Modern Western philosophical patriarch René Descartes is probably best known for his pithy dictum: cogito ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”) – a formulation which led him step by step to a “dualistic” vision of existence, with a radical divide between the physical body and the purely spiritual “mind”.
If there is one thing human beings have mastered, it’s thinking about the future. Theologians, affianced lovers, political theorists, social revolutionaries, TV franchise creators, actuaries and bankers all have that fundamental activity in common. Whether we are entertaining sweeping changes on a global scale, or merely wondering about our own prospects for retirement, we cannot help but beam mental images onto the blank screen of what’s to come.
The movies have taught us a great many things. How to “meet cute”. How to sing in the rain. How to squint into the sun. How to keep an eye in the frame when a juicy tear’s on the way. But perhaps most of all, they’ve revealed the tremendous allure (and symbolic expressivity) of smooth criminality.
Free The Mind: Can You Rewire The Brain Just By Taking A Breath? Directed & Written by Phie Ambo Denmark, 2012 Neuroscientists have formed a pretty clear picture of what a healthy brain looks like — but what, if anything, can their methods tell us about a “healthy mind”? Is it even possible to quantify …
SUFFOCATING RUBBER CLOWN SUIT OF NEGATIVITY – “Sieveking explores the TM phenomenon via his adoration for Lynch, and what starts off as a deeply annoying exercise in overdone idol worship turns into a pretty funny and highly-critical look at the TM organization.” David Wants to Fly Directed by David Sieveking A couple of years ago, …
And Everything Is Going Fine Directed by Steven Soderbergh It’s strange, the effect stories have when you know that they are true. They feel more immediate. That’s the power of non-fiction: the images are somehow more vivid, the blood somehow wetter. There is no disbelief in need of suspension. These things happened. They exist. It goes without …