Moved » History

Lumumba

kat — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 15:03:45 +0000

Lumumba
directed by Raoul Peck, 2002

"This film is not an 'adaptation,' it aims to be a true story. I want to extract the cinematic narrative from reality by remaining as true to the facts as possible," so said Raoul Peck. Using archival images of official history (many of film's pivotal scenes are moving recreations of famous still photographs and newsreel footage from Lumumba's short political life and assassination), Peck crafted a documentary-style recreation and meditation for what might have been in the events surrounding Lumumba's assasination.

The Periodic Table

kat — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 17:58:25 +0000

The Periodic Table by Primo Levi translated from the Italian by Raymond Rosenthal Schocken; Reissue edition (April 4, 1995) Insightful, original, oftentimes funny without losing his sad ironies and fondness for details.

Moments of Reprieve

kat — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 17:26:14 +0000

Moments of Reprieve by Primo Levi translated by Ruth Feldman Written unplanned at different times and on different ocassions, Moments of Reprieve is a collection of fifteen short stories, each centred on one character only. There was Eddy, a self-absorbed green-triangle juggler and a thief, Tischler, a carpenter who recounts the story of Lilith. Bandi, a mild Hungarian whose name was Endre Szántó (reinforcing in Levi "the vague impression that a halo seemed to encircle his shaved head" to which Bandi explained laughingly: "Szántó means plowman, or more generically, peasant"), whom Levi taught to steal and cheat. . .

A Time for Machetes

kat — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 15:55:00 +0000

A Time for Machetes: The Rwandan Genocide: The Killers Speak by Jean Hatzfeld translated from the French by Linda Coverdale Serpents Tail (June 30, 2005) Although a bit too simplistically dichotomical in the Hutu/Tutsi division, it's a good book that gives specific perspectives from the common perpetrators, giving closer glimpses to their daily lives and routines, and would make an integral addition to the "bigger-picture" books like Gourevitch's and Prunier's.

Rwandan genocide

kat — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 15:00:55 +0000

In a world where the word "genocide" has penetrated popular propagandastic vocabulary the way the word "fascism" does (let's not even go there), and where genocides and sexual scandals are plastered next to each other in screaming headlines, I didn't want to further add the confusion and misinformations. My intention here is merely to add bits and pieces from a number of books and essays that I'm familiar with in an easily-read fashion and to (hopefully) avoid oversimplified generalisations.