Of Moving Images and My Depressed Soul

The last few days I haven't been able to write. I found it incredibly difficult to focus on any particular topic. Things were moving so fast. So much was happening. My mind was also distressed from watching the movie "House of Sand and Fog". I have always prided myself on being able to withstand a lot of despair but some parts of this movie were just too close for comfort in the issues it adressed. It left me shocked and sad. Anirvan's objective analysis of the movie did make me step back a little and not be so emotional about it. If you have the power to withstand pain the movie is worth seeing also for the way it captures the almost ethereal beauty of San Francisco as it peeks out from behind the fog. But I still find it difficult to accept the gun violence in the movie. Why would people want to carry such deadly objects? Why do cops shoot to kill even when they don't have to? I still have to process a lot of what I saw. Maybe I should stop seeing such movies. Easier said than done.

Because last Friday, Anirvan, Mukul, Akhila and I went with Jane & Tom and their friends to the opening night showing of "Farenheit 911". It was a great feeling as I stood there in front of the Grand Lake theater, whose marquee said that they would not be enforcing the 'R' rating on the movie. Oh! What joy and hope to be surrounded by so many left-minded people. The joy didn't last that long. I had expected the documentary to be mostly funny and ironic. But the scene in which members of the black caucus step forward one after the other to protest the election process in Florida is the one that stayed in my mind. They were all silenced by the fact that they didn't have the signature of atleast one senator that was required to make the protest official. I am not sure what the thought process of the Democratic party was, who I have heard discouraged senators from signing the protest. Maybe they didn't think that Bush was that bad. But seeing the scenes in the documentary of people- all kinds of people- Iraqis, Americans, soldiers and civilians dying for an unecessary war made you wish that someone had signed the protest, that someone had tried harder to keep the villainous Bush coterie out of power.

To top it off,the next day we also watched "The Weather Underground" - a fascinating documentary about the militant faction of the "Students for a Democratic Society" that was active during the protests against the Vietnam war. Their motto- "Bring the war home". One of the things they did was plant bombs in public places to remind people that their country was still at war and they could not just go on with their normal lives while innocent people were being killed in Vietnam. It's a cliche- but history does repeat itself. Will Iraq become another Vietnam? Help?!

The only light moment in my visual journey of the last 2 weeks was watching "21 Dog Years" performed by Mike Daisey at the Berkeley Rep. It was funny and ironic and performed with panache. Wonder what Amazon has to say about it?

I hope that not all my posts will be depressing. You can help me there too by not mourning with me but organizing.Vote this November. If you can't vote make sure you talk to all your friends who can. Not seeing, not hearing and not doing anything about evil is the worst thing one can do. Join the move(on)ment.