Realms of Light: Pure Ecstasy
Greek-born, Marin County-based Iasos is a composer, musician, and visual artist. He has been creating and presenting sensational multi-media shows for nearly four decades. Iasos is one of the founding fathers of New Age Music – though the quality of his music transcends the genre.
“Realms of Light” is the culmination of his life-long development as an artist. Melding his music with his vision, Iasos has created an utterly ecstatic experience of sound and light. The DVD consists of eight pieces each of which combines Iasos’ music and moving images. A much-needed “33 Second Intermission” divides each of the pieces. A few of the pieces include brief images of a dancer which tend to pull focus from, rather than compliment the overall experience. The DVD offers the viewer a choice of Stereo or 5.1 Surround. Iasos creatively addresses the issue of copyright in a coda entitled “Permission to Copy.”
After seeing “2001: A Space Odyssey” 11 times at a ‘Cinerama’ theater, I developed the yearning for a multi-media experience divorced from narrative – to put it bluntly, I wanted a purely pleasurable sensational experience. “Realms of Light” is the first piece I’ve seen that completely addresses my hunger for a beatific, transcendent media experience. If I was an old-fashioned, cigar-smoking Hollywood mogul I’d gruffly yell to Iasos, “I love your stuff, kid. Here’s a gazillion dollars. Go, re-author this thing for Blu-ray, and while you’re at it, let’s release it for IMAX, and, oh yeah, gimme some more.” Just as I could not have imagined the beauty of “Realms of Light”, I struggle to imagine what can possibly transcend it. But if anyone can do so, Iasos can.
For more see, Realms of Light: Pure Ecstasy.
D.Schwartz Aug 29, 2010
My Trip to al-Qaeda: Examining Islamic Fundamentalism and the United States’ Response
“My Trip to al-Qaeda” is Academy Award winner Alex Gibney’s documentary of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lawrence Wright’s one-man, off-Broadway show of the same name. The show, in turn, was inspired by Wright’s writing of his bestseller “The Looming Tower: al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11”. Gibney’s film, an unusual hybrid of stage play and documentary footage, premiered on HBO in early September, 2010, and was cablecast throughout the month.
Wright tells his story – of his first journey to the mid-east to teach at the American University in Cairo, in 1969, followed by his subsequent coverage of Islamic culture and fundamentalism, mid-east politics, and the United States relationship with this miasma. The strength and power of Wright’s objectivity is reinforced by his willingness to reveal his emotional reactions to Islamic violence. Anyone wishing to cultivate a deeper and wider perspective on the current global jihad will do well to watch Gibney’s mesmerizing film.
The film closes with Wright’s on-stage lamentation of the United States’ willful erosion of civil liberties. The lament is about both the inconvenience and horror of this loss, as well as the destruction of one of the noblest aspects of the United States in its relationship to the international community. Our ‘beacon’ has been attenuated. And to rub salt in this national wound, this intentional self-sabotage plays perfectly into the hands of, the strategy of the Fundamentalists – although there are others who would see this dynamic relationship between ‘enemy’ and civil liberties loss to be a bit more complex.
Wright’s stage performance is elegant, graceful, passionate, and, of course, heartbreaking. This is the work of a seasoned actor who happens to not be a seasoned actor. D. Schwartz September 14, 2010
Every parent in the United States should see this documentary, “Race to Nowhere,, ”as well as every teacher, administrator, bureaucrat, healthcare worker (psychological and physical), and politician (at every level of government). At stake is our children’s mental and physical health, their happiness, their childhood, their future, and, consequently, our society’s well-being.
Vicki Abeles, the film’s producer and co-director, has given us an immeasurably powerful picture of how the United States’ achievement ethos, as applied to our educational system is damaging our children, and, ultimately, our nation. Not a nano second of Abeles’ film should be missed – including, of course, the approaches to solving these painful problems Abeles so skillfully exposes.
Rather than provide specifics from the film’s dramatic, revelatory, heart-wrenching interviews of children, parents, teachers, psychologists, and educational specialists, I refer you to the film’s website, for more information; and, of course, I refer you to the film itself.
“Race to Nowhere” is being screened across the nation this Fall of 2010. The website contains screening information, and you can register with the site or simply check back into the site from time-to-time to learn about the eventual DVD release. I’ve registered with the site because I want to be part of the solution. And, of course, once registered, I signed the site’s petition.
D. Schwartz October 22, 2010
Produced by Marin County filmmakers Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto, “Trust” deftly weaves several stories. We learn about the founding and subsequent work of the Albany Park Theater Company in Chicago. Working with adolescents, David Feiner and Maggie Popadiak produce plays based on the teens’ experiences. Each young person in the theater troupe has a life story; the group of teens shares these stories, and then, working with Popadiak and Feiner, chose and craft stories to produce.
We learn about Marlin—pronounced like the name, ‘Marleen’—who tells a harrowing story of rape and sexual abuse in her homeland, Honduras, and in her new home in Chicago. We’re with Marlin and the group of 22 teens as she shares her story. Following that, we see the creative process with its joy and pain as the troupe finds their way to tell Marlin’s story entitled “Remember Me Like This”.
The title derives from Marlin’s preamble to the group when she first tells her story. Recognizing that she is about to share horrors that happened to her and the painful, destructive ways she dealt with these horrors, Marlin wants the group to know that the person she is NOW is not the person she is describing. She wants to make sure the group sees her as she is: healthy.
Kelly and Yamamoto do a terrific job of telling all these stories including, of course, providing shots from the produced play—shots that have greater meaning for us since we shared the birth pangs of their origins. The filmmakers also cover the very successful production’s impact on the group—especially, of course, on Marlin. I’ll state the obvious, unless you have a heart of glass, you will need handkerchiefs.
I was so inspired by “Trust”, and by the work of David Feiner and Maggie Popadiak that I emailed my theater friends sharing my opinion that the Albany Park Theater Company’s model could be and should be re-created in communities around the world. Pass it on!
D. Schwartz November 4, 2010
Don Reviews films for CineSource magazine--Northern California's video/Journal. You may read many of his reviews at that source.
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