Monday, January 30, 2012

Private greed and the economic crisis, part 4-the little man (or woman)

We´ve said quite a bit over the past several months about the greed of banks, other large corporations, government, and the like.  But we have to admit that ordinary individuals have also contributed to the crisis by wanting more and more and more...by being greedy.

I´m referring here to people who took out huge loans backed by little or nothing in order to raise their lifestyle, when they already had plenty enough to eat, had a good roof over their heads, and had the possibility of taking an annual vacation.  I´m referring primarily to middle-class people who wanted three cars in the garage, or a nice boat, or a condo in some great vacation spot, or a major re-model of their house, etc., etc.--when in fact they didn´t have the income to afford it.



Instead of income, they relied on credit...LOTS and LOTS of credit.  Credit that they had expected to pay back when the housing market shot through the roof.  But...

Mostly unregulated credit, and unrealistic housing expectations, that helped drive up the price of houses to the point where very few people could any longer afford to buy.  Credit which was underwritten by, well, by...nothing, or close to it.

Credit which led to the bursting of the bubble.

I seriously do believe these people were a major cause in the bursting of the economic bubble.  I do NOT, however, think that they are the most responsible.  A too-optimistic individual almost never has as much control or responsibility as a corporation which makes it its business to be financially sophisticated and savvy, which is willing to cut corners and in some cases, engage in significant fraud, for reasons of personal or corporate benefit.

NOTE:  As a further illustration, I meant to shoot a photo of a home with a garage fitted out for 3 cars, but left California before doing so! Uh oh.

But it remains true that if the private, middle-class individual had not been willing to contract for so much debt, if the "me" factor hadn´t been so important, if people were more willing to be content with what they had or what they could in fact pay for out of their own pockets, then they wouldn´t have been such easy prey for the blandishments of those financial institutions and others who were not operating in a manner so as to benefit the public good.

Which makes it clear that I believe in the public good more than private acquisition, and in savings more than loans.  We all have our preferences.

OUR NEXT POST will be about our screening on Jan. 26 in California.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

SCREENING on Thursday, Jan 26 in Arlington Cafe (Kensington)

We'll have a screening of Domino:  Caught in the Crisis this coming Thursday at 6:30 pm in the Arlington Cafe (269 Arlington Ave., Kensington).  If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, come on down.  The event is free and open to the public.

The Arlington Cafe is a relaxed place, a good place to watch a dramatic narrative film, a work-in-progress like Domino.  It serves food, from sandwiches to quiche to salads, as well as drinks, from coffee to soda, beer and wine.  LINK  And if you've ever wanted to help shape a film, this is a good time to start..  The filmmaker (yours truly, Eve A. Ma) listens to comments and takes them very seriously.

Shooting the opening scene with the domino players.

 This screening is being presented by MAW (Media Art Works) as part of its monthly program, EBMMSC (East Bay Media Makers' Screening Club).  Other films we have in the works are by filmmakers George Larkin and Eve Edelson.

George Larkin is one of those people who, well, can't make it to the screening this Thursday because he'll be in Sundance, receiving a prize.  You see the kind of company that MAW keeps.  He'll be screening a short taken from his larger work about Iraq called Speaking of Baghdad.

Some of the MAW board members & staff with some of the filmmakers.

 Eve Edelson's short is called The Fare, and is about a strange set of circumstances that arise when her hero, a cab driver, picks up some pretty unusual fares.  Another one of \the films that MAW will present as part of this same screening program is by Luisa de Cossy.  It's about the Travelers, a group of formerly nomadic  people of Irish descent who wander (or used to wander) all over England.

But back to Domino.  Three days after the screening, I'll be returning to Spain where I plan to do a TINY bit more filming to fill in a spot in Domino that I find a bit thin.  Then, I'll commission the background music, get some technicians to make everything beautiful and lovely to listen to as well...after which, probably some time this summer, I'll be ready to release it.

The Arlington Cafe.



I plan to release it in Spain first, but will at least have a screening of the completed work when I'm back in California this summer.  Then, on to the festivals, right?

OUR NEXT BLOG will be ... that long-awaited final article about private greed.

LINK to AC5 directory http://directory.ac5.org/PalominoProductions

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Private greed and the economic crisis, part 3-big corporations, big money

This will be the last post about the greed of the high and mighty.  I'll then finish off the topic with a blog about the greed of the little man (and woman) and that should be the end of my rantings about greed.

Multinationals and huge businesses--nothing by definition wrong with either of these, although I personally prefer small businesses where the owner is there running the shop, with maybe a couple of employees.  More friendly, more personal, more we're-neighbors-and-we're-in-this-together.



But ok.  We have a big world, with lots of international communications;  and multinationals plus very big businesses are going to be a part of it.

What I do NOT like, however, is businesses whose chief focus is on raising the level of their profits, or cornering the market, or driving the small shops out of business.  And I also really dislike businesses--and here, it's pretty much exclusively very big businesses that do this--who in the name of efficiency and productivity replace workers in positions that are not arduous with machines.

I'm not talking about assembly lines, or tractors, or that kind of thing.  I'm talking about all those machines that answer the phones.  And all those other machines which, once the basics of letting machines do the back-breaking work, go on to do work which human beings can easily handle and traditionally have, machines that are purchased do so as to let the company fire their workers and not have to worry about paying higher wages or awarding better benefits packages.

So sure, you probably want your automobile assembly line mechanized, but when you mechanize beyond a certain extent, you create unemployment.  There needs to be a balance.

[NOTE:  I´d planned a photo of a homeless shelter or other relevant image but on contacting one, find that it needs to be arranged "through channels," so if they decide to give me information, I´ll do a separate blog specifically on that center.]

Surely this is something government can do--reward job creation instead of wealth creation.  Figure out about how many working adults you'll have in the country, and encourage big businesses to have that many positions available.

And big businesses, instead of having the steadily rising profits that they have now, even as unemployment is way too high, could determine that they would raise wages and/or create new jobs instead of allowing profits to continue rising when the gap between rich and poor is growing, and there are 14 million people looking for work.

THE NEXT BLOG will be about our screening on Jan. 26..

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Some thanks are due here-part 2

I've been remiss in thanking all those who have helped in the making of Domino.  This time, I'm going to thank the theater company, Compañía Teatral Tras el Trapo, located in Jerez de la Frontera (Spain).

Compañía Theatral Tras el Trapo, more familiarly known simply as Tras el Trapo, is a theater cooperative which supplied us with one of our actors, one of our crew members, and helped us find other actors and crew members when we asked.  Tras el Trapo also lent us their space for a scene, lent us some costuming materials, and generally treated us very nicely, indeed.

Javier (Javi) Padilla in front of the theater company's van.  He's usually not so serious looking.

The company´s producer was individual the who helped us most:  Javier Padilla.  He is an actor and appears in two scenes in Domino.  In one, he is a friend of our hero Luis, but turns Luis down when Luis asks for work because he simply can't afford to hire him.  In another scene, Javier plays the drunk who accosts Luis at night, asking for a light for his cigarette.

Javier also was the one who lent us use of Tras el Trapo´s rehearsal/studio space, lent us some costumes, and provided us with names and contact info of several actors and crew members.

Maria Duarte (center) inside the theater's rehearsal space.  Javier Padilla is on the left.

The other Tras el Trapo member who helped us was Maria Duarte, an actress who worked on our crew as script/continuity.  In our scenes in which people were in a bar drinking beer, she spent a lot of time checking the level of the (usually non-alcoholic) beer in the glasses so it wouldn't suddenly change in the middle of a scene.  She watched over hair styles, checked to see jackets didn´t become unbuttoned simply because it was blazing hot, and other such detailed and kind of thankless tasks.

She also coached the actors with their lines (and a few needed rather a lot of coaching).

Both of these people, and Tras el Trapo itself, really helped in the production of our show.  We are truly appreciative.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about private greed and the economic crisis.