U.S. Forces at Korean Demilitarized Zone - Joint Security Area

For his third personal visit to Asia, President Obama will visit the Demilitarized Zone in Korea.  The DMZ is the most heavily militarized border in the world.

Is the president’s personal presence at the DMZ so critical to the American people that it deserves to be given such high priority over the myriad of critical issues which need addressing?

The DMZ is 160 miles by 2.5 miles.  Both sides of its border are patrolled by about 1 million North Korean soldiers, 600,000 South Korean soldiers, and 37,000 American soldiers.

Obama insists that his Asia trip “is all about jobs” (NY Times), yet the same article says the President’s visits are about one challenge: the rise of China on land and sea.

“On a previous visit, he went to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan — and, of course, his non-visit to China in many ways dominated the whole tour.” (The Week)

The Economist notes Obama’s task is to reassure Asia that the U.S. will keep China’s ambitions in check.

“Prickly nationalists” in China are the ones who state U.S. encirclement of China sure “looks fishy.”

If a heavily armed force from a country 3,000 miles away anchored itself along the Mexican border, training Mexican troops and installing 37,000 of their own troops there, would the U.S. feel suspicious?

Is this the way to a more peaceful world?

Shot on a recent trip to hometown Chicago.

This Timothy Rhys feature article in MovieMaker includes an interview with me that is so honest and direct, I think it would be of interest to you. Part of it is about the Director’s Cut of LATINO, which has just become available. The rest of it is about all kinds of things. Check it out.

Wexler wins seat on cinematographers guild board in re-run election

Academy Award-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler handily won a seat on the board of the International Cinematographers Guild in a new election ordered by federal labor officials.

Wexler won 544 votes, the highest tally among 22 candidates vying for a dozen seats on the guild’s board, according to a summary of the results posted on the guild’s website Friday night.

The 89-year-old director of photography known for his work on the 1966 film “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?” was initially disqualified from running for a seat last year because the guild said he had not spent enough time “working in the trade.” The rule, adopted in 2009, stipulates that a member must work 120 days under union contracts within the previous three years in order to run for local office.

Wexler and other candidates maintained they were improperly disqualified because they have been critics of the current union’s president, Steven Poster, and had complained to the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Labor that Wexler and another candidate had been improperly disallowed and ordered the guild to hold a new election for cinematographers in the western region.

Wexler said he felt vindicated by the election results. “It’s an incredible showing when, not so long ago, they were saying I was not qualified to run for office,” he said. “It does mean that people think otherwise. This is an unfair rule that was specifically used to marginalize certain people.”

The guild did not issue a statement. “I welcome him [Wexler] to the board, but we’ve got a lot on our plate,” Poster said. “Let’s get down to work.”

This is an excerpt from an excellent speech given by Bill Moyers on October 16, 2010:

All bets are now off. The great American experiment in creating a different future together has come down to the worship of individual cunning in the pursuit of wealth and power, with both political parties cravenly subservient to Big Money. The result is an economy that no longer serves ordinary men and woman and their families. This, I believe, accounts for so much of the profound sense of betrayal in the country, for the despair about the future. As Gabriel says in James Weldon Johnson’s epic Green Pastures: “Everything that’s tied down is coming loose.” America as a shared project is shattered, leaving us increasingly isolated in our separate realities.

John Gardner would understand this dark reading of our gross national psychology. The workings of the human psyche were his field of study. But the Marine Corps, remember, was his finishing school, and Semper Fidelis his personal code. So I will close with his own words, as relevant today as ever:

We are treading the edge of a precipice here….There is a disconnection between the people and their leaders. Citizens do not trust their government. And a variety of polls indicate that this mistrust extends to corporations and the media. People do not feel they have must control of their lives, and the sense of impotence grows like a great life-endangering tumor. Civilizations die of disenchantment. If enough people doubt their society, the whole venture falls apart. We must never let anger, fashionable cynicism, or political partisanship blur our vision of this point.

We were invited to attend a 35th Anniversary Screening of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I was asked, “What is your strongest memory from that film?”

Harding (played by William Redfield), an inmate of the mental institution, says truths that have relevance to us today, who are encapsulated in a global booby hatch.

by ADAMAFILMS on SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

An intimate portrait ten years in the making, of Hollywood’s pre-digital master craftsmen, “Something’s Gonna Live” celebrates the work, friendship and indelible contribution of renowned production designers Robert F. Boyle (NORTH BY NORTHWEST), Henry Bumstead (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD), Albert Nozaki (THE WAR OF THE WORLDS) and Harold Michelson (STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE), as well as master cinematographers Haskell Wexler (IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT) and Conrad L. Hall (IN COLD BLOOD).

Written & Directed by Academy Award®-Nominated Filmmaker Daniel Raim
Featuring Cinematography by Two Time Oscar®-Winner Haskell Wexler, A.S.C.

Filmmakers in-person: Please join us Friday September 10th after the 7:10pm show for a Q&A with director Daniel Raim and cinematographer Haskell Wexler.

Additional Q&As with the director throughout all weekend screenings.

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT September 10-16, 2010
Laemmle Music Hall 3
9036 Wilshire Boulevard Beverly Hills, CA 90211 (310) 274-6869
Showtimes:
Friday 5:00, 7:10 & 9:40
Saturday 12:40, 2:50, 5:00, 7:10 & 9:40
Sunday 12:40, 2:50, 5:00 & 7:10
Mon-Thu: 5:00 & 7:10

For tickets, go to http://www.laemmle.com/viewmovie.php?mid=6542 and click on Laemmle’s Music Hall 3.

On opposite pages of August’s ICG Magazine, two cinematographers look at each other.  The President’s Letter gives us information on the new Canon DSLR cameras, all of it loaded with the first person singular and letting us know, from his vast experience, how well he is acquainted with this new technology.

So much for the important information from Our Union President, all of which is available over the counter at Samy’s.  Looking at him from the opposite page is Chris Menges, one of the great cinematographers of our time, an outspoken, progressive union man. He seems to be smiling at Poster. Perhaps it is with indulgence, but I’m sure there is something in the expression that’s asking, “What the hell is he talking about?”  Kodak paid for Menges to be in the magazine.  It costs $500,000 a year to put out a Union publication in which Poster is the only union voice permitted. Perhaps ICG should allow Chris Menges to submit an article that not only excites us about technology, but discusses the fundamental reason for having a union.

- Haskell Wexler, ASC

THE DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL® PRESENTS THE EXCLUSIVE NETWORK PREMIERE

OF  “WHO NEEDS SLEEP?”

FROM OSCAR® -WINNING CINEMATOGRAPHER HASKELL WEXLER

Documentary Features Interviews With Hollywood Stars Including Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Annette Bening, Billy Crystal, Paul Newman and Tyne Daily, among many others

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (June 1, 2010) — The Documentary Channel® (DOC) presents the exclusive network premiere of the critically acclaimed feature-length documentary “Who Needs Sleep?” from Academy® Award winner Haskell Wexler on Friday, June 25 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT.

NEXT scheduled screening is Sunday, July 11th at 6pm

Distributed by Chatsworth, Calif.-based Image Entertainment (NASDAQ: DISK), the film features intimate interviews with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Annette Bening, Billy Crystal, Paul Newman, and Tyne Daly, as they discuss health risks associated with long production work days surpassing the 14-hour mark.