The Punk Syndrome Wanda Waterman 2015-04-24 Film: The Punk Syndrome Directors: J-P Passi and Jukka Kärkkäinen Writers: Jukka Kärkkäinen, Jani-Petteri Passi, and Sami Janhukainen If anyone has the right and reason to create punk rock, it’s people with developmental challenges. Think about it: they’re underemployed, ignored, despised, marginalised, and forced to conform to a world that has no interest in their self-actualisation. Their stress is often compounded by psychological issues; the conditions of their lives can bring on mental illnesses that rarely find a therapist qualified to treat them. In more enlightened societies they’re forced to earn their snack and … Continue reading Pertti Has a Speech Defect and Can’t Throw a Disco Party

Caffeine Oasis in a Wayward Urban Desert Wanda Waterman 18 2015-05-01 “I’d much rather hang out in a cafe. That’s where things are really happening.” – Joe Sacco My husband, Ahmed, promises me a special treat: he’s going to take me to his favourite café. My vision of an incense-clouded grotto with belly dancers twisting to the dherbouka and mezwed is soon vaporised by the sight of a grimy cafe with a grimier, all-male clientele, one big room furnished with old plastic garden furniture whose original whiteness is embarrassed by stains and scratches. (Read the rest here.) Continue reading The Tunisian Cafe, Part I

How Remarkable We Are— How Terrible We Can Be Wanda Waterman 2015-05-01 Richie Mehta is the Canadian director of Amal and Siddharth (recommended here in The Mindful Bard). Recently he took the time to answer Wanda Waterman’s questions about his social conscience, his training, and his formative experiences. What elements in your childhood and early years pointed you toward film? It was a combination of things, really. As a young child, I just loved watching films, more so than even my avid, film-loving parents. I would absorb material related to film (who shot this, who scored this, who was that … Continue reading In Conversation with Richie Mehta, Part I