
















Ashley/Amber is IndieFlix’s “FreeFlix” of the week. This a very sweet deal: you get to watch the newly remastered version for free if you register for a free IndieFlix account – no credit card required – and IndieFlix pays me for every minute watched, regardless of whether it’s a paying subscriber doing the watching.
WATCH ASHLEY/AMBER FREE ON INDIEFLIX
'Orange is the New Black'. Last Friday. Who saw it? @dianeguerrero__, aka Maritza, stars in this week's #FreeFlix: http://t.co/X9qu95jXnw
— IndieFlix (@IndieFlix) June 10, 2014
If you’d prefer to not register for IndieFlix, or if you are finding this post after the week ends, please click here for all the other ways to watch.
You may recognize Diane Guerrero as Maritza on Orange Is The New Black, the second season of which premieres this Friday. But I’m can smugly say I discovered her, when I cast her as the lead in my short film Ashley/Amber.
In a shameless attempt to ride on the coattails of OITNB’s success, today I’m releasing a remastered, color-corrected version of Ashley/Amber on demand through VHX and Vimeo for one dollar (actually, VHX allows you to pay more than that, should you be feeling generous). Your support goes directly to the development of my next film.
Ashley/Amber is also streaming on IndieFlix. Using these referral links, you can purchase a discounted subscription for $5/month, first month free or $35/year and access a curated collection of tons of sweet indie films, short and long.
Curious but don’t feel like shelling out a buck? You can still watch the less sexy, un-remastered version on Youtube.
For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, Ashley/Amber is a 22min dark comedy about an antiwar activist who becomes an internet celebrity after being outed as the one-time star of porn video. It premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2011 and has since screened around the world. Travis Keune of We Are Movie Geeks calls it “an introspective short film about American politics and a skewed sense of morality.” sonnycarson86 of Youtube.com says “I liked the movie but show more tits next time.”
Will there be a next time? In addition to throwing me a dollar, you can help me make it easier for me to make the next film by sharing this one on your preferred social networks:
trailer: http://vimeo.com/ondemand/ashleyamber/95555956
twitter: @ashleyamberfilm
fb: https://www.facebook.com/ashleyamberthemovie
official press release: http://ashley-amber.com/2014/06/from-porn-to-politics
You can also sign-up for my email list for infrequent updates about future projects.
Thanks!
Rebecca
I’ve finally uploaded the video of a seminar I shot back in March, GUARANTEED INCOME OR EMPLOYMENT: ECONOMIC RIGHTS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. Of all 8 of the Modern Money & Public Purpose Lectures I attended & recorded, this one is perhaps the most important.
In particular, I recommend Pavlina Tcherneva’s lecture. She discusses her research on the Jefes program in Argentina, which provided government jobs to impoverished “Heads of Households” and is about as close as you can get to a real-life full employment program. The program was very successful on a number of levels. Contrary to the intentions of the program’s administrators, nearly 75% of the workers employed were women. They ended up socializing childcare, among other community services. The government preferred for women to stay at home and receive a basic income, but they could only get women to switch to a welfare system by shutting down the Jefes program.
Her talk (~20min) starts at 3:19 & I [awkwardly violate my omniscient videographer duties to] ask some follow up questions about the Jefes program at 1:49:17.
Further reading can be found here & anyone interested in the subject should check out this semester’s schedule of Modern Money Network events. I’m the house videographer again this year, so if you can’t make it live, do check for the edited videos on youtube — hopefully I’ll be a bit more prompt getting them posted this time around!
This may be the last time Ashley/Amber screens at an actual movie theater! And in Williamsburg no less — maximum convenience for all you yuppie scum who can still afford to live there (jk I love you pls give me $$ for next movie thnx). Still easy, and $5 beer special, for all you broke proles who live on lesser stops off G & L trains (jk u r yuppie scum too).
CINEMA CLUB PRESENTS
Volume XVIII:
Short FilmsSunday
July 14thIndie Screen
289 Kent Ave @ S. 2nd st
Doors – 4 PM
Show – 5 PM$5 tickets
(cash only)
+
$2 Raffle Tickets
–Winner gets 2 FREE tickets to any film at Indie Screen —Featuring films by:
David Bly
Addison Mehr
Rebecca Rojer
Geroni J
Max Sherwood—
HAPPY HOUR 4-5PM
$5 Draft Beers—
CINEMA CLUB
cinemaclub.us
facebook / event
So excited for this:
MASSIVE ATTACK V ADAM CURTIS
STARTING IN TWO WEEKS TIME IN MANCHESTER, THEN GERMANY, NEW YORKThe show is a collaboration between myself and Robert del Naja of Massive Attack.
What links us is not just cutting stuff up – but an interest in trying to change the way people see power and politics in the modern world. To say to them – have you thought of looking at it like this?
We’ve used film, music, stories and ideas to try and do this – to build a new kind of experience. The best way we can describe it is “a Gilm” – a new way of integrating a gig with a film that has a powerful overall narrative and emotional individual stories.
The show will be a bit of a total experience. You will be surrounded by all kinds of images and sounds. But it is also about ideas. It tells a story about how a new system of power has risen up in the modern world to manage and control us. A rigid and static system that has found in those images and sounds a way of enveloping us in a thin two-dimensional version of the past.
A fake, but enchanting world which we all live in today – but which has also become a new kind of prison that prevents us moving forward into the future.
Along with Massive Attack the show will star two great singers.
The amazing Liz Fraser
And the wonderful Horace Andy
And some of the music will be surprising – from early Barbra Streisand to Siberian punk from the 1980s.
Here’s a two-dimensional trailer that will give you an idea of what the show is about – and the stories it tells.
MAvAC: guest singers Elizabeth Fraser and Horace Andy announced, plus a trailer from Adam Curtis.
Never dreamed my film would screen in Iraq (Kurdistan region, but still!). I wish I could be in the theater to feel the reaction … so curious about what the reception will be like.
ASHLEY/AMBER at the 1st Duhok International Film Festival
September 12, 2012 – 11AM
Congress Hall, Main Campus of the University of Duhok
Duhok, Kurdistan Region – Iraq
I’ll be showing some work tomorrow as part of the Adult Contemporary Lifestyle Collective at the Maplewood-South Orange Studio Tour. Swing by if you’re in town, have some refreshments, and check out a range of work by young artists raised in the Jersey suburbs who have either returned or never left.
Adult Contemporary Lifestyle Collective
South Orange-Maplewood Studio Tour
Sunday June 3, 11am – 5pm
122 Prospect Pl, South Orange, NJ
Join the Rally and March on May Day for JOBS FOR ALL!
Join a large, visible presence advocating job creation and an end to unemployment:
JOBS FOR ALL
Dignified work at good union wages for everyone who wants a job.
TRABAJOS PARA TODOS
Trabajo digno con sueldos buenos de escala sindical para cualquiera que quiera un trabajo.
TUESDAY MAY 1
Mayday 2012 Rally & March
Union Square, NYC
4:00PM
Join us at the corner of Union Sq. West & 14th St.
(By the dry fountain)
We demand a democratically-controlled public works and public service program, with direct government employment, to create 25 million new jobs at good union wages. The new jobs will be to build the facilities and provide the services needed to meet the needs of the 99%, including in education, healthcare, housing, transportation, and clean energy. The program will be funded by raising taxes on the banks, corporations and the wealthiest 1%, and by ending all U.S. wars. Employment in the program will be open to all, including immigrants and persons formerly incarcerated.
Demandamos obras públicas y un programa de servicios públicos democráticamente controlados, con empleo directo del gobierno, para crear 25 millones de nuevos empleos con sueldos buenos de escala sindical. Los nuevos empleos serán para construir las instalaciones y proveer los servicios necesitados para satisfacer las necesidades del 99%, incluyendo en educación, cuidados de la salud, vivienda, transporte y energía limpia. El programa será financiado aumentando los impuestos a los bancos, las corporaciones y el 1% de los más ricos, y poniendo fin a todas las guerras por los Estados Unidos de América. Empleo en el programa estará disponible para todos, incluyendo a los inmigrantes y a las personas anteriormente encarceladas.
www.jobsforallny.org
Facebook Event
NY JOBS FOR ALL COMMITTEE • www.JobsForAllNY.org • twitter: @JobsForAllNY
For more information, or to endorse the demand, email: info@jobsforallny.org
Para mas información, o para apoyar la demanda, email: info@jobsforallny.org
To my friends and neighbors in Maplewood-South Orange,
I am writing to urge you to vote in Tuesday’s election for Board of Education. There is a lot at stake for our district and it looks to be a very tight race. Polls are open from 2-9pm on Tuesday, April 17.
I support Amy Higer, Jennifer Payne-Parrish, and Tia (Karen) Swanson. The key issue for me is the district’s plan to raise expectations and provide a high-quality education to ALL students by delevelling the middle school and substantially restructuring the high school’s placement system. Combined with curricular reform that is already underway, I think these changes will have a positive, much-needed impact on our district.
Higer, Payne-Parrish and Swanson support these reforms and Payne-Parrish, an incumbent, voted for them. The other slate (Pai-Eastman-Bennet) opposes these changes and Eastman, the incumbent on that slate, voted against them. Instead, they support a “choice-based” system which, though rhetorically appealing, is clearly not a realistic option for our district of limited resources. We need unity and a firm commitment to all students –– not more division.
Another important factor which I don’t think has received much discussion is that Madhu Pai works as a “marketing executive for an educational consulting firm” (according to her campaign website). According to LinkedIn, Pai works for Education Dynamics, a company which colleges and universities hire to market their schools to prospective students. Their services allow expensive, for-profit colleges and online-diploma programs to pay to have their programs promoted on seemingly informative websites. While I do not doubt that Pai is committed to our district, I cannot help but see her employment in the for-profit education industry as a conflict of interest. Already, Mark Gleason, a current school board member, is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia School Partnership –- an organization which raises funds from billionaire philanthropists to advocate charter schools and other “choice” style programs. I believe we must be vigilant in keeping our school board independent from an industry that is steadily and stealthily working to undermine our public education system.
On a more positive note, I recently visited my high school history teacher. The AP US History program at the school has nearly doubled in size since when I was a student. What began as a class of 15 now includes over 90 students — nearly 20% of the grade. Test scores have not fallen; nearly all students still receive 4s or 5s on the exam. As my teacher explained, “many of these students never thought of themselves as AP students — until they found themselves an AP class. Then they quickly rose to the challenge.” Expectations matter. We have a great district filled with incredible, dedicated teachers and competent, driven administrators. Already significant improvements have been made, but there is still much to be done. Let’s vote for the board members who will support our district in doing best by ALL students.
Sincerely,
Rebecca
PS. You can learn more about all the candidates on their websites:
http://payne-parrishandswanson.org
http://www.amyhiger.org
http://www.votesoma2012.com
Also, when considering Pai-Eastman-Bennet’s promise to “make our decisions based on data and evidence about what works and what does not”, I suggest keeping the findings of this essay in mind:
http://monthlyreview.org/2010/12/01/the-loneliness-of-the-long-distance-test-scorer