Dear Festividder 2022-2023
Oct. 23rd, 2022 01:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bironicDear Festividder and anyone who might like to make a treat!
ATLANTA (TV)
Sales pitch: Disaster friends, incisive social commentary, sharp writing, black humor, Black humor, random one-off episodes that dive into the frightening and/or the absurd. Main plot: A guy in Atlanta hits it big as a rapper, and his cousin becomes his manager while negotiating a rocky relationship and trying to co-parent. Starring: Donald Glover! Brian Tyree Henry! Lakeith Stanfield! Zazie Beetz! Celeb cameos! Four seasons streaming on Hulu.
Here's a cool video analyzing what the narrator calls the show’s Afrosurrealism.
Caveats: Content can be disturbing, usually in relation to confronting anti-Black racism in many forms. Also off the top of my head: drug use, gun violence, physical violence.
Vid request: This show is so good! Yet there are all of 10 fanworks for it on the AO3 and none of them are vids?? So, first off, A VID would be most welcome!
Ideas:
- A recruiter vid that gives a flavor of the characters and their main arc(s).
- A deeper dive into Paper Boi’s life, or Earn’s or Van‘s or Darius’.
- A taste of the way the show veers into the supernatural and/or political thought experiments and/or specific media spoofs.
- A focus on one of the standalone episodes, whether about the main characters (Paper Boi’s journey into the heart of darkness or new jazz? The Teddy Perkins/Michael Jackson or Mr. Chocolate nightmares? Van’s double life as a French baguette-wielding black market dealer?) or anthology standalones (the kid who gets sent into foster care, the ancestral slaveholder’s tax, the affirmative action donor, the homegoing service…).
- Something that manages to capture the humor of the series even though so much of it lies in the dialogue.
- Themes like "being lost" can help make connections.
I look forward to whatever you come up with!
WILDLIKE (2014 movie)
Sales pitch: Ella Purnell, who played young Maleficent! Bruce Greenwood, who played Christopher Pike in the Star Trek: Reboot movies and was in lots of other stuff! Alaskan landscapes from Juneau to Denali! A hurt/comfort story that progresses to the unlikely connection between a teenage girl and a gruff older backpacker!
Caveats: Molestation of high school-aged girl by uncle; mention of spousal death from cancer.
Vid request: I would be so happy to have a vid of this movie that simply told the story, focusing on Mackenzie and René's developing relationship and taking advantage of the visual splendor of the Alaskan setting. Or whatever focus and structure appeals to you. FWIW, the emotional high point of the movie for me was René's protectiveness once he found out what really happened with Kenzie and her uncle, specifically when René bundled her back into the ferry cabin. I like to think he made good use of the bear spray when he made that stop in Juneau. :)
THE LATHE OF HEAVEN (1980 movie)
Summary: Ursula Le Guin does Inception inside-out. George Orr learns that his dreams can change reality; his psychiatrist tries to influence them for the "greater good."
Sales pitch: Dream manipulation leading to reality manipulation! A megalomaniac oneirologist doing more damage than a meek everyman! Exploration of the nature of reality and consciousness! (Was the nuclear apocalypse real and the whole story a dream while George lay dying? Does it matter?) Alien invasion! Antiquing! AND THEN THEY EAT LUNCH AT THE ALIEN HOT DOG STAND.
Caveats: Abuse of power by a medical professional; invasion of mental privacy; nuclear apocalypse.
Watch the whole thing on YouTube.
Vid request: Anything related to the sales pitch would be awesome. I also enjoy young Bruce Davison's face and the constantly rewritten relationship with Heather. Can you find a way to tell Heather's story? Do you want to take this in the direction of the absurd? Or perhaps the creepy, focusing on Haber's unethical treatment of George? The influence on Le Guin of Taoism? The way George is able to go with the flow as history and architecture and race and climate and status are upheaved around him? Anything you do would be swell.
The video quality of the only DVDs I know of is crappy—poor contrast, lots of ghosting, ugh—but I just adore the concept of the film and its dark humor so much that I hope someone will brave the shoestring-budget visual flaws to make a vid.
CRITTER FIXERS (TV)
Sales pitch: Animal feelings! Critter Fixers follows two Black American veterinarians, Dr. Hodges and Dr. Ferguson, who run a private practice in rural Georgia. They have a straight man/funny man dynamic somewhat reminiscent of Captain Holt and Jake Peralta from Brooklyn 99. They see so-called exotic pets but they also do cats and dogs and farm animals. Three short seasons on Disney+.
Caveats: An unpredictable amount of animal illness, injury, and/or death in each episode. Surgery and other medical procedures intended to treat animals. Occasional use of parent/child language to describe humans and animals. Occasional discussion of animal weight, diet, and weight loss. In one episode there's insensitive parading around of an animal, I think a dog, that has male and female reproductive organs.
Vid request: These guys are so charming and good at what they do. It'd be a treat to have a vid that shares the joy of their working relationship (with or without the other staff members) and their dedication to saving as many community members' pets and livestock as they can. The animals in all their variety are cool. Veterinary medicine is cool. The vets' passion for inspiring Black kids to go into veterinary medicine is cool.
A taste, via a turtle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKpGczEXnjg
THE BURIAL OF KOJO (2018 movie)
Summary: A Ghanaian film about a girl whose visions of an anthropomorphic crow may help her find her father when he goes missing. Streaming on Netflix. In several languages with subtitles.
Sales pitch: Cloaked bird-man on a horse, looking like a plague doctor or a grim reaper! Young woman main character with rich fantasy life! Gorgeous imagery! And a decades-old family tragedy that resurfaces.
Caveats: Bird death, fatal car accident, blood. Possibly others; it's been a while since I watched. Also note there is some upside-down footage and other potentially dizzying camera movement.
Vid request: I've wanted to see a vid that uses this striking bird imagery every since I saw the movie. The cinematography creates so many beautiful moments in addition to those that there's a lot to work with. A coming-of-age story about Esi, a retelling of the plot, it's all good.
THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI (book)
Sales pitch: A woman made of clay meets a man made of fire in turn-of-the-20th-century New York. There's challah baking and desert flashbacks and sexy seduction and supernatural possession, and, just in time for Purim, evil viziers. Beautiful, comforting prose.
Caveats: I don't remember well enough, sorry. :(
Vid request: One of the things I loved about this book was its vibrant setting, its creation of an atmosphere I wanted to wrap around myself forever. I think what I'm hoping for in a vid is a sort of mood piece, where you feel like you're in this magical 1900-ish Lower East Side or Central Park, sepia toned. (The closest movie I can think of for visual inspiration of the city is Gangs of New York, but I'm sure there's lots more out there I just haven't seen. Maybe Winter's Tale, which held the same sort of early-NY magic?)
And maybe you will give an impression of this large-boned Eastern European woman and this elegant Arab man (I mean, I don't expect our imaginations of Chava and Ahmad to be the same, so I look forward to whomever you choose for your fan-cast, if you fan-cast them). Maybe there will be a bakery and a metalworker's forge, or a desert and a temple, or Jewish and Syrian immigrant communities, or impressions of seduction or murder or enslavement or the clash between subservience/suppression and dominance/recklessness, or maybe there are other aspects of the story you want to highlight, or nothing so complex because it all seems very intimidating. Whatever you make, it's going to be wonderful.
I just ask that you please be sensitive if you choose to cast Schaalman or Schall. No Hollywood stereotypes of giant-eyebrowed, pointy-eared, scheming Jews. Thank you. <3
SARAH & DUCK (TV)
Sales pitch: A feel-good BBC kids’ cartoon about a girl and her pet duck (who understands English and is understood by others even though he only quacks) who go on household and neighborhood adventures. Comfort watch. Three seasons. In the U.S., accessible on Tubi with a free account.
Caveats: None?
Vid request: Something sweet that showcases the many friendships and sometimes striking art would be loved and hugged. Or if you have another idea, go for it. I like the yarn lady’s long-suffering gay-coded handbag and the shallots, and the especially whimsical episodes, and Sarah’s love of manatees.
STANLEY TUCCI: SEARCHING FOR ITALY (TV)
Sales pitch: Charismatic Italian American in glasses travels the 20 regions of Italy, meets chefs and growers and producers and eats with them, and moans about how good everything tastes. Two or three short seasons, depending on whom you ask; the first two are on CNN.com and the currently airing one is on Discovery+.
Caveats: Hm. Discussion and depiction of preparing and eating animals. Probably some unspoken sociopolitical stuff? And probably it’ll make you hungry. Masks are sometimes involved because of filming during the pandemic.
Vid request: Something that captures the joy of friendships, travel, and good food would be A+. If you want to take a particular point of view, cool.
General notes, if they are helpful:
I like celebrating shows and movies that make me happy, but just as much I like queering texts, whether it's pairing characters who aren't paired in canon or inverting themes or highlighting kink or drawing attention to minor characters or changing the tone or telling a different story using the same footage. I like joyful and I like dark and I like sexy.
Music-wise, I like folk from pretty much any country, rock, classical, instrumental, bluegrass, movie scores, Celtic, choral, country where it intersects with folk and rock, some pop, some dance, some hip hop, indie... Not fond of ska (too fast) or reggae (too slow) or discordant stuff. I am possibly one of the only people in vidding fandom who doesn't like Florence + the Machine, sorry. I'm open to spoken word, but if you mix dialogue with music, please make the dialogue very clear/easily audible.
Thank you for making something for one of these newly or long-loved sources. ♥
ATLANTA (TV)
Sales pitch: Disaster friends, incisive social commentary, sharp writing, black humor, Black humor, random one-off episodes that dive into the frightening and/or the absurd. Main plot: A guy in Atlanta hits it big as a rapper, and his cousin becomes his manager while negotiating a rocky relationship and trying to co-parent. Starring: Donald Glover! Brian Tyree Henry! Lakeith Stanfield! Zazie Beetz! Celeb cameos! Four seasons streaming on Hulu.
Here's a cool video analyzing what the narrator calls the show’s Afrosurrealism.
Caveats: Content can be disturbing, usually in relation to confronting anti-Black racism in many forms. Also off the top of my head: drug use, gun violence, physical violence.
Vid request: This show is so good! Yet there are all of 10 fanworks for it on the AO3 and none of them are vids?? So, first off, A VID would be most welcome!
Ideas:
- A recruiter vid that gives a flavor of the characters and their main arc(s).
- A deeper dive into Paper Boi’s life, or Earn’s or Van‘s or Darius’.
- A taste of the way the show veers into the supernatural and/or political thought experiments and/or specific media spoofs.
- A focus on one of the standalone episodes, whether about the main characters (Paper Boi’s journey into the heart of darkness or new jazz? The Teddy Perkins/Michael Jackson or Mr. Chocolate nightmares? Van’s double life as a French baguette-wielding black market dealer?) or anthology standalones (the kid who gets sent into foster care, the ancestral slaveholder’s tax, the affirmative action donor, the homegoing service…).
- Something that manages to capture the humor of the series even though so much of it lies in the dialogue.
- Themes like "being lost" can help make connections.
I look forward to whatever you come up with!
WILDLIKE (2014 movie)
Sales pitch: Ella Purnell, who played young Maleficent! Bruce Greenwood, who played Christopher Pike in the Star Trek: Reboot movies and was in lots of other stuff! Alaskan landscapes from Juneau to Denali! A hurt/comfort story that progresses to the unlikely connection between a teenage girl and a gruff older backpacker!
Caveats: Molestation of high school-aged girl by uncle; mention of spousal death from cancer.
Vid request: I would be so happy to have a vid of this movie that simply told the story, focusing on Mackenzie and René's developing relationship and taking advantage of the visual splendor of the Alaskan setting. Or whatever focus and structure appeals to you. FWIW, the emotional high point of the movie for me was René's protectiveness once he found out what really happened with Kenzie and her uncle, specifically when René bundled her back into the ferry cabin. I like to think he made good use of the bear spray when he made that stop in Juneau. :)
THE LATHE OF HEAVEN (1980 movie)
Summary: Ursula Le Guin does Inception inside-out. George Orr learns that his dreams can change reality; his psychiatrist tries to influence them for the "greater good."
Sales pitch: Dream manipulation leading to reality manipulation! A megalomaniac oneirologist doing more damage than a meek everyman! Exploration of the nature of reality and consciousness! (Was the nuclear apocalypse real and the whole story a dream while George lay dying? Does it matter?) Alien invasion! Antiquing! AND THEN THEY EAT LUNCH AT THE ALIEN HOT DOG STAND.
Caveats: Abuse of power by a medical professional; invasion of mental privacy; nuclear apocalypse.
Watch the whole thing on YouTube.
Vid request: Anything related to the sales pitch would be awesome. I also enjoy young Bruce Davison's face and the constantly rewritten relationship with Heather. Can you find a way to tell Heather's story? Do you want to take this in the direction of the absurd? Or perhaps the creepy, focusing on Haber's unethical treatment of George? The influence on Le Guin of Taoism? The way George is able to go with the flow as history and architecture and race and climate and status are upheaved around him? Anything you do would be swell.
The video quality of the only DVDs I know of is crappy—poor contrast, lots of ghosting, ugh—but I just adore the concept of the film and its dark humor so much that I hope someone will brave the shoestring-budget visual flaws to make a vid.
CRITTER FIXERS (TV)
Sales pitch: Animal feelings! Critter Fixers follows two Black American veterinarians, Dr. Hodges and Dr. Ferguson, who run a private practice in rural Georgia. They have a straight man/funny man dynamic somewhat reminiscent of Captain Holt and Jake Peralta from Brooklyn 99. They see so-called exotic pets but they also do cats and dogs and farm animals. Three short seasons on Disney+.
Caveats: An unpredictable amount of animal illness, injury, and/or death in each episode. Surgery and other medical procedures intended to treat animals. Occasional use of parent/child language to describe humans and animals. Occasional discussion of animal weight, diet, and weight loss. In one episode there's insensitive parading around of an animal, I think a dog, that has male and female reproductive organs.
Vid request: These guys are so charming and good at what they do. It'd be a treat to have a vid that shares the joy of their working relationship (with or without the other staff members) and their dedication to saving as many community members' pets and livestock as they can. The animals in all their variety are cool. Veterinary medicine is cool. The vets' passion for inspiring Black kids to go into veterinary medicine is cool.
A taste, via a turtle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKpGczEXnjg
THE BURIAL OF KOJO (2018 movie)
Summary: A Ghanaian film about a girl whose visions of an anthropomorphic crow may help her find her father when he goes missing. Streaming on Netflix. In several languages with subtitles.
Sales pitch: Cloaked bird-man on a horse, looking like a plague doctor or a grim reaper! Young woman main character with rich fantasy life! Gorgeous imagery! And a decades-old family tragedy that resurfaces.
Caveats: Bird death, fatal car accident, blood. Possibly others; it's been a while since I watched. Also note there is some upside-down footage and other potentially dizzying camera movement.
Vid request: I've wanted to see a vid that uses this striking bird imagery every since I saw the movie. The cinematography creates so many beautiful moments in addition to those that there's a lot to work with. A coming-of-age story about Esi, a retelling of the plot, it's all good.
THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI (book)
Sales pitch: A woman made of clay meets a man made of fire in turn-of-the-20th-century New York. There's challah baking and desert flashbacks and sexy seduction and supernatural possession, and, just in time for Purim, evil viziers. Beautiful, comforting prose.
Caveats: I don't remember well enough, sorry. :(
Vid request: One of the things I loved about this book was its vibrant setting, its creation of an atmosphere I wanted to wrap around myself forever. I think what I'm hoping for in a vid is a sort of mood piece, where you feel like you're in this magical 1900-ish Lower East Side or Central Park, sepia toned. (The closest movie I can think of for visual inspiration of the city is Gangs of New York, but I'm sure there's lots more out there I just haven't seen. Maybe Winter's Tale, which held the same sort of early-NY magic?)
And maybe you will give an impression of this large-boned Eastern European woman and this elegant Arab man (I mean, I don't expect our imaginations of Chava and Ahmad to be the same, so I look forward to whomever you choose for your fan-cast, if you fan-cast them). Maybe there will be a bakery and a metalworker's forge, or a desert and a temple, or Jewish and Syrian immigrant communities, or impressions of seduction or murder or enslavement or the clash between subservience/suppression and dominance/recklessness, or maybe there are other aspects of the story you want to highlight, or nothing so complex because it all seems very intimidating. Whatever you make, it's going to be wonderful.
I just ask that you please be sensitive if you choose to cast Schaalman or Schall. No Hollywood stereotypes of giant-eyebrowed, pointy-eared, scheming Jews. Thank you. <3
SARAH & DUCK (TV)
Sales pitch: A feel-good BBC kids’ cartoon about a girl and her pet duck (who understands English and is understood by others even though he only quacks) who go on household and neighborhood adventures. Comfort watch. Three seasons. In the U.S., accessible on Tubi with a free account.
Caveats: None?
Vid request: Something sweet that showcases the many friendships and sometimes striking art would be loved and hugged. Or if you have another idea, go for it. I like the yarn lady’s long-suffering gay-coded handbag and the shallots, and the especially whimsical episodes, and Sarah’s love of manatees.
STANLEY TUCCI: SEARCHING FOR ITALY (TV)
Sales pitch: Charismatic Italian American in glasses travels the 20 regions of Italy, meets chefs and growers and producers and eats with them, and moans about how good everything tastes. Two or three short seasons, depending on whom you ask; the first two are on CNN.com and the currently airing one is on Discovery+.
Caveats: Hm. Discussion and depiction of preparing and eating animals. Probably some unspoken sociopolitical stuff? And probably it’ll make you hungry. Masks are sometimes involved because of filming during the pandemic.
Vid request: Something that captures the joy of friendships, travel, and good food would be A+. If you want to take a particular point of view, cool.
General notes, if they are helpful:
I like celebrating shows and movies that make me happy, but just as much I like queering texts, whether it's pairing characters who aren't paired in canon or inverting themes or highlighting kink or drawing attention to minor characters or changing the tone or telling a different story using the same footage. I like joyful and I like dark and I like sexy.
Music-wise, I like folk from pretty much any country, rock, classical, instrumental, bluegrass, movie scores, Celtic, choral, country where it intersects with folk and rock, some pop, some dance, some hip hop, indie... Not fond of ska (too fast) or reggae (too slow) or discordant stuff. I am possibly one of the only people in vidding fandom who doesn't like Florence + the Machine, sorry. I'm open to spoken word, but if you mix dialogue with music, please make the dialogue very clear/easily audible.
Thank you for making something for one of these newly or long-loved sources. ♥
