A look at the recent job numbers from the White House. #StopKony video tops 40 million views – can going viral spur human rights? KPCC film critics Tim Cogshell, Andy Klein and Charles Solomon join Larry to review the week’s new film releases, including John Carpenter, Silent House, A Thousand Words, Chico & Rita, Friends with Kids and more. TGI-FilmWeek! Who invented Hollywood?
February jobs numbers look good, how’s your economic recovery?
New jobs numbers are out this morning, and a shiny headline comes from right here in the Golden State. For the first time since 2009, California's unemployment rate fell below 11 – to 10.9.
"It looks like we're going in the right direction," was the somewhat muted response from California's Employment Development Department spokesperson. The added jobs come from a wide array of sectors: construction, manufacturing, hospitality and more.
As for the rest of the country, employers added 227,000 new jobs last month. The numbers have been improving at a steady clip since last summer, although in February, the amount of people seeking jobless benefits stayed steady at 8.3 instead of falling as it has for the last five months.
How do these numbers play into the overall economy and the GDP? What does this uptick portend for the rest of the year? How is your own economic recovery trending? Are you out of work and still looking? Are you hoping to quit and find something new? Will good news mean more Americans will try to get back into the job market? Then what could be the adverse effect of that?
Guests:
Matt DeBord, senior reporter and business blogger for KPCC. He writes The DeBord Report for KPCC.org
Chris Thornberg, Principal at Beacon Economics
#StopKony video tops 40 million views – can going viral spur human rights?
This week, a non-profit called Invisible Children launched a many-pronged social media campaign designed to take down the brutal reign of a Ugandan militia leader.
The intent: to bring world attention to Joseph Kony, who, as head of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army, has terrorized northern Uganda for the past 20 years with killings, kidnappings, mutilations and torture. His reported crimes include abducting over 60,000 children and using them as child soldiers and sex slaves.
There’s no doubt that the campaign is raising awareness – Invisible Children’s half-hour video, “Kony 2012,” quickly went viral on YouTube, logging over 40 million views so far, while #StopKony trended on Twitter and flew across Facebook feeds as celebrities jumped on board to urge their fans to watch the video. And, as the film takes care to point out, their efforts spurred the Obama administration to deploy 100 military advisors to aid Ugandan forces against the LRA.
But not everyone is thrilled with Invisible Children’s methods. Their approach has been labeled paternalistic and irresponsible by many in the activist community.
They’ve been criticized for oversimplifying the issue and focusing more on publicizing their organization than solving the problem. Detractors have also pointed to factual errors in the film and a lack of financial transparency – both of which the filmmakers deny.
What’s behind the sudden explosion of interest in Kony 2012? Do the ends justify the means? Is there a right way and a wrong way to galvanize social awareness? Why has this issue sparked so much interest among young people in particular? Is funding the Ugandan military the right way to bring justice to Kony?
Guest:
Ashley Benner, Policy Analyst at the Enough Project, a project of the Center for American Progress to end genocide and crimes against humanity
Solome Lemma, Co-Founder of Hornlight, a web site that shares information on the Horn of Africa
FilmWeek: John Carter, Silent House, Chico & Rita, Friends with Kids and more
KPCC film critics Tim Cogshell, Andy Klein and Charles Solomon join Larry to review the week’s new film releases, including John Carter, Silent House, Chico & Rita, Friends with Kids and more. TGI-FilmWeek!
Trailer for John Carter:
Trailer for Silent House:
Trailer for Chico & Rita:
Trailer for Friends with Kids:
Trailer for Sound of Noise:
Guests:
Andy Klein, film critic for KPCC, Glendale News-Press and the L.A. Times Community Papers chain
Charles Solomon, animation critic for KPCC, author and historian for amazon.com
Who invented Hollywood?
One of the least-known figures in movie history is Colonel William Selig, who as early as 1890’s was deeply involved in the pioneering art form of cinema. Selig began his show-biz career as proprietor of a string of all-Black traveling minstrel troupes.
With the dawn of the new medium of motion pictures, Selig began shooting single-camera movies, developing them in his parent’s basement and selling them to vaudeville houses. His fledgling film business, Multoscope and Film Company, released its first one-a-half-minute film in 1899. By 1909, Selig had foreseen the commercial potential of films, and that Southern California was the ideal location to establish the new industry.
He pioneered across genres with a number of impressive firsts: the first two-reel narrative feature made in America; the first American movie serial with cliffhanger endings; the first westerns, jungle-adventure and horror films and the first newsreels. In his carefully researched and surprising new book, film historian Andrew Erish makes a strong case that Col. Selig truly deserves the credit for inventing Hollywood.
Guest:
Andrew A. Erish, author of “Col. William N. Selig, the Man Who Invented Hollywood” (University of Texas Press). Erish teaches film history and aesthetics at Chapman University and is a guest lecturer at the Los Angeles Film Studies Center.