Do you remember what you were doing on January 8, 2010?

Chances are you probably don't.  Unless, that is, you are one of the 3,600 people who live in the small town of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories of Canada.

After 30 days of complete darkness (thanks to the Earth's axial tilt and the orbit of the moon) a 100,000 lumen, 36-foot wide helium balloon lit up the town's sky, drawing the Inuvik residents together to celebrate in wonder and, for the first time in a month, light.

In a brilliant move of emotional marketing, the folks at Tropicana took the time, paid the money, and traveled the distance to restore "sunlight" to the people of Inuvik...while of course taking the opportunity to give away several cases of free OJ.  All because Tropicana believes "brighter mornings make for brighter days."

Who is Mister Brainwash? This is not the question I expected to be addressed by the world's most renown and elusive street artist, Banksy, in his directional debut, Exit Through the Gift Shop. (If you are unfamiliar with Banksy's work, read our previous write-up first.) But as it is with most of Banksy's work, things are not always what they seem.  A week removed from experiencing the film and I am still uncertain if I watched a documentary founded in realism or one massive hoax turned social commentary.

Expecting to witness 90 minutes of Banksy's life, art, and aversion of law enforcement, I sighed with disappointment when Banksy reveals in the film's opening segment that Exit Through the Gift Shop is really more of a story about the man who set out to make a documentary about him than (Banksy) himself.  And when Banksy claims this filmmaker is "a lot more interesting than [himself]," I became intrigued.

In today's over-digitized-auto-tuned-world, the expansive sound of analog is not only becoming a lost practice, but a forgotten commodity.  In short, analog (recorded) music is captured at a higher density - with an infinite amount of sound resolution.  Digital music on the other hand, is (often) capped at a particular resolution - rendering it captured with limited density.

It is safe to say that the "true" analog sound died with the vinyl record.  This is a sad reality for Paul Maywhinney - owner of the world's largest (personal) vinyl collection.  In The Archive, director Sean Dunne reveals not only what such a collection looks like, but what a collection of this magnitude represents - both to the music industry and to Maywhinny himself.

For musician and first-time director, Justin Dillon, what began as a way to personally process his shocking realization of the scope of modern-day slavery quickly turned into a sort of open-mic concert venue for other musicians to join him in responding and bringing awareness to this horrific issue. This led Dillon into a documentary study on music, which finally became the first feature rockumentary film, Call + Response: Exposing the world's 27 million most terrifying secrets.

There are more slaves today than ever before in human history.  There are 1 million people trafficked in the United States every year.  Trafficking humans is the third most profitable business in the world.

When it comes to "stickin' it to the man" I tend to envision a Rage Against the Machine concert: a lot of anger, a lot of yelling, and if you saw Rage's show at Lollapalooza a couple years back (which I did), a lot of people throwing water bottles filled with urine. In the end the anger is what I tend to be left with when examining those in our world who take advantage of others for their own gain. But the reason I think I like this film is that it gave me a very different vision of how to deal with those feelings of injustice.

rednoW Favorites 2009

Year-end "lists" are a funny thing.  They often say more about its contributor(s) than it does than the very thing it is hoping to promote.  We are okay with this.  It has been our mantra since the inception of rednoW to simply point others to experiences of wonder.  These two lists (music, film) are attempting to do nothing else.

Films

Few things cultivate wonder in us more than the marriage of story, images and song. If you are looking for a way to bring a little wonder into your rental queue, allow us to make a few recommendations. Compiled by the rednoW team, our Films of Wonder 2009 are listed by US release date rather than some ranking of 'greateness' - if they made the list, we think they are worth your time and money. Soon we will announce our rednoW film (and album) of the year.

Think we missed something? Tell us what and why....we're all ears.

"What does he know?"

This is, throughout the ravaged landscape of The Book of Eli, the unavoidable question we ask of the title character.  Denzel Washington plays Eli, a wanderer both desperate and serene, who trudges slowly and purposefully West.  Hidden in his satchel, along with the necessities for physical survival in post-apocalyptic America, is a Holy Book, Eli's spiritual sustenance in a world that- quite literally- would like nothing more than to devour him.  We are given only small clues of the brutalizing past that left the world coated in dust and misery, but the desperate and thirsty present proves no place for a lone traveler.  Unless, like Eli, that traveler possesses an otherworldly sixth sense and the ability to dispatch with anyone who threatens his journey.  What does Eli know about his book?  Is it madness or a spiritual quest that wakes him each morning, set for another day under the punishing sun?

More often than not commentaries and interpretations tend to direct one to think about specific ideas and messages being conveyed through a movie. Or, we are forced to consider how well a mainstream (read that “POP”) commercial release covered the seriousness of a subject while maintaining a high level of entertainment value to keep the viewers attention, often at the cost of the “message”. I find that it is rare for a film to come along that one can engage with on a level that simply makes one feel good; to experience a visceral moment of happiness. My Date with Drew is that movie.