In 'Losing Time' Red Has To Choose A Path... (Interview w/Director Lisa Stock)

A girl in red, chased by the Wolf of time: which path will she choose?

In Lisa Stock's latest magic realist film, 'Losing Time', which has just become available for the public to view, she asks the question: "If all time were to stop, would you start it again?"

Intrigued by the lovely images, and very different concept, we thought we'd ask Lisa Stock, of InByTheEye, who created, wrote and directed the film, a little about it. 

OUABlog: Congratulations on your new film, and thank you for visiting OUABlog today to talk a little about it. You chose to dress your protagonist in a red coat on purpose. How do you see your new magic realism film reflecting the tale of Red Riding Hood?

Actress Heather Witherill plays a girl with a choice in 'Losing Time'.

Lisa Stock (InByTheEye): I did indeed dress her in red for a reason! While Red is different for everyone, a red cloak or coat suggests potential; potential choices, potential dangers, potential futures. Time, the most ancient of systems is found in the forest. In my film, the grandmother's wisdom comes through at the portal when she makes her decision. Like Red my heroine doesn't let the trappings of fear keep her from persevering.

OUABlog: How did you arrive at this idea?

Lisa Stock (InByTheEye):  As the film is part of the Danny Elfman Challenge we were to choose a piece of his music off the album "Rabbit and Rogue". I chose "Lyric". Listening to the music over and over gave me a sense of both whimsy and urgency, and I immediately saw this character running. Running for something, but obstacles in her way creating tension. I saw her being interrupted, I saw her falling, I saw things getting in her way and came to the idea that perhaps they were frozen in front of her and then the idea of time stopping came to me. So it was a little bit of a backward process.

OUABlog: The film fits well into the 'magic realist' genre, bringing elements of wonder and the supernatural to seemingly ordinary situations. It also seems, if you pardon the pun, very timely, in terms of where society is at right now. We see parallels to concerns about the planet, about people with opposing views not knowing how to get on, as well as the importance of getting back to basics - through those woods that are different for everyone - to figure out just how you feel about something - for clarity. What issues were you thinking about most when having your 'Red' enter the woods?

Lisa Stock (InByTheEye): It does feel to me as if we're on the verge of a new era - there's so much potential, like the burgeoning science generation, but also that bubbling epidemic of despair on so many fronts. We really are at a crossroads. Which path do we take? Especially in light of so much sorrow, worry and anger today, I wanted my Red to reflect that we had a choice - with a very good and positive option.

OUABlog: 'Losing Time' is part of the Danny Elfman Challenge, in which you had the opportunity to use some of Elfman's music score from 'Rabbit & Rogue'. How did it feel being able to use his music? And what happens now?

Lisa Stock (InByTheEye): The Danny Elfman Challenge is part of the LA Film Festival, and 'Losing Time' has been officially accepted and uploaded for voter input and panel judging. Our film, has had a wonderful response the last day or so since it's gone live, and we're thrilled. At this point we have a really good chance of being selected for the finals!

The lady in the clock comes to life
to alert our heroine that time has stopped.

I love this piece of music, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't somewhat intimidating to be creating a unique film for an Elfman composition. I had Heather (the actress) listen to the music over and over again. We would listen to the particular part of the music that went with each scene before filming so she could have it in her head. If you watch closely, particularly on the bridge, her movements are almost dance-like and are going along with the music. I know that the music was supposed to be "the soundtrack" but to me it's very much a character in and of itself. It's almost like a narrator, leading her on from one moment to the next. To me, the music dictated this story and took me through the process of the idea. Part of the rules were that we were only permitted to edit the music in very minor ways, so I have only one cut. When I was listening to the piece early on I could hear and see that fall over and over and I wanted a hard 'stop' (with the music). The whole story stops because she suddenly is becoming frozen and maybe she's going to stop too. But then, in true Red style, she crawls on and keeps going. When she stands up at the portal, the music picks back up and keeps going. When she decides not to restart time, and lifts her hands on that final note of the music, I had her lengthen that movement to extend that final note into silence. Those images after seeing her lift her hands sort of carry the music on, even though you're no longer hearing it. 

Elfman is such a singular and inspiring artist, and it was such a pleasure and honor for me to be able to participate in this Challenge. It shows what a generous artist he is by extending a piece of his own artwork to others, complete strangers, to use in their own stories. That's not something you see very often.

As to 'what next', right now a panel of industry judges are selecting finalists - BUT the public gets a say too, and we'd love some help getting us into that final films selection, and it's very easy to do: all you have to do is vote for our film on THEIR website at the link below (it takes you directly to 'Losing Time', so no hunting required):

'LisaKStock - Losing Time' - http://indi.com/8xcwv

There's a 'like/heart' button right below the film and every click counts. Sharing helps too, of course, (the share wheel is next to the heart) and the following hashtags are really helpful for those sharing: #buzzchallenge #indi_8xcwv

OUABlog: We have one last question: why chocolate?

Lisa Stock (InByTheEye): *laughs* Because chocolate is pure happiness and no matter what there is always chocolate!

OUABlog: Thank you for talking with us today. We wish you every success with this lovely new take on our very versatile Red!

Chloe Grace Moretz To voice Character in Animated Film 'Red Shoes & the 7 Dwarfs'

It's animated. It's a parody. It will expose the true story of Snow White and it's South Korean (and will be in English).

In the upcoming (family friendly) spoof, which was written and directed by Sung Ho, the Dwarves (are actually) seven cursed princes (or knights) looking to break the dark spell by kissing the most beautiful woman in the world. Snow White will come dressed in red shoes for the occasion. The film will teach the lesson that looks aren’t everything. (DenOfGeek & THR)

Here is the trailer making the Cannes circuit. It's not what you might expect:

The film is currently in post-production, which is odd timing for an actor to join, except that we're guessing Moretz will be the English language voice for her character, (though this trailer is already in English). There are no hints from the official IMDB page as to what character Moretz will be playing.

One odd thing is the beauty aspect. We know the point of the film is to challenge traditional ideas about beauty but there's a whole Jessica Rabbit vibe here at times and it feels a little off. Hopefully it's just because we're not seeing the development and handling of this in the feature film, but it's still odd to watch and realize.

And we're sure someone, somewhere is having a whole conversation about Western standards of beauty versus Eastern standards of beauty too. We know Koreans are often criticized at having extremely unrealistic beauty standards for women to attain, which is seen to have many adverse social repercussions, but perhaps that's part of why this film has been made. We shall see.

The film is currently being shopped around at Cannes Film Festival this week, so we should hear more news on this very soon.

We also have to share the original teaser trailer from 2014, when the film was titled 'Red Heels and the 7 Dwarfs'. You might say it's... unconventional. Perhaps it's due to culture and how we've come to expect family films to 'represent', but we think there's some pretty weird stuff going on in this trailer... And we don't believe it's just us that think so.
  

Chloe Grace Moretz

Take a look. (This will be great fodder for analysis and presentations on all sorts of subjects, we promise. So much here to, er, use for examples of, er, things.)

So, yeah - we can see how that trailer wouldn't go down so well, especially for families. (!) There's so much in there to pick at, (borderline offensive in some places, has a sense of being politically incorrect, sexist, etc) which is probably why the current trailer (shown earlier in the post) is the one they're going with at Cannes.

Just sayin'.

Hard to get a good read on the film when the Director says 'very family friendly romantic comedy sequel/prequel' and yet the initial teaser above is full of what appear to be 'hidden' adult jokes. We're not sure what we really think about this yet, but we'll be keeping an ear out for more info.

By the way, are we the only ones seeing some HCA Red Shoes parallels in these trailers?

(Hint: it's not the sleeping part.)

#nofeetchoppingplease

Caliph Stork by Wilhelm Hauff, Illustrated by Anton Lomaev

We discovered this gorgeous picture book just the other day and had to share the illustrations and this lesser-known fairy tale, The Story of Caliph Stork.

It may sound familiar as a version of the fairy tale was include in Andrew Lang's Green Fairy Book, but with such rich fodder for illustrators, and such a funny tale for storytellers to have fun with, it's surprising this isn't more well known.

The fairy tale actually has a distinct origin, written by German writer Wilhelm Hauff for his Märchen almanach auf das Jahr 1826 (Fairytale Almanac of 1826). (The Green Fairy Book retells story in chapters.)

Set in the nebulous 'Orient' (something the romantics were fascinated by, even though it was a fantasy) the plot could easily (today) be mistaken for something out of 1001 Nights. Source notes from one writer/storyteller, Aaron Shepard, who has won honors from the American Folklore Society, retold and published this tale (with very different, but also lovely illustrations by Alisher Dianov) tell us that despite it's German origin, that this tale is now told in the Middle East and has become part of their folklore!

Wow.

From Shepard's notes:

This tale—usually called “The Calif Stork” or “The Stork Calif”—is often classified as a folktale of Iraq; and folklorist Harold Courlander, who heard it twice from Muslim storytellers, believes it to be widely told in the Middle East. Yet its origin is The Caravan, a book of original fairy tales by nineteenth-century German writer Wilhelm Hauff. While folktales often make their way into written literature, in this case a written work has passed into folklore. My own retelling draws from both original and retold versions. 

The calif in this tale is patterned after Harun al-Rashid, made popular in the pages of The Thousand and One Nights.

The plot essentially goes :

The Caliph of Baghdad comes across a mysterious powder with an incantation on the bottle. It is said it can turn someone into any animal they wish. They must not, however, forget the incantation so they can turn back but above all, they must not laugh while as animals or they will be trapped in that form forever. Of course the Caliph (and his Vizier) become storks and get stuck. On a quest to find a cure, the encounter a large sad, owl, who tells them she is really the Princess of India, transformed by an evil imposter wizard, who now sits on the throne. They see an opportunity, via sneaky animal-eavesdropping and spy work, to become human again but there's a tricky clause in that one of them needs to promise his hand in marriage to the owl - without seeing what she looks like - otherwise the reversing will fail. All goes well and, of course, the princess is gorgeous, so the anxious Caliph is relieved.

If the illustration style of the images posted here, looks familiar it's because Anton Lomaev's illustrations for The Wild Swans have been circulating the internet constantly for about three years now, never failing to catch the eye (especially with all the golds and fire colors he includes in his images for that particular fairy tale. This one, however, is ultimately dominated by blues and mystery...

As an interesting tag to the tale, the sorcerer is sentenced to death while his son is given the choice of death or to smell the same black powder and become an animal forever. The son chooses the powder and becomes their pet, displayed in a cage in the garden for all to see. 

We love the last illustration in which the Caliph is making his children laugh by making fun of the Vizier when he was a stork. (And the Vizier is threatening to find that powder again as a result.)

And one day we will track down a physical copy of these lovely Lomaev illustrations (printed 2016) to put in the Fairy Tale Newsroom library!

Political Cartoons & Fairy Tales 2017: 'The Emperor's New Clothes'

via theweek.com

You thought we were going to begin with strategically covered naked politicians, weren't you? We loved this take on The Emperor's New Clothes, specifically because it's not the 'usual take' cartoonists aim for when marrying political satire, cartoons and this particular fairy tale.

Continuing the 'fairy tales in political commentary via cartoons' posts, (what a mouthful) we thought we'd round up some of The Emperor's New Clothes takes. Hm. They're really not very, er, flattering, are they? (And we don't just mean in the sensibility factor.) In fact, not only have we NOT included all the variations available, we've had a lot of trouble trying to pick something 'appropriate' for the header image. Yikes.

One image we won't be showing though is the art installation by activist art group, INDECLINE,  that began popping up in major US cities toward the end of last year.

From the announcement for the first event in August 2016, which, incidentally, says it wasn't actually about Trump:

The Emperor’s New Clothes: Art, Imagination, & Our Battle Against the Titanic
The “titanic” (a reference to Greek mythology) is a powerful force in American culture today. It’s the unlimited and excessive, the huge and crude, and it runs roughshod over the relatively small, uniquely beautiful beings, places, and things that many of us love. The titanic “out there” numbs our feeling and dwarfs our sensitivities. We experience our own titanism “inside” as stress and emptiness. 

The best weapon against titanism is our imagination. A recent installation by art activists opposing Donald Trump, that references the Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” inspired me to explore the story. 

Where is the “titanic” in your life and in our community, and can we use this story to kick-start a creative response to these questions? Come hear the story and consider how art and other inducements to the imagination can be used in our war against the titanic. 

Politico.com 

Hosted by local mythologist Catherine Svehla. All open-minded adults are welcome. 

Please note, although Trump is a handy target for talk of the titanic, this event is not about him….

So... with that introduction, plus the giant naked statue of the President-to-be at the time, we don't know how much else got discussed, or proposed at that meeting as being 'titanics' that needed to be included in the 'war'.

Take a look at the political cartoons below. Some are from before the 'crowning' and others were created after January 20th.

via The Star Tribune

ct - The Cap Times (Madison, Wisconsin)

Cagle.com (political cartoon central!)

Courier Journal

Cagle.com

Jerry Holbert via townhall.com

Our first 'fairy tales in political cartoons 2017' post, featuring The Boy Who Cried Wolf is HERE.
#RRR

'Bratty & the Beast' (Trailer Spoof)

Too fun not to share and doubles as a commentary on the generation that are watching the remake as well. Nice work by Toon Sandwich (of ArtSpear Entertainment)!

A bit of a much-needed laugh for your Monday.

Stay till the end once the credits & notices for the channel starts. There's a parody of 'Tale As Old As Time' sung over it which is pretty amusing as well.

Enjoy!

Maria Tatar is Working on A Book of African American Folktales!

These European fairy tales we know and love also exist in traditional African culture. "You can find a Little Red Riding Hood, you can find The Juniper Tree, which we think of as a quintessentially German tale, in Africa as well..." (Tatar, speaking to BFM radio)

We're so excited for this - and it's annotated! The book is due out Halloween 2017 (so not too far away). Here are the details:

This is the project description from the Hutchins Center, with whom Tatar is working on this with:

The Annotated African-American Folktales will present 50-60 tales from African-American traditions to a general audience.  It will begin by charting the origins of the narratives and tracing their dissemination, adaptation, and reinvention in the Americas, North and South, as well as in Caribbean regions.  The volume will include introductions to each tale, historical commentary, cultural information, illustrations, and photographs.  It will include works ranging from stories about Anansi to tales about Brer Rabbit, always providing information about how the tales have been inflected in different cultures and how their afterlife manifests itself today. 

Informed by scholarship in an array of disciplines including folklore, anthropology, African American Studies, and linguistics, it will seek to explore popular vernacular traditions through the medium of print culture.  The ambition is to remind us all that the tales are “still here” and that they have the power to reinvigorate our cultural productions with their humor, wisdom, and electrifying social energy.

And the description from Amazon:

The Annotated African American Folktales 1st Editionby Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Editor), Maria Tatar (Editor) 

Collected for the first time, these nearly 150 African American folktales animate our past and reclaim a lost cultural legacy to redefine American literature. 

Drawing from the great folklorists of the past while expanding African American lore with dozens of tales rarely seen before, The New Annotated African American Folktales revolutionizes the canon like no other volume. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar assemble a groundbreaking collection of folktales, myths, and legends that revitalize a vibrant African American past untainted by romantic antebellum sentiment or counterfeit nostalgia. Beginning with introductory essays and 20 seminal African tales as historical background, Gates and Tatar present nearly 150 African American stories, among them familiar Brer Rabbit classics, but also stories like “The Talking Skull” and “Witches Who Ride,” out-of-print tales from the 1890s Southern Workman, and stories that finally incorporate Caribbean and Latin American literature within the canon. With illuminating annotations and revelatory illustrations, The New Annotated African American Folktales reminds us that stories not only move, entertain, and instruct but, more fundamentally, inspire and keep hope alive. color throughout; 160 illustrations 

You can already pre-order it on Amazon HERE.

Note: All images are by Leo and Diane Dillon for the book Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales by Virginia Hamilton