WFC Maldives: Rhymes With Shove

Sometimes this blog series is so frustrating. There’s a lot of proper films made in the Maldives (for a country of its size), but none of these are available anywhere and/or subtitled in English.

So I’m left with this short which can be found on Youtube.

“You listen to way too much Neil Young. And suicidal amounts of Bob Dylan.” We who?

This isn’t really a very Maldivian (that’s a word) film, but it’s quite something. It’s basically a camera tumbling around on the coral reefs (pushed around by the waters, apparently), while a guy reads a very portentous text.

I like it!

Rhymes With Shove. Jamie R. Brisick/Isabel Freeman. 2016. Maldives.

Sting Ray

  • 1 part vodka
  • 1 part Tia Maria
  • 1 part Baileys

Shake with ice. Strain into a Martini glass. Garnish with a cherry.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

WFC Indonesia: Headshot

Ultraviolence! Kung fu! Amnesia! Drugs! More ultraviolence!

They must have had a massive ketchup budget.

This is an accomplished and interesting action movie. Nice actors, too. But it somehow lost me after a while and I started thinking about other things. Like looking up Indonesia on the map. Man, that’s a lot of islands.

If you’re a fan of close-up action scenes, you’ll probably enjoy this film a lot, because they’re really quite spiffy. It does fail somewhat in narrative.

Headshot. Kimo Stamboel, Timo Tjahjanto. 2016. Indonesia.

Chocolate Baby

  • 1 part crème de cacao
  • 1 part Coka Cola

Pour the ingredients over ice.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

WFC Seychelles: The Return of a King to Seychelles

This documentary starts with a very fast-paced infodump of the history of the Seychelles and being part of an African empire and… I’m not sure I got it all. It’s very dense and the voiceover guy talks fast.

And then we’re in present time and … a king … from… Ghana? (again, he talks fast) visits Seychelles. And… it’s… numerologically advantageous?

In short: This is a very confusing documentary. The bulk of the film we just follow the new king around while he’s visiting churches and being interviewed.

The Return of a King to Seychelles. Ivor Agyeman-Duah. 2015. Seychelles.

Seychelles

  • 2 parts Creme de menthe
  • 2 parts gin
  • 1 part lime juice
  • 1 part simple syrup

Put crushed ice in a champagne flute. Add all the ingredients. Garnish with a lemon wedge and cherries.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

Compact Video Data

I’m thinking about watching a buttload of older films… perhaps all from the 40s? I’m not sure. In any case, I’ve started poking around to see what’s available, and I stumbled onto a 50 musicals box set for $7 (used), which made me so curious I just had to get it.

And it arrived today:

It’s about as thick as two normal DVD covers…

Inside are 12 cardboard envelopes that have two DVDs each.

And these DVDs are of the seldom-seen double-sided type: You play one side, then flip them over and then play the other side. I don’t think the concept proved very popular, because I think this is like the second time in my life I’ve seen disks like this.

So what’s the content like? These are single layer DVDs, so there’s only 4.7GB available on each side. Since there are two to three films on each side, they’ve compressed each film down to under 2GB, which means that they’re sometimes a bit on the artifacty side.

And the transfers they’ve sourced these DVDs from? Oy vey. A couple look like they’ve been imported via VHS, but most of the ones I’ve sampled look better than that.  However, they are completely unrestored. Very scratchy and noisy and sometimes blurry.

Oh well. What can you expect from something this cheap? The films themselves are mostly very obscure, which makes me excited to watch them at some point…

WFC Sudan: Beats of the Antonov

I acquired this documentary via non-traditional means. You’d think this would be the kind of thing that Amazon Video or Netflix would carry, but no…

Anyway, this is about the current Sudanese civil war, which is mainly between the northerners (who totally suck) and the Blue Nile (and Nuba) people in the south (who are totally awesome and cool). I’m just summarising the insights I’ve had from this film.

I mean, this may well be true, but… it’s so one-sided that it’s not very effective propaganda.

So while it’s perhaps dubious factually (or not; I have absolutely no idea), it’s a well-made documentary otherwise. Lots of great music and dancing, interesting cinematography, snappy editing and engaging interview subjects.

Beats of the Antonov. Hajooj Kuka. 2014. Sudan.

Karkade Tequila

  • 1 part sugar
  • 1 part lime juice
  • 2 parts tequila
  • 5 parts hibiscus flower tea
  • a few dashes of habanero sauce

Make the hibiscus tea and chill. Pour all the ingredients into a glass with ice and stir.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.