Friday 19 February 2016

WATCHING SPOTLIGHT



SPOTLIGHT is a film about power.

Set amidst clerical child abuse, there are few children and even fewer priests. Victims are referred to in lists, court cases and newspaper clips. Their appearances, though telling, are brief. SPOTLIGHT is a film about journalists, lawyers and senior church people, lay and clerical.

The city of Boston in 2001 presents as rain sodden and grey, except for a thrilling high-colour shot of Autumn trees, ablaze in gold and umber, used to make the transition to the final sequences, playing out in a Christmas season of grubby snow. The colour palette is almost black and white. Sepias, creams and magnolia feature. The luminous green globes on the lamps in the library are eerie and talismanic of the dominant culture in the city.

The Boston Globe understandably features the film and the Spotlight team in its current on-line edition. The most obvious film echo is ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, set in the Nixon-Watergate era. Are films about journalists in print media on the way out?

The wonders of the newspaper production facility of The Boston Globe in the early 2000s are lovingly shown. The great news room, the staff canteen, the industrial print plant, the definitive edition, carrying the big story, tumbling into bundles for loading onto the fleet of liveried trucks in the dispatch bay in the basement; these images are reminiscent of numerous American films set in the days of the dominance of print media.

The central drama is driven by the investigative Spotlight team within The Boston Globe, headed by ex-Batman, Michael Keaton as 'Robby' Robinson, alumnus of a good Catholic school and proud Bostonian. They are fired up by the arrival of a new editor, evident outsider Marty Baron, played by Liev Schreiber, who looks like Jurgen Klopp's slightly older brother. The loss of faith and, with it, the loss of an anchor of social and cultural stability, is very well portrayed as a betrayal of trust, as is the way institutional power elaborates and operates in acts of commission and omission among groups of men (largely), tied by bonds of kinship, ethnicity, social class, aspiration and religious adherence.

The principals – Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, Rachel McAdams and Brian d'Arcy James – are all excellent. Billy Crudup is a joy as a self-serving lawyer, while victim and source, Phil Saviano, is suitably edgy, hurt and fatalistic, as played by Neal Huff. Having 'the knowledge', psychotherapist Richard Sipe, never appear, yet contribute fundamental research in phone conversations, adds clandestine weight to the words of the uncredited Richard Jenkins.

SPOTLIGHT has achieved nominations and awards, great reviews, good audiences and box office returns. It will garner more and deservedly so. Best hair-piece? Stanley Tucci's as victim-supporting lawyer, Garabedian. Best scene? Garabedian talking about being an Armenian in Boston, while eating soup in a diner. Best line? Neal Huff, as victim Phil Saviano, asks

How do you say 'no' to God?”










Wednesday 3 February 2016

A RESPONSE TO THE CONSULTATION ON THE DCAL STRATEGY FOR CULTURE AND ARTS 2016-2026



MAKER'S MONEY
Investment in Entry-Level Artists

A draft proposal by Dave Duggan, dramatist and novelist, 3.2.2016


The purpose of the consultation by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in Northern Ireland is to seek views on how arts and culture can best promote equality and tackle poverty and social exclusion: making arts and culture available to everyone.

Maker's Money is targeted investment in entry level artists, so they can make art. This meets the key focus of the consultation, which is the benefit of arts and culture to individuals, while ensuring maximum community benefit, value for money and public support. It assists the future recognition of the artists, their work and its value. It will enable artists to begin careers as practitioners, not facilitators, in Northern Ireland. The investment will deliver equality, strengthen the economy, contribute to the growth of the artistic workforce (a vital element in the creative sector), enhance the tourism offer and hearten us all, thus improving health and wellbeing.

Like all investments, it is not without risk. Making this investment in a confident manner, however, will enable artists, in particular new ones, to respond actively and make work across all artistic forms. Application and reporting can be minimal and not arduously administrative for a sole trader. The investment programme should be considered as long-term. Details would require working up, but, in outline, could include:
- An investment period of ten years, 2016-2026;
- an investment pot of £10, 000 per year, allocated as £2, 000 each for five individual artists per year, no artist being eligible for two Maker's Money investments;
- application is a one line statement of what the artist intends to make in Northern Ireland, supported by a brief cv of work previously made in Northern Ireland. As an investment in entry-level artists it is likely, but not necessary, that the investment would be made to younger practitioners. A receipt to confirm the investment has been received into the artist's bank account is the only reporting required.

The programme budget of £100, 000 over ten years can be allocated as part of the Department's overall budget in allocation models as used by Invest NI and Strategic Investment Board. Consideration could also be given to funds secured by the National Crime Agency in the form of 'assets recovered'. This investment programme would not replace SIAP funding offered by ACNI.

In enabling artists to make work using this investment the Vision of the draft strategy, to offer everyone an equal opportunity to achieve their aspirations and ambitions, while tackling social exclusion of artists in a manner that tackles wider exclusions in society by new, creative works and acts, can be delivered. The key theme of cultural togetherness is made manifest when a society confidently invests in makers who use their creativity and skills to make the work they wish to make. These artists contribute to their own and society's wellbeing through rich cultural expression, rooted in this place and reaching far beyond it.

Dave Duggan 3.2.2016


https://www.dcalni.gov.uk/consultations/consultation-strategy-culture-arts-2016-2026


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