Guus Bosman

software engineering director

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movies

A Son's Sacrifice

Sat, 04/21/2007 - 4:27pm

A Son's Sacrifice.A Son's Sacrifice is a wonderful short movie about a man in New York who gave up his job in advertising to take over his father's halal slaughterhouse business.

The main character, Imram, is a very savvy, 27 year old modern guy and the relation with his traditional father is somewhat strained at times. This is a up-to-date movie that provides a glimpse of a traditional Muslim community living in New York, and the shows the differences between first generation immigrants and their children.

Nice quote: "We're closed to prepare for Qurbani so we don't slaughter chickens now -- why don't you order pizza or something?"

Delightful, made with humor and beautiful visuals. I thought this is the best short of the 2006 Full Frame Festival. See also http://www.sonsacrifice.com/.

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movies

Uganda Rising

Fri, 04/20/2007 - 10:00pm

Uganda RisingUganda Rising is a documentary about the horrible impact of the wars and rebellions in Uganda and its neighboring countries since the 1970s. It shows the fate of child soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel army that contains thousands of children who were abducted from their families.

What is the right balance between justice and truth in a society such as in Northern Uganda? An amnesty is in place for former child soldiers, and they are forgiven for the atrocities they performed. This is pretty successful and allows children to go back to a somewhat normal life. But what do you do to the top commanders? To end the war an amnesty would help, but that is flying in the face of justice.

There is a somewhat hopeful thread in Uganda Rising, on how how children bring hope and want to learn and study.

The documentary format was old fashioned with a traditional voice over and an excessive uses of freezing frames half way interviews. However, the story told by the documentary was extremely powerful. I saw the movie right after Surfing Soweto. I must admit that I was glad I was going to see more happy documentaries after seeing 2 movies that showed the lives of children in Africa.

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dutchusa

Dutch-American Friendship Day

Thu, 04/19/2007 - 8:42am

John Adams.Today is the Dutch-American Friendship Day.

It remembers the day that John Adams, the second president of the United States, was received by the States General in The Hague and recognized as Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America.

It is also the day that the house John Adams purchased at Fluwelen Burgwal 18 in The Hague became the first American Embassy in the world.

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movies

Surfing Soweto

Wed, 04/18/2007 - 8:28pm

Surfing Soweto.The first two movies I saw on Saturday morning were part of the "Africa Stories" of the festival.

Surfing Soweto is a short documentary on the life of kids in Soweto, South Africa who ride on top of trains for fun and to get fame and attention in their world.

It's sad to see the circumstances these kids live in. The scene were they are waiting hours for their teacher to show up is telling -- they want to learn, but it's very hard.

The movie is available to view online for free.

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movies

The Right To Be Left Alone

Tue, 04/17/2007 - 8:51pm

The Right To Be Left Alone.Friday evening after seeing South of Ten & Radiant City I went home to have dinner, but two hours later I was at the Full Frame Festival again to see The Right To Be Left Alone.

This is a documentary about the life of Larry Flynt, a publisher of a pornographic magazine and a life-long activist for the freedom of speech. There is a fiction movie about Larry Flynt that I had never seen, and this documentary was interesting. The movie made a case that it is important that every generation learns and remembers how crucially important the right for free speech is.

Larry Flynt was scheduled to attend the movie (a world wide premiere) but couldn't make it for health reasons.

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dailylife

Food advertisements

Tue, 04/17/2007 - 7:38pm

Food advertisements.A website that shows Ads vs. Reality.

Advertisements for food paired with actual pictures of that food.

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politicsnews

Horrible news Virginia Tech

Mon, 04/16/2007 - 2:04pm

Horrible news from Virginia Tech today -- someone killed more than 20 people at the Campus today.

I was there for a career fair in November 2005 and it's deeply sad to read this news.

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dailylife

Full Frame Festival

Sat, 04/14/2007 - 9:05am

Full Frame Festival.I was up bright and early this morning, and I was at the Festival at 8.00 am to get tickets for 2 shows that were sold out in the advanced ticket sale. The line wasn't very long and I got my tickets.

The Festival has nice tables with good coffee and wireless access. I'm on my way to get in line for the next show that starts at 9.30 am, 2 movies about Africa.

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movies

South of Ten & Radiant City

Sat, 04/14/2007 - 12:09am

Radiant City.Tonight I went to the Full Frame Festival right after work. I saw two movies in a session that started at 5.45 pm: South of Ten followed by Radiant City.

The first one, South of Ten, was only 10 minutes long. It showed daily lives being picked up after hurricane Katrina -- a little girl bicycling through a littered landscape, boys looking at a broken bridge...

I selected this session for the 2nd movie, Radiant City. This was an entertaining film about living in the suburbs in North-America. Conversations by experts on urban planning were mixed with interviews of a family that lives in a suburb in Canada, and what influence living in a suburb has on their daily life. It was a fun but thought provoking movie that was about much more than just the urban planning aspects of the suburbs.

At the end of the session there was a Q&A session, but I was getting pretty hungry so I went home right after the movie ended.

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dailylife

Pearls for breakfast

Fri, 04/13/2007 - 8:16am

Pearls for breakfast. The Washington Post did an interesting social experiment a while ago.

"No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made.

His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?"

Read the complete article here (through Mark).

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