The Quite Nerdy Blog

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is, surprisingly, a film about the Eurovision Song Contest. Clearly it wasn't planned this way but you may have noticed we didn't get an actual contest this year due to EVENTS, so this is the slightly strange replacement. It is the story of Fire Saga, a fictional Icelandic band who dream of representing their country in the regrettably real Eurovision Song Contest. Unfortunately, they're not very good. From there, they enter into Iceland's contest to decide the representative and you know exactly where it goes from there. That's one of the biggest problems I have with the film, it is incredibly predictable. I know, I know, it's a comedy and most people don't care about that, but from about twenty minutes in, I could have told you pretty much every single story beat. This is only a shame because there are occasional hints towards something much more surreal. If you've ever seen the film Drop Dead Gorgeou...

Let's start this week with a little experiment. I want you to sit and think what your favourite film is, or at least one of your favourites. Now think of some of your favourite scenes. I am willing to bet that at least one of those scenes has music as a crucial element of it. Quite simply, films gain much of their power from visuals but without music, they would never attain the admiration we bestow on them. That's not exactly what I'm talking about today, though you'll hopefully understand why I've asked you to think through this. Today, we are talking about short films based off of albums. Janelle Monáe referred to her film Dirty Computer as an "Emotion Picture", so that will be how I'll refer to them, just for ease. Essentially, these short films are often released alongside new albums, much like how music videos are released alongside singles, only about 30 minutes long. We're doing this today because one of my favourite examples of an Emotion ...

A couple of weeks back, there was an online film festival held on YouTube, called the We Are One Festival. It was a slightly strange mishmash of an event, in which film festivals from around the world provided a selection of films which were then presented to the general public. There's a lot to digest about this and a lot I'm hoping to get to, so let me break down what we're going to do here today. First, I'm going to talk about five films I saw that particularly stuck with me, recommending why you should either seek out them or other works by those filmmakers. After that, I'm going to talk about what I think about the festival as a whole; the idea, the execution, the potential future of the idea. Let's waste no more time then! Crazy World Crazy World was the only film I watched that was actually feature length, but it was unique in more ways than just that. For those who are unaware, this is the newest film from Ugandan filmmaking studio Wakaliwood....

Before getting into the bulk of the post, I wanted to share this site again. The Black Lives Matter protests remain ongoing, progress is slowly being seen, which means this is not the time to slow down. These actions are working and only if we educate ourselves, support those who need that help and listen to those whose voices are silenced do we stand a chance of seeing this kind of racist bullshit come to an end. It is no longer enough to not be racist, you should be anti-racist, or this cycle of hatred will continue forever. To quote David Lynch "fix your hearts or die". Due to everyone being stuck inside all the time over the last ten weeks, we've all come to rely on the streaming platform Netflix. It's been a household name for years, but it's rarely felt this vital. I, however, find it quite frustrating. For every high quality film they produce or distribute ( Marriage Story , Uncut Gems  and Anima  are just three highlights from last year), they unload a ...

EDIT: Before we get started, I want to address the protests and injustice going on in America right now. I know that feels strange because I talk about light stuff like films and have an audience based primarily in the UK, but seeing America tear itself apart has been weighing on me for the last week. I support the protesters in their actions and encourage anyone who believes that they're taking it too far to research how the police have been escalating protests intended to be peaceful. If you can, please donate to these funds which provide bail for protesters (again, those protesting that Black Lives Matter, these people are not in the wrong), either through this link that will split your donation across multiple US states or this link which will support protesters in the UK. Plenty of people have already shared it but this website is important too, as it will share other places you can donate, but also directs you to petitions you can sign and ways you can educate yourself abo...