Week 09 ๐ฉโ๐ซ Wed Oct 28
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WATCHING SOME SCI FI (SPECULATIVE FICTION) TRAILERS: , 1988: On 16 July 1988, a singularity destroyed Tokyo. By 2019, Tokyo had been rebuilt. Now known as Neo-Tokyo, it is plagued by corruption, anti-government protests, terrorism, and gang violence and is on the verge of collapse. During a massive protest, the hot-headed Shลtarล Kaneda leads his vigilante bลsลzoku motorcycle gang against the rival Clown gang. Kaneda's best friend Tetsuo Shima inadvertently crashes his motorcycle into Takashi, an esper (person with extrasensory perception) who escaped from a government laboratory with the aid of a resistance organization. The accident awakens psychic powers in Tetsuo, attracting the attention of a secret government project directed by Japan Self-Defense Forces Colonel Shikishima. Assisted by esper Masaru, Shikishima recaptures Takashi, takes Tetsuo with him, and arrests Kaneda and his gang. While being interrogated by the police, Kaneda meets Kei, an activist belonging to the resistance movement, and tricks the authorities into releasing her and his gang.
, 1984: A mute space alien crash-lands his ship on Ellis Island. Other than his three-toed feet which he keeps covered, he resembles a black human man and manages to blend in with the people he encounters, engaging in lopsided conversations with various denizens of New York City. He displays the ability to heal the wounds of himself and others, as well as fix machines, by holding his hand over the affected area. He is secured housing through a new acquaintance at a Harlem bar. After fixing an arcade cabinet there, he soon lands a job as a technician. Two men in black, keen on the mute alien's whereabouts, begin to track the places and interrogate the people which he has visited. They seek to return him to the planet from which he escaped. , 1982 Trailer: (takes place in November 2019) In 2019 Los Angeles, former policeman Rick Deckard is detained by Officer Gaff, and brought to his former supervisor, Bryant. Deckard, whose job as a "blade runner" was to track down bioengineered humanoids known as replicants and terminally "retire" them, is informed that four replicants are on Earth illegally. Deckard begins to leave, but Bryant ambiguously threatens him and Deckard stays. The two watch a video of a blade runner named Holden administering the Voight-Kampff test, which is designed to distinguish replicants from humans based on their emotional response to questions. The test subject, Leon, shoots Holden on the second question. Bryant wants Deckard to retire Leon and the other three Nexus-6 replicants: Roy Batty, Zhora, and Pris.
(1940) Son of Ingagi is the first science fiction-horror film to feature an all-black cast and directed by a black filmmaker, Richard C. Kahn. The film is about Eleanor and Bob Lindsay inheriting the house of Dr. Helen Jackson, who had just returned from her trip to Africa. Jackson also had returned with a missing link monster named Ingina (a.k.a. N'Gina) as well as African gold. When Ingina drinks the doctor's potion, it puts him into a rage that makes him murder Dr.Jackson. The Lindsay family inherits Jackson's house where they soon find the presence of the monster. ( "...more importantly, it was just showing black folks in daily life... ...The lawyer is black, the police chief is black, everyone is black. And when you think about what images that we got to see of ourselves back in those days, even a relatively schlocky horror movie like Son of Ingagi becomes this cultural timepiece. It really makes you think, โWowโฆ it would have been refreshing to see black people acting with courage. And it would have been refreshing to see black people not in a subservient position to whites in a movie. In fact, there are no whites in that movie." -- by Evan Narcisse, Gizmodo, 2017) TEST RUN IN SOCIAL VR: PRESENTATIONS & DISCUSSIONS:
OWS (if time):
ASSIGNMENT 09B: (1) CONTINUE to brainstorm on your project based on feedback you got in class discussion, POST your work to your Process blog. (2) NOW POST your responses to Chapter 7 "Aesthetics of Unreality" (4) CONSTANT OUTPUT/INPUT (Reminder: You need 10 posts that indicate 15 weeks of commitment by the end of the semester :)
