10.27.2006

A Love Story


SYRACUSE – I saw an emotive movie at a film festival this evening about a lesbian relationship in rural India – a subject rarely explored by Indian filmmakers. “Sancharram” or “The Journey” is a fictional story about two childhood friends, Kiran and Delilah, who as teenagers fall deeply in love, betraying strict cultural traditions and horrifying their families. The two young women are quite opposite: Kiran is a lanky, introverted poet, while Delilah is feisty and voluptuous girl who swings her hips when she walks.
The film, released in 2004, isn’t loaded with steamy sex scenes (quite the contrary). Instead, it uses dialogue and facial expressions (those eyes!) to expose the intense love and anguish experienced by these Indian women.
Ligy Pullapally, an attorney-turned-filmmaker, wrote and directed the 107-minute movie. She said of her inspiration:
“On January 25, 2000 I received an email about a young woman at a university in the South Indian state of Kerala. She and her girlfriend had fled the school, presumably under the threat of expulsion as a result of the rumors of their love affair with each other. The women were recovered and sent back to their respective families. The next day, one of the young women’s body was found floating in the reservoir of a dam. It was a tragic loss of young life and potential, a suicide. It was, I would learn, an all too familiar circumstance in the South Indian state of Kerala.”
To learn more, visit link
(JM)

10.15.2006

A Sunny Day


SYRACUSE -- My story about the television channel, Discovery HD Theater, and its unusual program, "Sunrise Earth," ran in today's New York Times. Hooray! http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/arts/television/15mckn.html (JM)

10.05.2006

Brilliance


SYRACUSE -- Slice off the top layer of a gently flowing river twinkling in the sun, and then drape it across a building. That's what Ned Kahn's metallic installations look like to me... and they're simply gorgeous.
This photo is of a facade Kahn created for a parking lot in North Carolina. A parking lot! This California-based artist (who last year won the prestigious National Design Award for landscape design) can make even the drabest of structures look dazzling. He does this using tapestries of tiny, lightweight metal squares woven together with wire. They flutter in the wind; the effect is mesmerizing.
I heard Kahn speak tonight at Syracuse University. Wow. He's groovy. To learn more about him, visit http://nedkahn.com.
(JM)