The Most Beautiful (1944). For Donald Richie DB here: Cinephile communities aren’t free of peer pressure. Sometimes you must choose or be thought a waffler. In postwar France, the debate within the Cahiers du cinéma camp often came down to big dualities. Ford or Wyler? German Lang or American Lang?...

From Bue: Just today a new free 'solidarity university' was announced in Vienna in a squatted university building as a spillover from the general student protests there. They have already established a lot of international links and seem very enthusiastic about the project, though so far I haven't found any sources who are able to clearly formulate what their ideas and plans are. But of course this is something completely new. By the way I recommend the edu-factory mail-list, which has all sorts of stuff around global university politics, including news, manifestoes and heated debates. René: Addition to online lectures: Prof. Helen Graham's inauguarl lecture 'Border Crossings: Thinking...

by Ryland Walker Knight —Don't look back.

by Ryland Walker Knight —Quick, before we think.

The Sundance Institute announced today the slate of shorts which will be screened at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. I’m Here, directed by Spike Jonze; The Fence, directed by Rory Kennedy; Logorama, directed by François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy, and Ludovic Houplain; and Seeds of the Fall, directed Patrik Eklund will premiere the first Thursday to kick off the start of the competition screenings. The Sundance Film Festival will run January 21-31 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The full list of shorts are below. U.S. DRAMATIC SHORTS Charlie and the Rabbit (Directors: Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian) -- Charlie, a four year-old who loves Bugs Bunny, decides to...

From Ben: My MPhil thesis was on Raymond Williams, and I touched upon his decision to move from working in Adult Education (aka workers education) to becoming a university professor. This was partly an affirmative decision following the rise in working class intake into the universities in the early '60s, but also a result of his disenchantment with a workers' education movement which had been coopted. It seems to me, if anything, the pendulum is swinging in the opposite direction now. To understand the situation now, I think it's important to revisit the history of worker's education in Britain (which I only understand sketchily) - it seems that the formative event was the Ruskin Strike...

[Some amazing links here and some very important points. To be digested, slowly, like ideas passing through all four stomachs of a cow. More anon]. Jason: An online university strikes me as a great idea, although "proletarian" I assume is the idea, not a proposed title. My limited understanding of this is that online universities, although claiming to offer "courses" and "lessons", don't actually do this. They don't have any sort of institutional substance. They are more geared towards acquiring knowledge and skills, rather than a degree. Perhaps I haven't followed the full history of your blog on this topic, and not living or working in the UK means I don't have any real interest in the...

by Ryland Walker Knight [Spent a lot of last week running around town, and working on a non-cinematic (ahem, paid) writing project, so movies took a necessary back seat. I read instead. And, yeah, with this work and the basketball options in high definition (not to mention a visit to Oracle...

Lara provides what is probably the most perceptive take on my 'walking CV' argument in the book. I should probably be giving Lara some money at this point shortly before (or after? No idea) lying on a couch whilst she nods silently as I ramble on breathlessly... Surely all of us – especially...