Future-ish Case Study | A Promising Sci-Fi Dilemma: Watch Prey in Nʉmʉ Tekwapʉ̲ (Comanche) or English? The Answer: Both.

Future-ish Case Study | 24-06

Author | Sean G. Schmidt

Publication Information | Future-ish, 2024. Published in Schmidt, S. G. (2024). Future-ish: case studies and context for exploring the science, design, and culture shaping the future (2nd ed.). Innovative Ink Publishing.

Abstract

Indigenous languages have faced obstacles for centuries, from historical colonization efforts that attempted to eradicate entire cultures to more modern challenges, including social barriers to the use of Indigenous languages. Efforts to revitalize Indigenous languages started to grow in the late 20th century, with many Indigenous communities now having full programs to revitalize their languages. These language revitalization efforts have resulted in positive health benefits for Indigenous individuals and communities. In addition to the efforts Indigenous communities are making, the motion picture industry has also played a role in Indigenous language revitalization. The 2022 science fiction blockbuster Prey is one of the latest films to feature an Indigenous language, Comanche. While other films were dubbed well after production, Prey filmmakers planned and offered a full dub in Comanche at the time of release. With the success of Prey, other filmmakers may look to integrate Indigenous languages in their productions as well.

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NewsFusion | 062

NewsFusion for September 2019

Science...

• Astronauts make cement in space | Space.com
• Global robotics investments exceed $16 billion | Business Wire
• New field of ecological forecasting integrates many and diverse sciences | Science Magazine

Design...

• Fast Company names 2019 Innovation By Design Awards | Fast Company
• Tailoring a sustainable future for fashion | PBS News Hour
• Design Week Mexico runs October 3-27, 2019 | Design Week Mexico

Culture...

• Hawaii's Mauna Kea Protests Strike Common Chord Around The Globe | Forbes
• New South Wales passes laws to recognize and revive aboriginal languages | Voice of America
• Nepal Selects 'Bulbul' for International Feature Category Oscars | The Hollywood Reporter

SeanChron | Gwyndoline Christie's Captain Phasma

How awesome was it to see Captain Phasma on the big screen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens??? Played by Gwendoline Christie of Game of Thrones and Hunger Games fame, the character kinda kicked some ass. Sure, she was part of the dark side but that didn't stop millions of little kids getting into Darth Vader over the last few decades. I just think its it's very cool to have actors like Christie and characters such as those that Christie plays becoming part of mainstream pop culture so that young women (and yes, young men too) have a diversity of inspirational role models to look up to.

Even better, I'm loving the debates on wheter her character and armor is feminine enough. The now famous Star Wars Twitter response to a comment about it being hard to tell that she's wearing female armor sums it up perfectly: "It's Armor. On a woman. It doesn't have to look feminine". Bam! Sure, Daisy Ridley as Rey was kick ass to but she kinda fits the already established female hero character that is has become an important part of film and television these days. Christie and her characters are clearly a new persona. love, Love, Love it!

>> Prudom, L. 2015. Gwendoline Christie on the ‘Unconventional’ Women of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’. Variety

NFFTY 2013

The 2013 NFFTY (National Film Festival for Talented Youth) is underway! If you're in Seattle April 25-28 don't miss the opportunity to catch some of the most creative films around, all creations of budding film directors 22 and under.

SeanChron - Pōwhiri Starts Filming of The Hobbit

I finally got around to watching The Hobbit this last weekend. I know, I am WAY behind on this.

In addition to being really pleased with the movie (though quite long and quite 'Hollywoody'), I was especially pleased to see something in the production video segments that are part of Peter Jackson’s Video Blogs on the making of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey that are part of The Hobbit Blog.

Here at Future-ish, we are all about science, design, and culture shaping the future. It is the culture part of the equation that is often the hardest element to ensure gets included in discussions of future-shaping people, projects, and ideas. We also always do our best to seek out stories of culture playing a role in shaping the future. We also do our best to honor the people, place, and host culture of places where we live, work, play, and travel. So, when I saw a Pōwhiri (a Māori Welcoming Ceremony) in Production Video #1 (see below, about seven minutes in), I literally jumped out of my comfy couch. Best of all, it is clear in the video that Peter Jackson, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, and the entire cast and crew appreciated the unique value the Pōwhiri added to the entire project.



This is a great real world example of honoring people, place, and the host culture "in a good way" as is often said. Just imagine if every film project was started by asking the host culture of the location to participate in a welcoming event. It allows both sides of the project, the host culture and the guests, to start things off the way these things should be started off. Kudos to Peter Jackson, lets hope this catches on across the industry and becomes a best practice...or even better, a standard.

Life in a Day Now Available on YouTube

Life in a Day, YouTube’s experiment in crowd-sourcing a feature-length film, premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, but it is now available on—where else?—YouTube. The film, for those of you who are not familiar with it, describes itself as “a historic film capturing for future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010.” It is a 90-minute documentary-style movie pieced together from 4,500 hours of YouTube user-submitted footage from July 24, 2010.

What’s so special about July 24, 2010? It’s a tricky question to answer. The date itself is unremarkable—no holiday, no major historical event, nothing—it was simply chosen out of convenience. But through the experience of viewing the film, it becomes clear that it’s nevertheless incorrect to say that there is nothing special about July 24, 2010. Some of the moments captured in the film are mundane, and some are life-changing, but taken together, these moments create the impression that being alive on July 24, 2010 is all at once beautiful, funny, sad, joyful, and so much more.

Life in a Day is the first film of its kind, and it represents a pivotal moment in both cinema and digital media. As director Kevin Macdonald said in an interview with National Geographic, “The film is doing something that wouldn’t have been possible pre-Internet, specifically pre-YouTube. The idea that you can ask thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people all to contribute to a project and all to communicate about it and learn about it at the same time belongs essentially to this age that we live in. Life in a Day couldn’t have existed 100 years ago, 20 years ago, even 6 years ago.” EM

2010 Imagine Science Film Festival

The 2010 Imagine Science Film Festival (ISFF) in NYC is just around the corner, get your tickets now!

Date | October 15-22, 2010
Location | Various Locations in NYC
Website | imaginesciencefilms.com

Sensuous math

A new movie is making its way around the world helping us understand the many variables that make up the equation of love. Edward Frenkel's film Rites of Love and Math made its debut in Paris but has since visited Spain and San Francisco on its global tour and it continues to find more and more fans along the way.

Isabella's birds and the bees

Model, actress, and director Isabella Rossellini has reimagined the timeless tale of 'the birds and the bees' in her award-winning short film series on the sexual behaviors of animals, Green Porno, for the Sundance Channel. Now in its third season, Ms. Rossellini has evolved the shorts to include key challenges facing some of the species that star in each episode. From earthworms and elephant seals to spiders and squid, Ms. Rossellini reenacts sexual strategies of many a species with humor, emotion, and a great sense of wonder for the animal kingdom. Parents...you may want to pre-screen any shorts you want to share with your little ones, though adorable some of the reenactments do justify the term 'porno' in the series title so you may have some explaining to do.

Film Review | The Age of Stupid

Review by Alyssa Ballinger Johnson.

The Age of Stupid Global Premiere Trailer from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.

I feel different after watching The Age of Stupid. I feel…. stupid. In the film, Pete Postlethwaite plays an archivist living in 2055, who puts together a montage of news footage documenting the “Age of Stupid” (i.e. now): the time when we still could have prevented a runaway global greenhouse, but didn’t take it seriously enough. The idea is based on sound science, science which is easily digested via clever animations and a killer soundtrack.

Even more valuable was the mocking portrayal of well-meaning people who don’t see the whole picture. Jeh Wadia has a grand vision of ending poverty by providing cheap flights for thousands of Indians who normally travel by train, which uses 90% less energy. Piers Guy tries to convince provincial neighborhoods in the UK to install wind farms, only to be blocked by locals who are worried that the turbines will ruin their view and lower property values. A woman who has just come from fighting the turbines says, “of course we’re worried about climate change; absolutely”, as if insulted by the question. Despite some hypocrisy, nobody comes across as a villain (although some, like Guy, are clearly heroes). The film leaves you with no excuses, and makes you realize that you, even with your reusable water bottle and hybrid car, are part of the age of stupid. You feel stupid, but not alone. You also don’t want to be mocked by an archivist in 2055. You want to take action.

The film embraces that there is no easy solution, no clear bad guys to fight, and that we need to approach the problem in any way we can. At the ridiculously low-carbon premier, director Franny Armstrong launched both 10:10 and NotStupid.org. 10:10 promotes reduction of carbon on an individual basis, while NotStupid.org is a guide to influencing political action. The film was released in preparation for the UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December.
Since the DVD is in UK format, it’s going to be hard for Americans to watch this film before the copenhagen summit. The DVD will not be released to the US until January 2010. Although some of us were lucky enough to catch the live premier on 9/21, anyone interested in hosting another screening can go to www.indiescreenings.net.

imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival | October 14-18, 2009

10th Annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival

October 14-18, 2009

Toronto

www.imaginenative.org

Seattle Jewish Film Festival goes WAY green

From Sustainable Sean...

The Sustainable Seattle office where I spend most of my time these days happens to be located right next door to the office of the Seattle Chapter of the American Jewish Committee and the Seattle Jewish Film Festival (SJFF). So I was really excited to see that SJFF was going green this year. WAY green! In fact it the major theme of this year's festival. The festival not only features films that feature an environmental theme, such as Lemon Tree, it offers many resources to help filmgoers go green as well, like The Jewish Climate Challenge. Want to know more about the films and resources? Follow the link above or you can find the full SJFF program here.

Design Notes - Helvetica film

Gary Hustwit's film, Helvetica, about typography, graphic design and global visual culture premieres at South by Southwest Film Festival.

Culture Beat - Native American Film Festival

25 years of Native films, video, radio, television, and electronic media throughout the Americas and Hawai’i at 2006 Native American Film + Video Festival.