Author: Matthew Westphal

‘Rocywood’, Gritty Homegrown Cinema From Rio’s Favelas

Named for Rocinha, with 70,000 residents the largest favela in Brazil, Rocywood is a production company formed by five young Rio filmmakers. Their budget per film averages around $50 (US), with favela residents providing everything from the cast to rented equipment to hair and makeup. “The films, made for locals by locals, are screened on the streets of Rocinha using a projector and an improvised tarp as a screen, but are also available on YouTube for a worldwide audience to see.” – Hyperallergic

‘Brexlit’, The UK’s New Literary Genre

“Brexlit is uniting literary authors across genres, settings and sales brackets. And unlike nonfiction about Brexit, it offers escape as well as insight: an opportunity to understand the nuances of Britain’s decision to leave the EU in a fictional world where, possibly, no such vote has ever taken place. Now, five very distinct and fascinating strands of Brexlit have been identified by [literature professor] Robert Eaglestone.” – The Observer (UK)

The Hero Of This ‘Hamilton’ Is The One Who Wrangles 200 Women In And Out Of 16 Bathroom Stalls At Intermission

Head usher Tanya Heath at the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia begins working her miracle with a talk like this: “May I have your attention, please. We are at minute five out of a 20-minute intermission, which means I have 15 minutes to get you into this bathroom. I’ve formed a serpentine line. And it works. It only takes about six minutes from that door to get you in this bathroom. All I need you to do is trust me and trust your sisters.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Square Dancing: Should It Be The American National Folk Dance?

“That question took us on a journey from Appalachian front porches, to dance classes across our nation, to the halls of Congress, and finally a Kansas City convention center. And along the way, we uncovered a secret history of square dancing that made us see how much of our national identity we could stuff into that square, and what it means for a dance to be of the people, by the people, and for the people.” (audio) – Radiolab

PS1: How An Abandoned School In A Gritty Queens Neighborhood Became MoMA’s Mecca For New Art

“Around 1975, the art curator Alanna Heiss came across a hulking dilapidated schoolhouse in Long Island City during one of her scoping expeditions for exhibit spaces. … Heiss, who came to New York City in the late 1960s, had a reputation for transforming old and funky spaces into dramatic staging grounds for contemporary and experimental art.” And with this one, she outdid herself. – Gothamist

Robert Evans, Large-Living Hollywood Producer Of Landmark Films, Dead At 89

“As Paramount’s head of worldwide production from 1966 to 1975, he was credited with helping lift the company’s sagging fortunes with a staggering variety of popular and often critical hits. … He was long considered one of the savviest production chiefs in Hollywood, but cocaine abuse gradually derailed his career.” – The Washington Post

World’s Largest Treehouse Burns Up In 15 Minutes

That would be why the fire department in Cumberland County, Tennessee ordered it closed seven years ago. Horace Burgess, a landscape architect and ordained minister, began building the 97-foot-tall structure around a large white oak in 1992, after, he says, God showed him the design in a vision, and he spent the next 12 years constructing it across the oak and well over a dozen adjacent trees. – The New York Times