Movie Moles: Star Trek: Into Darkness
Old Mole Variety Hour 6/10/2013
Movie Moles Frann Michel and Joe Clement discuss the politics of race, gender and imperialism in the latest Star Trek movie against the background of the whole series of Star Trek films.
Old Mole Variety Hour 5/06/2013
Frann Michel and Joe Clement review the documentary Shift Change, directed & produced by Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young. The documentary surveys several cooperatively owned and managed businesses, mostly in the United States but also Spain's famous Mondragon. We hear from worker-owners, as well as activists who support the co-op movement in material and financial ways. Working at co-ops is not just different, but better than regular wage jobs.
Old Mole Variety Hour 4/08/2013
Frann Michel and Jan Haaken review the Chilean film No (2012), set during the 1988 plebiscite on Augusto Pinochet. It centers on René, an advertising man played by Gael García Bernal, during the struggle between those who support the neoliberal fascist, those part of the "No!" campaign, and those who think the No-campaign is deluded. Moles discuss how the voter-organizing was represented, the meaning of hope during hopeless times, and the suggestion in the end of the neoliberal legacy of Pinochet's regime.
A Place at the Table: movie moles review
Old Mole Variety Hour 3/25/2013
Denise Morris and Frann Michel discuss the documentary A Place at the Table, playing in Portland at the Hollywood Theatre, about the serious problem of food insecurity. The film makes vivid the struggles of some of the 50 million Americans who are food insecure, but provides an incomplete analysis. Although it dispels some myths (e.g., that hungry people will be skinny) it also perpetuates others (e.g., that fat is inherently unhealthy, that this issue mainly affects women of color).