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12 Years of cineSOURCE by Doniphan Blair
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Anthony Lucero, director of the successful Oakland indie, 'East Side Sushi', was cineSOURCE's featured interview in March, 2014, see article. photo: D. Blair
WE ARE IN TRYING TIMES—NO, DUH!—
and my cineSOURCE colleagues and I send our condolences to those who have lost family or friends. Fortunately, Oakland has dodged a bullet—finally—with only 86 Corona deaths across the entire county of Alameda (as of May 20th).
Amid this tragedy and turmoil, however, I do have some good news. Not only did cineSOURCE just celebrate its twelfth birthday in April, we published our 2000th article and garnered our highest monthly readership since 2018.
We also expanded our author pool. It now includes Debbie Brubaker and Bob Sáenz, a renown Bay Area producer and screenwriter, respectively, as well as the French journalist Alex Grardel and English media watcher Claudia Schergna.
Unfortunately, as cineSOURCE has expanded over the last dozen years, more than 1800 American newspapers and magazines have closed and 25,000 journalism jobs disappeared, mostly in smaller markets.
While this leaves a field day for corrupt cops, politicians and civilians, it also diminishes the diversity of our views and our odds of uncovering critical insights.
In such a fraught information arena, we now depend on bloggers, indie news sites and ‘zines, like cineSOURCE.
cineSOURCE championed Sean Baker (middle) and Chris Bergoch, now of 'Florida Project' fame, from the premier of their also brilliant 'Tangerine' at the 2015 SF International Film Festival (with their star Kiki Rodriguez, right), see article. photo: D. Blair
Indeed, over the last dozen years, cineSOURCE has shown itself to punch above its weight as a resource for both information and ideas.
In the latter regard, we have long advocated for radical multiculturalism, as opposed to the race-based variant, and avant-garde analysis, in lieu of hewing to established politics or perspectives. In sum, we mix it up—from topics to target audiences—to provide the well-rounded worldview obligatory to come up with innovations in trying times.
Indeed, I believe such ambidextrous ability will prove essential as we enter the circus of our upcoming electoral contest, which will be unlike anything in memory if not history, a funhouse of “what-about-ism,” where critiques are rebutted by listing opponents' faults, and its crazier cousin, narcissist mirroring.
What this means is that crimes are acquitted simply by claiming absolute innocence and that the accusations are an unmitigated lie fabricated by people, who themselves are sick, Satanists or perhaps even pedophiles. As strange as this may sound to the actually innocent among us, it has become a common argument among the astoundingly large number now espousing the PizzaGate and QAnon conspiracies.
Most respectable reporters as well as people are understandably befuddled by conspiracy theorists, with whom discussion is akin to attempting to squash a blob of mercury. But those of us long residing on the edge of economies and cultures or researching esoteric subjects or meeting with outlaws have had useful training and experience.
Hence the Conspiracy of Love.
After wowing the world with his cutting-edge performance troupe, Suicide Kings, Jamie DeWolf made the spectacular Oakland feature, 'Smoked' (2103), and many scintillating shorts, see article. photo: D. Blair
Drawing on civilization’s greatest tolerance traditions, the Conspiracy of Love is based on ideas espoused by my mother, Tonia Rotkopf Blair, who spent her entire teenage years with a Nazi boot on her neck, but remained a devoted romantic and humanist.
Indeed, I believe I can speak for all my colleagues at cineSOURCE that we are honored to debut our entrance into literary publication with Tonia Rotkopf Blair’s story “Stefan”, from her upcoming book, “Love at the End of the World”, to be released by a London publisher this fall.
In addition, we are organizing “The Great Oak Journey: Oakland to Oklahoma”, a car caravan through some of America’s great cultural centers as well as natural environments, which will allow us to test radical multiculturalism and the Conspiracy of Love by talking about it with folks living faraway from Oakland.
In fact, if nothing else, the Covid-19 pandemic proves that we are all connected, while the burgeoning economic collapse may confirm radical multiculturalism and the Conspiracy of Love.
At any rate, with cineSOURCE doing so well, despite the difficulties, I and my colleagues have a lot to be thankful for.
First of all, we would like to thank you—our readers—the 51, 250 of you who joined with us last month and the even more who may do so this month (please like and share articles).
Secondly, we want to show our appreciation for the writers who contributed two or more articles over the last year: first of all, Don Schwartz with a whopping 94, albeit short documentary reviews, but then Karl Cohen with eleven often extensive surveys of local and international animation, as well as Jerry McDaniel, D Swan, Randy Gordon and now Debbie Brubaker.
After going to Cannes with his first feature, 'Northern Lights' (1979), inventing a unique improvisation system, 'Direct Action, making over 60 features AND still at it at 80, Rob Nilsson fully deserves the title Enfant Terrible-Old Man of Bay Area Indies, see article. photo: D. Blair
Finally, our greatest gratitude goes to those who put their ideas into actions and subscribed since last April (to join their hallowed ranks, go here):
Edgar Ayala, Juliet Bashore, Nicholas Blair, The Camera Museum, Eugene Corr, Eve Edelson, Durand Garcia, Michael Gelbart, Ralph Guggenheim, Gary Halpern, Ashley James, Chris Johnson, Hubert Koenig, Legacy Festival for the Aging, Lisa Loel, Stephen Lowe, Anne Macksoud, Stu Sweetow, Mark Weiman and David Winterburn.
Someone has to take a stand for fresh views on media and culture—it may as well be us.
Eric Jacobus, writer, director, martial arts expert and stuntman, started in the small city of Redding, segued through Oakland and made it to Hollywood on sheer innovation and chutzpah, see article. photo: D. Blair
Doniphan Blair is a writer, film magazine publisher, designer, musician and filmmaker ('Our Holocaust Vacation'), who can be reached .Posted on May 21, 2020 - 08:07 AM