Category: media

Women who speak publicly and challenge authority have long been dismissed as “shrill” or “grating.” What’s less widely understood is how the design of the technology that transmits human voices has shaped this gendered invective since the dawn of the broadcast era: everything from microphones to modes of transmission have been optimized for lower voices. – The New Yorker

As noted cinéaste John Waters put it, “Oh no! Where will old art movie fans go to see rarefied foreign films in the safety of a rich neighborhood?” And Film at Lincoln Center program director Dennis Lim said, “All these people lamenting the loss of the Paris, I would be curious about the last time they set foot there.” – The New York Times

Richard Linklater’s new long-term project is a silm adaptation of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, which traces, in reverse, the gradual, bitter estrangement of three longtime friends. Starring are Blake Jenner, Ben Platt, and Beanie Feldstein, the latter two themselves close friends since high school. – Los Angeles Times

“I’ve heard Blockbuster called “the Walmart of video stores,” which illustrates not only their sales strategy, but their history as an industry Goliath. Like the chain of retail megastores, Blockbuster achieved domination by muscling into new markets and putting locally owned mom-and-pop shops out of business with its deep pockets and seemingly limitless resources.” – New York Magazine

A new video titled Dirtiest Porn Ever shows us the basic sex on a beach — except that this beach is absolutely covered with plastic trash, which workers in Pornhub-branded protective suits pick up as the performers do their thing. Why Pornhub? Well, can you think of another site that has broader reach to raise awareness? (And with each view of the video, Pornhub will donate to a ship cleaning up an ocean garbage patch.) – Dezeen

Jenna Wortham writes about a set of recent films that “points a finger directly at the greed of empire, and at the deliberate and elaborate social construction of whiteness to oppress, to ravage, to raze, to devastate, to occupy and to conquer.” – The New York Times

Content, a seven-episode series produced by the other ABC (that’s the Australian Broadcasting Corp.), “is a comedy about a narcissistic millennial determined to become an online influencer, no matter what it takes … The high concept is that it unfolds in real time, entirely from the perspective of the protagonist’s smartphone.” – The Guardian

“An elite team of film archivists here is working to conserve [reels of film] as part of a years-long government program that aims to digitize about a century’s worth of Afghan documentaries and films over the next six months.” – The Washington Post