The 1940s is often considered to be the Golden Age of Hollywood and was also the decade that Maya Deren began making her best-known films. Maya Deren believed that the art of film had so much more potential than what it was being used for. In her various articles on film and filmmaking, she praises and encourages creative use of the camera, new ways of storytelling and the absolute freedom that comes along with being an independent filmmaker. Deren also had her own ideas about what constituted creativity and what did not. By doing this, her articles about the art of film actually become as restrictive as the studio system she denounced. 

Documentaries are so effective at bringing issues to light because they force audiences to see the humanity behind the issue. Because what they see is real, or at least presented as real, it often makes people feel that they need to take action, even if it’s only while they’re watching.

Venture Brothers is a show where there is so-called good and evil signs, mainly the OSI on the good side and the Guild on the bad side. There are other minor factions, but this is a world where people can sign up for their own costumed aggressor to go back and forth with. So just because someone is a good guy, doesn’t necessarily speak to their morality

While watching the collective videos of iDubbbz, Filthy Frank and Maxmoefoe, what they immediately reminded me of was New Wave. Specifically, Japanese New Wave and French New Wave. These were separate film movements, that were direct responses to mainstream cinema. They rejected the conventions of classical cinema. They featured taboo subject matters such as sexual violence, youth culture and delinquency. The trio similarly utilizes these themes in their videos, along with depression, self-loathing, misanthropy and many others.

Frank and Kevin’s father-son relationship is one of the most important on the show. They fight constantly and yet both seem to have a desperate need to be accepted by the other. Kevin obviously loves his father, though like any teenager, is mouthy. Though Frank always seems to be the one to escalate things.

One tool that was perfect for the type of playing we did were Barbies. I think I had the most out of anyone, at least twenty by that time, everyone else only had about five. At the time, I found it very interesting the ways little girls were shown to play with dolls in the media. I remember seeing an episode of “Dexter’s Laboratory” that showed Dexter’s sister Deedee “playing” with her doll. All she did was brush its hair and change its clothes. At the time I found this puzzling, that’s not how you play with a Barbie. You decide on the clothes and hair before you start playing so that it can fit in accordance with the story you were doing. Another memory is of Sid’s sister, Hannah in “Toy Story”, the way she would talk to her dolls as if they were alive. I much more related to the way Andy was shown to play with his toys. Now that I’m older I think the reason for this is men, or perhaps all adults, don’t know how little girls play with toys, and that it’s really nearly identical to the way boys play with toys. He-Man is to My Little Pony as cowboy hat is to princess tiara. A gun is just the same as a crescent moon wand or a ring that can give you the power of a rag. (more on that later.)