Justin Nisly

23% to the goal; thank you so much to everyone sharing and donating. Please keep doing so so that Archita can reach the goal and get some degree of security in this terrible time.

A grey bird with a long tail, red eyes, and a large bill with a sharp, striking casque above it.

A grey bird with a long tail, red eyes, and a large bill with a sharp, striking casque above it.

Two Indian Gray Hornbills in a similar pose next to each other on a branch.

A grey bird with a long tail, red eyes, and a large bill with a sharp, striking casque above it.

Indian Gray Hornbills still feel like dinosaurs to me. Four of them came by our flat today, biggest crowd yet.
#birds🦉

Give Me the Backstory: Get to Know Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, the Writer-Director of “Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears)” - sundance.org By Lucy SpicerOne of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. While we can learn a lot about the filmmakers...

Nice interview with Rohan Kanawade, the writer-director, here... Eager to see what he does next:
www.sundance.org/blogs/give-m... 📽️

Two men sit in the shade of a tree while goats graze in the background.

Like ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT, SABAR BONDA finds lyricism in concrete, specific political economy: Balya's family had to sell farmland to build a brick house, so he now earns from goats/cows which he grazes on commons, & works odd jobs as a driver/farmworker. Poetic, but precise. 📽️

Poster for "Cactus Pears" ("Sabar Bonda"): two Indian men face each other with eyes closed.

Bit late, but SABAR BONDA is the best Indian film I've seen this year. Bravura sound design rooted in its specific village setting. Sidesteps queer film cliches to give real insight into rural, working class gay life. Understated, layered performances from Bhushaan Manoj & Suraaj Suman. Lovely. 📽️

Al Jazeera Media Network condemns the targeted assassination of its correspondents Anas Al Sharif and Mohammeel Qraiqea, along with photographers Ibrahim Al Thaher, and Mohamed Nofal, by Israeli forces.

#JournalismIsNotACrime

BREAKING: Israel Killed Al Jazeera Journalist Anas Al-Sharif Journalists in Gaza continue to be murdered in record numbers, while Western media outlets and reporters show little or no outrage.

“How many murdered Palestinian journalists will it take for the mainstream press’s cowardly fever to break?” asks ⁦‪Prem
Thakker,‬⁩ in the wake of Israel’s killing of ⁦‪Anas al Sharif. ‬⁩

i'm hearing Mahler 5 live for the first time in years tonight. haven't felt this personally blessed by an unexpected programming decision since MAMI did a Straub–Huillet retrospective 2 years ago.

Yes. Teltumbde has smart things to say about the ways caste and class are entangled and mutually reinforcing in India.

Excellent piece. Caste is actively shaping the architecture of the city, in ways that directly violate the rights and dignity of workers.

The US is fully responsible for empowering Israel to intentionally cause mass starvation and death in Gaza. Palestinians have been sounding the alarm for years. Politicians sending concerned tweets only now will never wash the stain of atrocity from their souls.

As the genocide advances to mass starvation & daily murder of those seeking food, any & all actions to break the siege of Gaza are fully justified. It's not enough for governments to condemn, the only moral course is to use all possible resources to physically break the siege.

Du Bois on what these assholes were really like

Okay, but why did you go online and make an affirmative defense of Iron Dome funding? Do you believe the US should provide "defensive" weapons to every country perpetrating what you yourself have called a genocide? What do you think the "threat environment" is like in Gaza right now?

Instagram post from Mumbai Film Fest: Schedule Change. Due to not receiving the required permissions in time, the screenings of "No Other Land" and "Russians at War" have to be cancelled. (Timing details follow...) We sincerely regret any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for your understanding and continued support of the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.

Rumor is that MAMI couldn't find sponsors willing to allow them full editorial control. If true, sad but unsurprising in context of rising censorship: Jio dropped a few years ago after fights over programming. Last year Oscar-winning doc NO OTHER LAND was cancelled by government. 📽️

This is to inform you that the 2025 edition of MAMI Mumbai Film Festival will not take place as we are in the process of revamping the festival with a dynamic vision and a new team to ensure that the festival returns as a premier showcase for the best of independent, regional and classic cinema from India and around the world. We are working diligently to reschedule the festival and will announce the new dates for the 2026 edition as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding and support.

MAMI Mumbai Film Fest confirms what a lot of people have known for a while: there will be no fest this year. Continues to be shameful that the city at the heart of one of the largest film industries in the world cannot consistently support and sustain a high-level film festival. 📽️

When smoke and ash clouded Varnum’s east Willamette Valley vineyard growing pinot noir and chardonnay, he picked them the same day and pressed the grapes as quickly as possible to get them off their skins as soon as possible. Varnum eventually released his own series called Smoke & Mirrors: three different single vineyard wines—pinot gris rosé, pinot noir, and tempranillo—that all had varying degrees of smoke effect (Smoke), paired with three other 2020 wines made with a different technique or blended so smoke was not present at all (Mirrors). Or the three impacted wines could be bought together as A Pack of Smokes.

today's true fact about the US that sounds like dystopian scifi world-building: west coast winemakers are trying to make "smoke wine" aspirational because they have been throwing out entire crops of grapes due to smoke damage from wildfires slate.com/life/2025/07...

Loss of birthright citizenship, one of the best aspects of a flawed constitution, would likely be the full fascist tipping point for the US. Denaturalization of alleged state enemies will follow. As in India, very difficult to refute bad faith accusation about old documentation.

All of the smug liars who fomented the US atrocities in Iraq are still snug in their sinecures, so the mongers of our latest war of aggression against Iran are hardly bothering to pretend they believe their own justifications. Nothing learned, same blithe evil over and over.

YouTube video by clipseVEVO Clipse - So Be It (Official Music Video)

the song is as good as everyone is saying, but also i just want to point out that the director hannan hussain lit and shot the video perfectly, love the chiaroscuro faces www.youtube.com/watch?v=URlP...

Just to say it clearly: no war with Iran! Hands off Iran!

RE "NY is not a democracy": at some point journalists have to be willing to publicly say "that is a bad headline," rather than just deflecting with "doncha know that journalists don't write their own headlines???" yes we know.

yeah, kids hanging out together but isolated on phones feels particularly dystopian i think! losing precious social time... wish i knew of better solutions, but the attention economy is rigged for bad outcomes. feels a bit like one of those "easier to imagine the the of the world" things

Telling a city the size of Tehran to "evacuate" is just announcing that you intend to target civilians, but you plan to blame them for the fact that you bombed them.

@sharifjouddous: In Gaza, Israeli occupation forces killed 38 Palestinians seeking aid over the past 24 hours, bringing the total official number killed in aid massacres since the GHF began operating in late May to 338, acc to MoH. A total of 68 Palestinians were killed in Gaza over the last day.

That "aid massacres" is an instantly understandable neologism is obscene. Israel has blocked all aid to Gaza, and now they are murdering Palestinians who seek food from their own official "aid" sites. It would require immense bad faith not to call that genocidal intent.

The New York Times A.I. Avatars and the Brave New Frontier of Life After Death 2 days ago — After Peter Listro was diagnosed with blood cancer, his family decided to make a virtual avatar they can talk to after his death.

I remember in the aftermath of my mother's death I would dream about her every night. And every morning I woke up angry, furious, because that was not her. Just a pale imitation in my brain. I cannot imagine accepting a computer program as a substitute for a human that I love.

this reminds me of the time i saw "gone with the wind" reenactors in a park in berlin. very uncanny and disturbing.

hmm yeah that's interesting! i certainly sympathize with those for whom it's an addiction issue. personally, tho, i think if someone knows that about themself, they gotta turn off their phone, or avoid the theatre. we still gotta manage our symptoms, as i've learned in other situations

Antisocial theatre behavior is even extending to festivals now... Last week at the Kashish closing film, 3 separate people started surfing Instagram. 2 of the 3 had the decency to stop and act embarrassed when called out, which I guess is a better ratio than usual.

Former Obama and Harris campaign strategist David Plouffe just joined Coinbase as an adviser. Just in case you were wondering if he has any nonnegotiable values whatsoever.