The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Thumbing through media Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 7 Celebrity family trees get needlessly explored on NBC here is a flipbook on the pages of queer filmmaker Barbara Hammer's mem- oir, "Hammer!" The images are all shot in black and white and the bodies in the pictures move ever so , slightly with the turn of the page - the minute shifting of hands, heav- WHITNEY ily shadowed, POW over thighs and breasts. The movement is almost imper- ceptible when crawling through the book, page by page. When the page edges quickly flip past one another beneath the release of a fingernail, however, the image comes to life - the book becomes a five-second film filled with sen- sual, continuous movement. This mixing and mingling of the ideas of the viewing experience in film with the sensual, visceral experience of books peeks into the idea of inter-medial art - looking at the ways in which film trans- gresses the film cell and leaks into literature. Hammer is an experimental queer feminist filmmaker who began producing ground-breaking films in the 1970s, and her works have been presented in the Muse- um of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial and the Berlin International Film Festival. Her book "Hammer!" was released only a few weeks ago on March 1, and she arrived last Thursday in Ann Arbor's C.C. Little building, zipper-sweatered and with silver, spiky buzzed hair. I sat in an awkward, uncomfort- able swivel-seat that made hor- rible, screeching cat-in-a-bathtub sounds when I moved just a tiny bit to adjust my spine, and then she read from her book, walking up and down the aisle with grand cadences in her speaking voice, long and loud. Hammer herself is a down-to- earth woman of 70 years old, and her book is composed of works written as a film the 197 was in l tics" on in a fiel reminis ground MoeTu 2009's' which' format. herself in a poc in some and inc chemot Ham experin that mt with as detail i cinema can aln under t Fus an Wi shot of hairs o ly uses, in creat In "I from oi and she bodies scene a across s elapses synthes sometir keys H, At th that nil Hamm book cc ties asa that "b use moi Hamm of shor shots, o that sta during the span of her life ingful entities. She brought this nmaker, with pieces from idea to the idea of the page. The Os to the present. In 1974 she book itself contains short sections her 30s filming "Dyketac- of text that could stand on their 16mm film, walking naked own stylistically and thematically d, hair short, shaggy and all mixed and mingled with photo- scent of The Velvet Under- graphic images and film stills. 's androgynous drummer And while each section of the ucker. Other pieces include book is montage-like as a collec- "A Horse is Nota Metaphor," tion of different ideas that are was recorded in digital self-contained and stand-alone like In this film, she presents a sequence of shots, these book sec- as a cancer survivor wading tions are similarly united through ol of water, similarly naked, Hammer's filmic sensibilities, shots head peach-fuzzy as one film still is placed on each others slick and shiny from page of the memoir. This flipbook herapy. format brings together this idea of amer's films are sometimes film and book, with the book itself mental, non-narrative pieces becoming a tiny movie projector, ave from image to image the flicking of pages becoming the striking attention to sensory film reel moved quickly over the n what she calls an "active lens - the lens being the human ," or one in which viewers eye, perceiving the motion of hands ost feel the bristles of hair over bodies. heir palms when watching a Even in her written pieces, Ham- mer brings filmic vision to the way she writes, providing immense ' visual detail to scenes written for ing the visual the page. In Hammer's "After Ger- 1 1 - 1 ~~trudeStiapeewrtewth d thevisceral no punctuation, one can imagine f bthe camera extending over images hand-chosen and illuminated by Hammer: "she was a flower a pink and ebullientlytender petalled wild a hand moving over the gray berkley rose that hung from the f a horse. Hammer frequent- fences on may day." this visceral quality of film Hammer's works are united ting montage in her works. through visual and written lan- Dyketactics," the shots move guage as combined through the ne to another with many cuts memoir, which also unites various art takes, presenting naked knots in her life line, tying herself rolling in the grass in one as the shaggy-haired woman of the nd salamanders crawling '70s to the silver-haired woman of skin in another. All of this present. with the sound of moog To be honest, I was smitten sizers - the odd, dissonant, when I met her. I bought a book mes atonal plunking ofsynth from Common Language book- ammer had recorded herself. store and sheepishly asked if she ie end of the film screening would sign it - a kind of awkward ght in C.C. Little, I asked "Will You Sign My Yearbook?" act er about how she felt her that I haven't done for years. Either ammuned with her sensibili- way, it was worth it. And I've a filmmaker. She responded been flipping through the memoir, oth the book and my films watching the moving image that ntage." In creating her book, flickers beneath my thumbnail. New historical reality series offers no insight, just facts By ROBERT SOAVE DailyArts Writer "Who Do You Think You Are?," NBC's new version of the British geneal- ogy show, has Who Do an important You Think request for the celebrities it You Are? features. No, it's not challenging Fridays at them to a fight, 8 p.m. as the mislead- NBC ingly confron- tational title might have viewers believe. Rather, the documentary- style reality show asks its celebrity participants to take journeys back through time, exploring their fam- ily histories. While more sincerely heartfelt than most trips into the personal lives of celebrities, "Who Do You Think You Are?" doesn't offer enough historical depth to consistently entertain. The pilot episode depicts Sarah Jessica Parker ("Sex and the City") searching for traces of deceased relatives across the country. She discovers that her ancestors were involved in the California gold rush of 1849, as well as the 17th- century Salem witch trials. On one hand, SJP's interest in these chapters of American history and her familial ties to them is surpris- ingly genuine. She even remarks that her discoveries have made her feel more defined as a person. On the other hand, why does SJP, an already famous and successful person, need NBC's help to find herself? It would have been more worth- while for "Who Do You Think You Are?" to feature regular people and investigate their roots. In doing "I could've sworn i descended from strong, independent New York alcoholics. so, the show could emphasize how seemingly ordinary men and women have descended from peo- ple with amazing stories - stories that were an important part of his- tory. Doing this for celebrities only makes them seem more narcissistic rather than historically curious. And even when the celebs appear enthusiastic, like Emmitt Smith in the series's second epi- sode, the show doesn't give the viewer enough context to share in the excitement. The historical events surrounding the lives of the ancestors - even the ancestors' lives themselves - aren't dealt with in a meaningful, substantive way. Viewers don't learn anything new about the 1849 gold rush or Salem witch trials from the pilot, other than that SJP is related to someone who was there. The show also suffers from not having a host. While certain feel- good reality shows like "The Big- gest Loser" and "Extreme Home Makeover" are enhanced by reli- able, enthusiastic hosts, "Who Do You Think You Are?" has no one to anchor it, as the featured celebrity is different each week. Throw in the constant, sappy music and it's easy to feel suffocated by the lack of a familiar face. Despite its shortcomings, "Who Do You Think You Are" would have something to offer if its par- ticipants' ancestries received more than cursory glances. But until it can teach viewers somethingthey haven't already learned in third- grade history classes, this gene- alogy documentary will remain only slightly more essential than any other celebreality show. er took the film-based idea t vignette-like collections of r sequences and montages nd by themselves as mean- Pow needs a nude model for her new flipbook. To volunteer, e-mail poww@umich.edu. . Cops with scrunchies on 'Police Women of Maricopa County' Several nights at the museum By LINDSAY HURD DailyArts Writer "You do one thing wrong and I'm com- ing after you" - this may sound like your mom, but it's in fact the tagline for the police women who patrol the streets in Maricopa to "protect" its citizens. TLC's twist on "Cops" Police follows detectives Deb Moyer and Lindsey Smith Women of along with deputies Kelly Mancopa Bocardo and Amie Duong as they cruise around Ari- CoU Ny zona's Maricopa County Thursdays fighting crime. Each cop is a 9P.M. followed individually as she TL hunts down drug criminals, TLC cars withoverly tinted win- dows and old women who avoid pulling over when being stopped for speeding. Unfortunately, none of the offenses to which the women respond really seem like that big of a deal. It's young kids dealing drugs and illegal immigrants crossing the border and small domestic disputes that are so anti-climatic it seems like they must have been faked for lack of more interesting crimes going on in Maricopa. Besides combating the evils of drugs and illegal immigration, "Police Women" focuses on the motherly duties of all its main ladies. After their long and hard days at work, the mothers go home to their kids and families. Without exception, every time an officer finishes a call, she emphasizes that she must get home to her kids at night. While they should be applauded for balanc- ing both duties, it's not necessary to explain it in depth after every crime is solved. What's even more annoying is that the ladies feel the need to define their feminin- ity with their giant hair, ugly scrunchies and consistent reminders of their children at home. Every one of them talks like a broken record about their kids and family - just in case you missed it the first seven times. Everyone gets that you love your kids - and that's great - but the insistence on the home/work dynamic tries to create a remarkable story where there is none. In case TLC was unaware, it's common for women to work and have a family, so the idea of a mom being a cop isn't exactly an original concept. Needless to say, all these women could kick the shit out of anyone, and you wouldn't want to run into them if you are in trouble with the law. From start to fin- ish, each cop is so intense it's like they were chasing down America's Most Want- ed, but really it's just another kid running a stop sign. The only entertaining part of the hour- long bore is when one of the ladies checks on an old woman who hasn't been in contact with her family for the last few days. What they find is a feisty and nutty old woman who laughs at the camera and continues to tell the crew about how she just went and Busting heads and taking names, all before dinner. had her hair done. Other than that, the criminals are all scummy old men who rock their mullets with pride. The worst part is that Maricopa County, in many ways an innocent bystander here, is clearly not getting positive press from this wonder of a program. "Police Women" por- trays the city like it's full of boring crime and cops who don't really do anything pro- ductive to help the city, but rather care more about their TV personaof "busting some ass" while being soccer moms. By HEATHER POOLE DailyArts Writer When most people walk into a muse- um, they see only the work on display rather than the labor and prepara- A Day at the tion behind exhib- Museum its. In accordance with the current lecture series theme semes- Thursdays at ter, "Meaningful 230 p tm Objects: Museums 2.30 p.m. in the Academy," Kelsey Museum the "A Day at the Museum" lecture series, presented by the school of Literature, Science and the Arts, is intended to associate the bland titles and broad institutions of the museum world with individual faces and colorful personalities who work behind the scenes of University museums. The lecture series will include speakers from nearly all the museums on campus, ranging from Sindecuse MuseumofDentistrytotheBentleyHis- torical Library to the University Her- barium. It was launched this January due to the efforts ofsKaren O'Brien, Col- lections Manager at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, and Carla Sinopoli, pro- fessor of Anthropology and director of the Museum of Anthropology. O'Brien and Sinopoli originally want- ed to organize their idea into a class with readings on the different positions found in museums. However, O'Brien said that after its rejection by the Uni- versity, they transformed the class into a lecture series. "A Day at the Museum" will feature speakers from a variety of professions in museum work, including conservators, collection staff and curators. O'Brien described the series as infor- mal. The museum staff speakers will speak for only 10 or 15 minutes before the floor is opened up for questions, maximizing the amount of the presen- tation that can be devoted to where stu- dent interest really lies. Last Thursday, exhibit preparators John Klausmeyer of the Exhibit Muse- um of Natural History and Scott Meier of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeol- ogy discussed their backgrounds and careers. Both Klausmeyer and Meier empha- sized the diversity of studies that led them to their career in museums. "Onething I do want to discuss is that there is no set career path," Meier said. "Get experience everywhere because you never quite know where it will lead you." With abackground in art, Klausmey- er has worked in medical illustration and moved on to exhibit preparation at natural history museums. In additiontotheir personal accounts, both exhibitpreparatorsdiscussed their everyday work. "Our jobs are sort of the interface between curators and researchers and the public,"Klausmeyer said. As a whole, "A Day at the Museum" lecture series aims to give students a realistic view of museum work. O'Brien said that a major focus will be "the impact museums have on com- munities, and understanding more about the concepts of museums," O'Brien also hopes that the series will give any studentswith aspirations in the museum career field a realistic look at what the work will actually be like. Like Klausmeyer and Meier, O'Brien A look into the museum life. emphasizes the various disciplines that can be applied to a profession in muse- ums. She said there was a considerable "cross platform of degrees that students might be getting here at the University that can translate then into museum work," O'Brien said. This interdisciplinary nature of the museum field has been conveyed through the diversity of lectures in the series. Previous lecturers have includ- ed Natsu Oyobe, curator of UMMA, and Amy Harris, museum director of the Exhibit Museum of Natural His- tory. Klausmeyer's and Meier's lecture aims to exemplify the type of museum work that can be overlooked and will give attendees a different perspective of the complex world of museums. This Thursday, the series will fea- ture speakers involved in conserva- tion, including Ann Flowers of the Bentley Historical Library, Cathy Baker of Hatcher Graduate Library and Suzanne Davis of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. ARTS IN BRIEF FILM REVIEW Fine film, terrible ending Remember Me At Quality 16 and Showcase Summit Coen Brothers fatalism, meet 5 the new James Dean. "Remem- ber Me" is a poetic tragedy that revolves around NYU student Tyler Hawkins (Robert Pat- tinson, "Twilight"), his new- found love Ally Craig (Emilie de Ravin, "Lost") and the tangled web of broken relationships that binds them to their turbulent pasts. There's not much to say that hasn't been hashed out in depth all over the mediascape: The end- ing is offensive and has no perti- nence to the story - it ruins an excellent movie by attempting to capitalizeoffaverysensitive time in our national history. Further- more, it almost entirely negates the familial bonds that are devel- oped as the story progresses and adds yet another death to a lam- entable body count. However, Pattinson doesn't squander his ample screen time. Sulking has never looked so stylish, and prototypical male chauvinism is forgone in lieu of a chivalrous masculinity that endears his character to the utmost. Pattinson's photogenic face would alone be sufficient to carry his career, but many crit- ics fail to give him the benefit of the doubt as an inexperienced actor. The roles he's choosing for future work are increasingly sophisticated and will undoubt- edly effect the positive evolu- tion of his acting abilities. TIMOTHY RABB Robert Pattinson: heartthrob by night, heartthrob with manuscripts by day.