Truth to tell, Oprah Winfrey is not one of our favourite people in the world.
VanRamblings believes that the indefatigable Ms. Winfrey single-handedly created the ‘victim culture’ during the course of the early years of her eponymous and ubiquitous afternoon talk show, when she paraded one sorry soul after another onto her stage in a litany of ‘woe is me, I have no control over my life, even if none of what’s happened to me is my fault, there’s nothing I can do to make my life better, more livable, there’s nothing I can do to become a productive citizen, all I can do is whine and feel sorry for myself’ programming that had a profound effect on how a whole generation of young women growing up came to see themselves, in the process creating a culture of alienation and anomie complemented by pop culture coverage vapid enough to turn your stomach, resulting in a do-nothing, apolitical generation of 30-somethings committed to avarice and dionysian want, who add nothing to the sum total of our existence.

The above said, Oprah does manage to do some good, on occasion, a prime example of which relates to the documentary programming on her OWN Network. A couple of days back we wrote about Yoav Potash’s Crime After Crime and Lisa Leeman’s One Lucky Elephant, both of which will screen on Oprah’s network, Crime next Thursday, and Elephant on December 1st.
This past weekend, Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s hard-hitting, award-winning documentary study of rampant sexism in media and society, Miss Representation, about which The Hollywood Reporter’s Justin Lowe writes

A relevant and important doc that deconstructs the insidious role of visual media in the widespread, unbalanced depiction of women and girls, Miss Representation offers an uncompromising and inspiring analysis of the media’s role in women’s social marginalization, and serves to act as a call to action.

and about which Hitfix’s Daniel Feinberg writes in his review …

Miss Representation may often feel like the barely cinematic equivalent of a grad school media studies thesis, but it’s also a documentary that will spur questions and conversations, one that could inspire and change lives. The message behind Siebel Newsom’s documentary is shouted loud and clear: The treatment of women in popular culture and the mass media is disgraceful and due to the perpetual objectification of women and due to particularly heinous treatment of women in leadership roles, a vicious cycle is created, denying young girls of aspirational figures outside of certain hyper-sexualized molds and perpetuating damaging social norms through the generations.

was broadcast on OWN in the U.S. No such luck in Canada. Until now.
Yes, dear and constant reader, Miss Representation is set for broadcast tomorrow (Saturday) at noon on the OWN network, in standard and HD. Did we forget to mention that Miss Representation emerged as one of the audience Festival favourites in the voting for ‘best film’ at the 30th annual Vancouver International Film Festival? It would seem that, thanks to Oprah, we can have our very own film festival in our homes. Thanks, Oprah.

Where will VanRamblings find ourselves this evening, aside from in the company of two very lovely people? Yes, VanRamblings — still in withdrawal from the 30th annual Vancouver International Film Festival — will attend a 6:30 p.m. screening of Miranda July’s reportedly surreal, devastating and brilliant new film, The Future (so says The Playlist’s James Rocchi), and about which The New York Times’ A.O. Scott writes …

Miranda July’s The Future is an ingeniously constructed wonder cabinet of a movie which tells the story of Sophie and Jason, who are are sweet and sincere, but also maddeningly passive, their tentative, timid approach to their lives inspiring equal measures of protectiveness and impatience. Dwelling in a state of becalmed, bemused anxiety, though they are well into their 30s, they seem as shy and unworldly as children. Their gentle, melancholy, cautious engagement with each other and with their own experience is self-conscious, but it also feels like an authentic response to the confusion and anomie that run like invisible threads through so much of American life. Powerful, unsettling and strange, as well as charming, The Future addresses the everyday fears and frustrations that shadow us on our awkward trip through the life cycle, which can often feel enormous, even cosmic. Ms. July has the audacity to find images and situations that give form to those metaphysical inklings.

The wonderful, altogether spectacular VanCity Theatre also offers an 8:15 screening tonight, and another 8:15 screening Saturday night, and that’s it. After that, The Future will be gone. Sort of like a metaphor for life, huh?

We Need To Talk About Kevin Wins London Film Festival

• Best Film: We Need To Talk About Kevin — dir. Lynne Ramsay

• Best British Newcomer: Candese Reid, actress, Junkhearts

• Sutherland Award Winner: Pablo Giorgelli, dir. Las Acacias

• Grierson Award for Best Documentary: Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life — dir. Werner Herzog

• BFI Fellowship: Ralph Fiennes and David Cronenberg

Poland then goes on to write about films not included in the list above, about which Oscar buzz continues to be hot and heavy. Worth a read.

Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology.

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