Right rooftop, wrong city: When artists Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla were in residence at the Walker in 2004, they told me about a plan — which ultimately, I believe, wasn’t realized — to print messages on Boston rooftops for viewing by airplane arrivals to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Here’s a guy in Milwaukee who pulled such a feat off. Only his message, read from the air, reads: “Welcome to Cleveland.”
Gold and Greenaway: Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw says Peter Greenaway should win a Gold Lion at the Venice Film Festival this year. He hasn’t seen Greenaway’s Nightwatching, but he hopes a Gold Lion will finally mean broader distribution of the auteur’s work at home. It’s “pretty ridiculous that this important film-maker, lauded in Europe, at his creative prime, does not make mainstream cinema releases in this country,” Bradshaw writes. “Has the continent been cut off by a fog of complacency? A Golden Lion would at least compel some sort of UK distribution for his latest film and allow British filmgoers to make up their own minds.” [The Walker shows new 35mm prints of two Greenaway classics, September 7–9.]
Sign of Peace: DesignBoom tells the storied histories of various peace symbols, from the dove (we can thank Picasso for its popularity) to the peace sign. The latter was invented by Gerald Holtom in 1958 (at the request of Lord Bertram Russel) for a protest held by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Originally to include a Christian cross — an idea frowned upon by Catholic priests — it mimics the positions a flagman would assume if conveying in semaphore the letters N and D for “nuclear disarmament.”
David Lynch interviewed: After shooting Inland Empire in digital video, will David Lynch ever go back to film? “Never. Digital is so friendly for me and so important for the scenes, a way of working without so much downtime. It’s impossible to go back. Film is a beautiful medium, but the world has moved on. The amount of manipulation we can do, anybody can do, is so much the future. Film is so big and heavy and slow, you just die. It’s just ridiculous.” [via]