screenshot: ubuweb

Popula Film Club: ubuweb

so many kinds of escape this week

May 29, 2020 3:00PM EDT

Editor.

Assuming that you’ll be able to tear yourself away from the news, which… maybe. And that would probably be a good idea, at least for a while. Order in something lovely to eat. Walk outside (in your mask).

And if you have a moment to relax and watch something without having to contribute one more dollar to any plutocrats? Why not fall in love with the magical ubuweb, the noncommercial repository of avant-garde materials founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith (@kg_ubu). Revolutionary on many fronts, and an inspiration to us at Popula. You can get lost forever in there.

A few selections I’ve enjoyed recently:

Television Delivers People (Richard Serra, 1973)

A McLuhanesque statement from the celebrated sculptor, who was just 35 at the time. What a thing! I had no idea.

Eno (dir. Alfi Sinniger, as Alfons Sinniger, 1973)

A 26-minute documentary. Wow. Swanning about in a blue kimono with no shirt underneath, a long-haired young Eno smokes cigarettes and fools around in the studio, recording thrillingly familiar bits of Here come the Warm Jets; a costumer sews up stage gear that he can’t sit down in; there are clips of old Roxy Music gigs and snippets of artwork; the Portsmouth Sinfonia makes an appearance. A rare treat for those of us d’un certain âge.

The Adventures of a Nurse (Parts I and II) (Eleanor Antin, 1976)

Unbelievably lush and weird narratives from a fantastical woman artist playing with hand-painted paper dolls. Antin growls, whispers, shouts, sings, disturbs, and delights, acting out all the frustrations of 1976, for much of the film seated on a pink bedspread and wearing a nurse’s uniform. So, so great.

Profile Of A Writer: Borges (dir. David Wheatley, 1983)

An 80-minute documentary of Jorge Luis Borges, full of charming conversations with the great man at home in Buenos Aires. Helps to have some Spanish; though it’s almost all in English, there are dramatizations of scenes from his work and a little bit of talk in Spanish. Worth the price of admission just to hear him pronounce “Bertrand Russell.”

“I want the dream to have its way with me.”

The Popula Film Club brings you worthwhile options to stream, chosen with a view to quality, and to withholding as much money as possible from the oligarchs and monopolists of Amazon, Netflix, YouTube and the like.

Please send your recommendations to submissions@popula.com with the subject line, POPULA FILM CLUB.

Comments on Popula Film Club: ubuweb

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Andrew Yang: The Man Without Qualities

Brian Hioe

the model minority candidate for mayor of New York represents the status quo

May 3, 2021 6:00AM EDT

Scheming for Moderna in the Black Heart of Budapest: An Ex-pat’s Vax Adventure

Ernie Lord

If I’ve learned anything this past year, living in a somewhat unstable foreign country during a vicious global pandemic, it’s to trust my survival instinct: Stock up on rice and beans, make sure my bills are paid, check in with family and friends, and stay away from vaccines that sound like Captain Beefheart album titles.

Apr 30, 2021 12:41PM EDT

A Life of Dignity

Geoff Cordner

"Your pictures rob her of dignity," someone white says, because to them there is no dignity in aging, and especially not in dying. To me, dignity is nearly all Maurie Jo has left.

Apr 28, 2021 12:00PM EDT

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