Every ethical issue surrounding parents vlogging their kids’ childhoods for money is raised in Joscha Bongard’s debut, but it releases the dysfunctional tension too easily
When teenager Luca (Maja Bons) wants to watch the film of her birth, she finds it on YouTube. Same with the sweet, thoughtful chat her mum gave her about periods when she was nine or 10; it was filmed in the family’s podcast studio. None of life’s special moments go unmonetised in this satire from Germany, a horror story of family dysfunction. It’s a look at the dark side of the family influencer industry, raising just about every possible ethical question about parents vlogging their kids’ childhoods, and it’s impressively disturbing, up to a point.
Sixteen-year-old Luca is the only child of Stella (Bea Brocks) and Chris (Liliom Lewald), social media stars who make viral videos of their perfect-looking family life for their 4 million followers. They live in a beautiful, sterile minimalist home in the countryside, and we often watch them through CCTV cameras fitted in every room. Shrewdly, first time film-maker Joscha Bongard doesn’t portray Stella and Chris as monsters; they love their daughter Luca, who they affectionately call Nunki. But fundamentally they do their best parenting in front of the camera, all bright smiles and proud affectionate glances.
Continue reading...This recklessly ambitious doorstopper follows the 16 days of England’s medieval uprising from a vast array of viewpoints, and in startlingly rich prose
AK Blakemore’s third novel tells the story of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, when commoners of all classes – not only peasants, but merchants, servants, smugglers, and some local lords and officials – rebelled at the imposition of a poll tax and rampaged through southern England, burning records of debts, killing their oppressors and laying waste to their homes. The book closely follows the events of the rebellion’s 16 days, employing a vast array of points of view, including the young king Richard II, several of his courtiers, dozens of elements of the rebellious Commons, a porpoise and a runaway horse. The title suggests the novel’s portrayal of these events as an inevitable reckoning; a “doom painting” was a picture of the Last Judgment on the wall of a medieval church.
As a book of this scope must be, it’s a doorstopper. As any novel by Blakemore will be, it’s dazzlingly rich in lexical glamour, and this is likely to be any reader’s lasting impression of the book. Sometimes it feels as if the author is out to use every word in the English language in a startling, aestheticised, puckish way that expands both the word and the world. The result can be joyously silly. Who else would give us slugs that “blurb their elementary forms from out of the undergrowth to begin a dank and toothless festa”, or “lunar-brilliantined mud”? But there is also gravity and passion here, especially when she intimately imagines the lives of the commoners: “they rise, to fry eggs in butter and pork fat; they rise, to whet knives on scarred stone; they rise, to braid the manes of their draught horses; they rise, to count arrows; they rise, setting aside their glitchy dreams of hairy stars and blue-skinned devils; they rise, fearful and powerful, into the bright day.” The cheekily anachronistic appearance of “glitchy” in this medieval scene is typical of Blakemore’s method. All forms of language, high and low, archaic and modern, are here. Her use of detail to convey a historical scene is also extraordinary: the barber’s chair where “a crowd has gathered beneath the ribboned pole to watch the draining of a cyst”; the brewer with “a grotty beard, chlorotic with hops, [that] hangs down almost to his belt”; or “the horseflies waltzing over the liquefying flesh of severed heads”.
Continue reading...I took him to university this weekend, and it reminded me of the exhilaration of suddenly having your own space, absolutely separate from your mother
When kids are small, and their expectations of an event diverge from yours in some important way, you feel terrible about it. You might be taking them to a play, and they thought that meant they’d be allowed to play, but actually it meant they had to sit still while strangers shouted things. You experience their disappointment as much as your own physical pain.
Then when they’re “adults”, your expectations diverge again. They thought you’d drop them at university and immediately leave, while you thought you’d unpack, and meet their flatmates, explore the city, and spin round a supermarket, then have a Nando’s, and maybe read a bedtime story, get chatting to the other parents and maybe all do karaoke? Well, then it’s time to manage your own disappointment, and the only thing to be said for that is that it’s way less bad than managing theirs.
Continue reading...A long-distance walking route in the south of France devised by the celebrated land artist offers intrepid hikers an opportunity to immerse themselves in nature and art
At 69, I had never hiked with a backpack and I had no idea what land art was. Nonetheless, when my friend Jackie, a nature documentary film-maker, invited me to join her and her friends Wendy and Sasha on a hiking trip to Refuges d’Art in the mountainous countryside of Haute-Provence, I said a resounding “yes”. We would be sleeping alongside sculptures by the renowned land artist Andy Goldsworthy.
First, I watch Rivers and Tides, a documentary on Goldsworthy’s work, and discover he has built exquisite ice sculptures and stone cairns in my own country, Canada. His work seems to speak to an older part of the soul. Then, I start walking up hills, gradually adding weights to my backpack until I can comfortably carry 9kg (20lb).
Continue reading...At first the mice were just a distant pitter-patter. But soon they had an unblinking confidence that they owned the entire house and all the food in it
Living in a nine-person house in Vancouver, Canada, far from my UK home, came with plenty of benefits. Cleanliness was not one of them. A dish left behind quickly multiplied and bins overflowed in little more than a day. I’m not saying the endless strew of disposable coffee cups was the cause of our year-long mice infestation, but it no doubt helped.
In the winter of 2023, one of my housemates began to hear the sound of creatures rattling around in the ceiling of her basement room. The pitter-patters grew louder and louder; others began to report sightings from across the house. It wasn’t long before I was waking to the sound of my bedroom bin rustling. I had to accept it: we had mice.
Continue reading...Director Pepa Lubojacki’s heartbreaking film chronicles the lives of her brother as he struggles with drink and homelessness – and her own shame in the face of societal prejudice
Czech film-maker Pepa Lubojacki originally set out to make a film about pigeons. What fascinated the 39-year-old director was that the grey birds are clearly beautiful and highly intelligent creatures, yet human cruelty towards them is socially acceptable in the way it isn’t towards, say, crows or magpies. “You can spot kids kicking and chasing pigeons while their parents cheerfully look on,” she says.
The moral blind spot reminded her of the way that people looked at homeless people like her older brother and her cousins. “The public has learned to avert their eyes,” she says. “My cousin was declined care seven times with open wounds in the hospital, and finally, they had to amputate both of his legs.”
Continue reading...William Meyers spent 25 years photographing New York – and noticed how small, everyday acts of civic engagement helped sustain the nation. He talks us through his favourite images
Continue reading...President has been posting on Washington arch, AI and his ‘25 top achievements’ – the chances of an uplifting speech appear slim
The annual gathering of the United Nations general assembly has historically been a platform for US presidents to display their most serious face and a positive vision to the world.
From Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower to John F Kennedy and Barack Obama, over eight decades US leaders have used the setting to expound on grand themes before a global audience at pivotal moments in international affairs.
Continue reading...Thomas Hawk posted a photo:
niggyl :) has added a photo to the pool:
On the tide line, Binalong Bay, Bay of Fires, Tasmania.
Still going through the older files looking for frames that might have something to offer.
This with my first DSLR in 2012.
Nikon D7000, Nikkor DX 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6, 1/320th sec at f/9, ISO 100
