This Land is your Land

"Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his guitar. His best-known song is "This Land Is Your Land", which is regularly sung in American schools. Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress. Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned traditional folk..."
Tear the Fascists Down

pina bausch mon amour

A short film on Pina Baush, the German dancer!

Guernica! (The Power of Art)

Guernica by Pablo Picasso
"On February 5, 2003 a large blue curtain was placed to cover this work, so that it would not be visible in the background when Colin Powell and John Negroponte gave press conferences at the United Nations. On the following day, it was claimed that the curtain was placed there at the request of television news crews, who had complained that the wild lines and screaming figures made for a bad backdrop, and that a horse's hindquarters appeared just above the faces of any speakers. Some diplomats, however, in talks with journalists claimed that the Bush Administration pressured UN officials to cover the tapestry, rather than have it in the background while Powell or other U.S. diplomats argued for war on Iraq."

Amazing Sand Animation (The Power of Art)

Amazing art, a mild Guernica in nine minutes!
"Kseniya Simonova is an Ukrainian artist who won Ukraine's Got Talent 2009. She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII."

The Lovers' Wind / Vent Des Amoureux

The Lovers' Wind
A well- known French filmmaker, Albert Lamorisse (The Red Balloon's director), under the auspices of Iran's Ministry of Culture and Art, produced the poetic film "Lovers' Wind" (1969). Eighty-five percent of this dramatically visual film is shot from a helicopter, providing a kaleidoscopic view of the vast expanses, natural beauty, historical monuments, cities and villages of Iran. The "narrators" of the film are the various winds (the warm, crimson, evil and lovers' winds), which according to folklore, inhabit Iran. They sweep the viewers from place to place across the Iranian landscape, introducing the incredible variety of life and scenery in Iran. The camera, defying gravity, with smoothness and agility, provides a bird's eye view, caressing minarets and domes, peeking over mountain tops beyond, gliding over remote villages to reveal the life enclosed within the high mud-brick walls, bouncing along with the local wildlife, following the rhythmic, sinuous flow of the oil pipelines and train tracks, and hovering over the mirror-like mosaic of the rice paddies that reflect the clouds and sky. More...

What is that?

-What is that?
-A Sparrow!

The Red Balloon

The wind blew and the blue balloon flew away from Kian's delicate fingers. He screamed, then stared at the balloon as it disappeared in the vast blue color of the sky.
I looked at him from behind the window. Not wanting him to know that I was watching him....He didn't see me, but saw the reflection of the blue on the window glass.
He came reluctantly inside, nagging. He didn't want to play with Milan's red balloon.
- Look!...Here's the blue balloon!
Kaveh said, as looking up waving his hands.
We all played with an imaginary balloon, jumping around...laughing. Thinking of The Red Balloon by Albert Lamorisse and Dodesukaden by Kurosawa.
I came home, looking for my VHS copy of The Red Balloon, a 1956 fantasy short film, directed by Albert Lamorisse to give it to Kian as a gift, but I couldn't find it! Some one must have snatched it in my absence!!
I found it on youtube. I watched it again. I couldn't hold my tears when the red balloon was stoned to death! When it gradually became lifeless! I remembered Dua Khalil Aswad...and...

The Red Balloon