MOTUS A.D.: ‘Dancing with the Stars

Saturday, January 19, 2013

‘Dancing with the Stars

Day two, and “the festival of individual story telling” continues in Park City at the Sundance Film Festival.

Every year Robert Redford gets older, the traffic grows heavier and the “films” grow…well, the films grow. 119 to choose from this year. I should be able to find something I like.

Every year there are several motifs that emerge from the dozens of films selected for the festival. They reflect subjects in the current year that the Sundance selection committee feels need more cultural exposure. In addition to the perennial faves of drugs, sex and rock and roll, themes from previous years that have been selected to entertain us have been as wide ranging as suicide, transgendered relationships, dysfunctional families, dysfunctional gay families and the dangers of right wing extremists. Now that I’ve had a chance to study this year’s catalog of films I can report on some of the major trends for 2013.

This year’s Sundance logo. I see the design team’s gone minimalist. Watch for this emerging trend; it occurs regularly as recessions drag into decades.

Wow! Is that a stunning anti-Mad Man logo or what? And it fits perfectly with theme number 1 this year: anti-capitalism. (There are other themes too, butt I’ll cover them later.) Offered up in this category: “The East,”

terrorists for humanity

"99%--The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film,"

Occupy for humanity

and my personal favorite, “Inequality of All.”

That’s right little man, we aren’t all equal. Some of us are smaller.

In their own way each of these films makes it clear that at the center of all of mankind’s problems lay the black heart of capitalists.

Any of the above would be a good movie to watch while celebrating National Popcorn Day, butt my pick of the litter, Inequality for All, stars ex-Clinton Labor Secretary, Robert Reich - diminutive by both stature and mental capacity.

A midget by all measures

At the heart of the film is a simple proposition: what is a good society, and what role does the widening income gap play in the deterioration of our nation's economic health?

We are endeavoring for INEQUALITY FOR ALL to be a paradigm-shifting, eye-opening experience for the American public. We want to accurately show through a non-partisan perspective why extreme income inequality is such an important topic for our citizens today and for the future of America

There’s been speculation that Bobby Reich desires to do for the economy what another ex-Clintonista, Algore, did for the climate with his own Oscar winning film debut, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Not sure exactly what is implied by that innuendo butt I’m guessing it means that little Bobby’s movie on the economy creates a fraudulent problem, poses a fraudulent cure for it and positions himself in such a way to become a billionaire off the scheme. Good template for a movie story.

And speaking of fraudulent billionaires, yesterday’s big premier was “Fall To Grace” a documentary film done by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra.

Chris Dodd, Alexandra, Nancy and Paul Pelosi. Several more candidates for the new Junk Jeans.

On hand for the premier were Mom, Dad and Chris Dodd - fellow member of the 1% club thanks to his many years in Congress “working for the American people.”

Alexandra’s documentary is about former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey who as you may recall resigned, with his wife at his side, by outing himself before his gay lover did. Alexandra relates how he spent his time in office “wrapped up in his ego and his hubris and his own gratification” prior to his “fall from grace.” The doc focuses on his inevitable rehabilitation, achieved through his redemptive work with women prison inmates in New Jersey and his efforts to become an Episcopalian priest.

I smell future political aspiration in the rectory

Ah well, the “individual story telling continues.” Movies are really not that much different from politics.

Both require good hair, good cosmetic surgery, endless fantasy and access to nearly unlimited funds, preferably someone else's (i.e., yours).

Lady M announces the transformational CHANGE of Organizing for America to Organizing for Action. Tax free, of course because propaganda by any other name is not for profit.

Until tomorrow, this is MOTUS, signing off from Sundance, to hit the slopes.