All posts in Something Real

9 Lives

by Drey on January 1, 2008 in Movies, Something Real with 11 Comments

As part of my SELP project, I am immersing myself in films relating to women’s issues, created by women filmmakers or having to do with single mothers. To date, I’ve watched the Vagina Monologues, Thirteen and 9 Lives.

9 Lives is a series of 9 loosely connected vignettes about various women. Each vignette is a single, uninterrupted take. Each woman in the film was complex and multi-layered and yet they were just a facet of all women, a different face for a different day.

The men in the film seemed brutish and awkward by comparison, even the most gallant failing to share a plane of equality with any of the female characters.

I was pleased to see Holly Hunter again, nuanced and wonderful. If you need to be reminded of Robin Wright Penn’s acting caliber, this is the film to check out.

The final story, a simple tale of mother and daughter, enacted by Glen Close and Dakota Fanning, cut me to the core. I thought I was observing a simple slice of life, but the reveal, accomplished with the simple rotation of the camera showed me the truth.

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Untitled Monserrat Project

by Drey on December 7, 2007 in Something Real with 2 Comments

I’m currently in the Self-Expression and Leadership Program, the third and final course in Landmark’s curriculum for living. The main focus of the program is to create a project that inspires you and has an impact in one of your communities or the world in general. They encourage you to think big and take on something unlike anything you’ve ever done before.

I looked at the communities in my life and I really struggled to find something where I could do a big project. There were some obvious things that I was probably going to do anyway, but nothing that really jumped out at me and lit me up.

Then it hit me. Single mothers are really important to me as they have had a big impact in my life. I wanted to do something that would empower, recognize and perhaps even aid them. Then I thought about how much I love movies. So I decided that I would enlist 10 women filmmakers to contribute or create a short 5-20 minute film on a subject that empowers women. The idea would be to have a screening at the Alamo Drafthouse. So the project would end up empowering and recognizing the filmmakers and single mothers as well.

I need to see if there are any sort of national organizations that somehow benefit or provide aid for single mothers. And I need to start talking to filmmakers, women’s groups and the like.

And I need a good name for the project.

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