House in 2012 doesn’t sound much different from the rhetoric we heard before the invasion of Iraq. Is Iran really a nuclear threat or is this another lie to drag the U.S. into another war?

This piece in The New Yorker is one of the best sources I’ve found yet for the full scoop. Here Seymour M. Hersh states:

“…the United States could be in danger of repeating a mistake similar to the one made with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq eight years ago––allowing anxieties about the policies of a tyrannical regime to distort our estimations of the state’s military capacities and intentions…”

Clearly I don’t think there was any “mistake” made in the deliberate falsification and exaggeration of information that lead to our recent war in Iraq. That said, this is a strong, informative piece worth the reading:

Iran and the Bomb

Despite years of covert operations inside Iran, extensive satellite imagery, and the recruitment of many Iranian intelligence assets, the United States and its allies, including Israel, have been unable to find irrefutable evidence of an ongoing hidden nuclear-weapons program in Iran, according to intelligence and diplomatic officials here and abroad. One American defense consultant told me that as yet there is “no smoking calutron,” although, like many Western government officials, he is convinced that Iran is intent on becoming a nuclear state sometime in the future.

Read more after jumping over this mushroom cloud…

All of this reminds me of being a little boy in 1979 during the Iran hostage crisis. Vince Vance and the Valiants recorded this parody of The Beach Boys “Barbara Ann” to encourage a patriotic strike against the country.

Stay awake!

Watch this performance of my OccupySong at Occupy Congress in DC!

Which way to the Sprawl?

We’ve been enjoying this endearing flick for some time, but are just now getting around to posting about it.

Cyberpunk is a 60 minute documentary from 1990 that serves as a charming bookend to the William Gibson documentary No Maps for These Territories. While Gibson is featured prominently in this doc, it also expands out to illuminate an entire slice of the late 80′s/early 90′s culture that used to be featured in the late, great Mondo 2000 magazine.

Cyberpunk Review offers these insights:

Cyberpunk is a documentary that looks back at the 80s cyberpunk movement, and more specifically, how this has led to a trend in the “real” world where people were starting to refer to themselves as “cyberpunk.” The documentary sees “cyberpunks” as being synonymous with hackers. A number of writers, artists, musicians and scientists are interviewed to provide context to this movement. The guiding meme, as told by Gibson, is that information “wants” to be free. 60s counter-culture drug philosopher, Timothy Leary, provides a prediction that cyberpunks will “decentralize knowledge,” which will serve to remove power from those “in power” and bring it back to the masses. Many different potential technologies are discussed, including “smart drugs,” sentient machines, advanced prosthetics – all of which serve to give context to the idea of post-humanity and its imminent arrival on the world stage.

As an added bonus, here is a contemporary interview with Mr. Gibson in which he discusses the current state of Cyberspace!

Joe Nolan <3

Just a quick word and a promise-keeping on my last post.

Here is the brand new short film The First to Know. Directed by Chris Rubin de la Borbolla, this enigmatic video stars Jen Rieger as Anna Karina as the Mystery Girl.

Where is she going?

What is she saying?

Who is the mysterious stranger with the camera.

The soundtrack is my eponymous song from my new CD, Blue Turns Black.

Borbolla also directed the short film REvolution, that also starred Rieger as the Damsel in Distress.

REvolution has already made a splash on Nashville’s Music City Arts Channel 9. If you live in Nashville, keep your eyes open for the new one soon!

If you want to check out the other songs on Blue Turns Black, look no further…

Love,

Joe Nolan

Check out my profile at Reverb Nation to see my updated press and bio.

Listen to my earlier releases, and enjoy free downloads here!