In the news today…

3 articles: My take on the world.

I’ve decided to make this blogging more regular so am going to try and write a weekly entry of my thoughts on 3 articles from the news that day, or anything happening in the world around us, related or completely random…

The first thing that grabbed my attention while surfing on the BBC News webpage was the situation in Indonesia. Not only have they been suffering from a tsunami but a volcano has also erupted in another part of the country. Tsunamis are my worst nightmare, literally, and my thought and prayers are with those caught out there, struggling and surviving.
Strangely enough the first thing that came to my mind was Eat Pray Love. Wither you’ve read the book, seen the film or none of the above you cannot have been oblivious to the phenomenon it created. So my thoughts are going to those who ended up booking their ‘round-the-world tickets “Elizabeth Gilbert style” as American travel companies had started advertising for, copying her journey from the US to Italy, India and Indonesia. May I just say that, this just beat the whole idea behind the book itself and I am worried about the effect the film is going to have on people? While the book was more about the emotional journey of a person finding himself or herself, the film was more focused on relationships and travelling.

So by buying tickets copying the characters journey, will not help you find your inner peace because you will be mimicking someone else’s search of themselves. You might become more like that person than yourself. If you are feeling lost in your life, that you have the lingering feeling that you have lost your touch and sense of belonging (which is a growing feeling in the western society) then take a break and reconnect with your self. Find what it is that your heart longs for, and it may not include jumping on a plane, increasing world pollution and copying, like a horde of sheep, what you saw last on screen. Internal peace comes from the knowledge and respect of one’s self, meditation and some sort of spirituality.
That is what the book was really about, and I don’t quite know how the film got to the point of creating the adverse effect.

This leads me to my next point, also on the BBC website, an article stating that recent researches have shown that people are more and more keen to go on silence retreats with no phone, no internet… just you and your own thoughts for the week with an hour counselling if needed during the day. Have a look, it’s an interesting article and I agree with it more than anything.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11588293
There seems to be sounds everywhere I go. I hate it, can’t even hear my own thoughts. Right now as I type I hear a bus waiting outside, puffing out, the music from a car behind the bus, more traffic, a police car and that’s with closed windows. And the rest of the time your either losing yourself in songs that portray emotions that are not yours, reading gossip about celebrity lives or faffing around in other people’s lives with facebook, twitter etc…

People are spending less and less time with themselves and therefore are getting less and less comfortable with themselves. I guess that is what leads to the “Eat Pray Love” syndrome. It’s time that people let got of their Iphone and blackberries one minute and take time to reconnect with what is around them. Talk with a friend face to face or ring them instead of ‘facebooking’ them, read a book, do something creative, meet up with some mates. Don’t let your life fall into the murky pond of digital being.

The last thing that I wanted to talk about is something to ponder on more than a fact. Counties in Italy and other countries around Europe and Africa are installing a ban on miniskirts in the hope to lessen crime, aggressions and sexual indecency. May I just remind you that Italy is also one of the countries banning women from wearing the burka. Interesting contrast isn’t it?
I think this sums up pretty well the unease of the society we live in today. Somehow, a there must be a balance to be found. I feel like I want to know what you think. What’s your take?
Personally, I do think that some girls take it way too far in terms of clothing with the shortness of their skirts and cuts of their tops. I don’t want to have someone’s boobs in my face when I get up to leave a bus, and I don’t want to see up a girl’s almost non-existing miniskirt when I am going up the escalator. But I haven’t got a choice, apparently, if I want to see where I’m going. You can look gorgeous and feminine and attractive without having to swoop that low. That is almost anti woman’s rights. I think we’ve gone from sexual liberation to sexual aberration. Look around you, that’s what everything is about these days. Magazines: Whose husband cheating on who? Charts: Rihanna with Rude Boy?

What are we gaining from this apart from horny underage teenagers, leading to teenage pregnancy and indecent behaviours from guys who can’t keep their hands in their pockets… to put things nicely!
A balance has to be found... But what can you expect from a society that is losing touch with themselves, with spirituality and trying to fill that gap with other things…

I think that’s enough for one day!
Hit back with feedback if you want ☺ I love a good debate!!!
Xoxo

Fio

Refferences are made to various BBC NEWS articles all available on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Pictures found on the net

Lucy

A short film I directed last summer!
Enjoy!
xoxo
fiona

Imaginary Portrait

And to finalise the list of my online showreel :)
An Imaginary Portrait, which I wrote with Sujay, the director, after he liked the story of the "First Time" monologue filmed for our acting classes.
It won a prize in the short film festival in Punes 2008.

Black Swan

This is the short I graduated from Uni with.
You can really feel my surrealist and experimental influences here! 5 years later... I'm working on a feature inspired by this story :)



UK 2007
Director: Fiona Cross
With Amith Rahman (previously known as Abraham Chowdhury) and James Horseman


Once upon a time, there was a very ugly duckling, unloved and rejected by his family and society. The lonesome bird grew strong and bitter, plotting a way to get back at society for what it had made of him.
Black swan reflects on what has pushed our society to create its own ugly ducklings. Transferring this tale onto the London life style today has proven itself to be more than successful, playing with the audiences’ conceptions and stereotypes. Saeed is first introduced as a young Muslim, whose faith has given him the strength to go and achieve his goal. Although this isn’t made clear, through his journey across central London, it is strongly believed he is on his way to join the line of terrorist attacks. But what is it that actually convinced us that this was who he was? This deaf and dreamy character in a white skin would not have seemed more innocent. And here comes Peter James, a disturbed attention seeker who thinks the whole world is against him. So, when a London station does blow up, and Saeed is in that station confronted by Peter James, our prejudice and maybe unconscious racism is forced forward. By focusing on who might be a potential suspect, we forgot to look at who showed obvious signs of danger. The grown ugly duckling, now an oddly graceful black swan, has finally found a way of getting back at society from ignoring him for such a long time.
The directors’ third short has taken a more experimental and political turn. The style is striking yet gritty with some beautiful locations such as the Woking mosque, the oldest of the whole of Britain. The sound inspired by French film “Sur mes Levres” supports the quirkiness of the fast editing and the montage sequence. The colours have subtly been edited to fit Saeed modified vision of the world around him, increasing the peculiar feeling, the world we know but some is somehow difficult to recognise.
Her surrealist influences lead her ideas and the narrative of this short reflect this with some recurrent landmarks already such as the montage/day dream sequence and the strong aesthetic presence of nature.
Far from the fairy tale aspect, the film however remains poetic and unpretentious with the integration of all members of the crew passing in front of the camera at one point in the film so as to prove that they are not above the audience and that they would have probably made the same mistake.
Black Swan is a tender yet abstract and disturbing short which pulls us all out momentarily of our reality and pushes us into this dark, prosaic and political position, forcing us to loose trust in our own thoughts.

First Time

Directed in 2007.
Amazing looking back at old work and being able to see how much you progressed in 3 years.
Still this was one of my favourite shoots with an excellent team!
Much love to you all

What a difference a day made

Missing my two little adings
xx

For a Smile