Scene4 Magazine | the readers blog

Your portrait of the ballet world in Brazil is very revealing and inspirational. I appreciate the personal up-close portraits of these young dancers and how they look at themselves and the world at large. Ballet is still an international art form of beauty and meaning and these young women represent that.
Madeline Amos
read Andrea Carvalho Stark's article

Elliot, your comics are art and media by themselves, call it "Scene5." Keep it up, bro.
manga
see Elliot Feldman's latest comic

And we've been sitting on the "never" spike for the past eight years, haven't we! Get the bidets ready for November, there's a lot to clean.
a not-so innocent Manhattanite
read Arthur Meiselman's article

Thank you Scene4 for another beautifully presented, provocative issue. You are one of the best kept secrets on the internet and in journalism as well.
Louis Laird
read the April 2008 issue

Oh how I sympathize (empathize?) with you. You get it and you get it so right especially when you deal with the nightmare on stage. Makes one want to go bald and just use wigs and hairpieces. It's all about staying strong and being yourself, right? That's how I get it.
Ms T.B.
read Claudine Jones' article

Parabéns pela matéria com as alunas brasileiras, realmente são uns talentos, todas as três. E participo que essa linda foto da Christiane Pegado é de minha autoria, sou fotógrafo e trabalho diretamente com o ballet classic. Adorei a matéria. Parabéns!
Carlos Veras
Leia o artigo da Andrea Carvalho Stark

So there is this Swedish lady who carried a feather across the globe to find the rightful owners of the sacred symbol? It is indeed a very touching story, despite the fact, that one person does not represent the entire Europe. Europe is a continent consisting of 48 countries (49 if you include Vatican City) and 230 spoken languages. And each of these countries has a history, a culture; they have TV, newspapers, schools and Universities. I don't know if the population in Sweden believes "that Native Americans don't even exist", buy maybe one shouldn't fall into clichés? Maybe Annika Banfield can plan a trip through Europe in the near future to explore all these "culturally starving Europeans" (this time without a feather, but an open mind) before returning to her Danish sweat lodge? Which reminds me, that Sweden and Denmark are two completely different countries.
Andrea Kapsaski
read Carole Quattro Levine's article

She's a wonderful Giselle, different from Feijoo but as commanding. Yes she's tiny but on stage she's colossal. I hope SF Ballet can keep her for a long time. Your interview is fine, thank you.
Martin Vistiz
read Catherine Conway Honig's article

It's good to see the Swedes over there doing some good. Or, are they? When, I was first contacted by Paula Horn then introduced to Annika and Folke, the two Swedish filmmakers, it was with good intention to talk and get to know each other by phone and email. Then a contract was made by the Swedes stating that I had the rights to the movie in the U.S. No money was going to be made from it. There would be a Native version, as well as a Swedish version. Annika stated her only intention was too show it over in Europe to educate people on what not to do and I would have a say in the direction of the story. So far, the documentary has been shown in the U.S. but they left me out in any say. Broke the contract and disrespected the Minicojou Lakota people of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. My name is Jerry Clown, descendant of Crazy Horse, co-producer of the award-winning documentary, "Riding with Ghosts" You are being fooled because they are exploiting themselves.
Jerry Clown
read Carole Quattro Levine's article

I don´t think this is the right forum for solving legal or economical issues. But the fact is that the producers of "Spirits for Sale" are getting increasingly tired of threats and slander, hearing about film festivals getting threatened and attempts to intimidate reputed spiritual leaders. All this done by one single man.
Jerry Clown was introduced by Paula Horne since he had promised to finance our film. We made an agreement with Mr. Clown. He promised to invest in the film, we promised that if he did so, he would be a co-producer with the rights to the film in the US. (Making one version for Natives and one for Europe has never been an option. There has been no discussions about making the film "for free". ) Mr. Clown never invested a cent but instead had us pay for him and his girlfriend during the two weeks he worked with us in SD. All the costs have been paid by me and the producer out of our own money. So obviously it was a disappointment when Mr. Clown broke the agreement. The "contract" Mr. Clown refers to is an application for money, written to a foundation for filmmakers. It states that Mr. Clown will be the co-producer if and when he invests in the film. It is not signed by the production company. We did not get any money from the foundation and Mr. Clown did not invest, thereby he is not a co-producer. I have an agreement with Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Lakota Nation that my profit from the film will go back to him and to poor elders on the reservations in South Dakota. Mr. Clown knows this, yet tries to prevent us from selling it in the US by intimidating people and organizations. It is my obligation to stand up for the elders in SD and to keep my promise to Mr. Looking Horse.
We would like to thank Mr. Clown for his help during the shootings in SD. Credit has been given to him in the film. We kept our promise to Mr. Clown - to send him the finished film - and we have paid him for his work. Further more, in helping Mr Clown to make his own version of the subject, we supported him with 8h of filmed material. This material is still free for him to use by courtesy of the Swedish production company.
The attempts to discredit the film and the filmmakers also fall back on all the elders, spiritual leaders and traditionalists who have supported us in the making of this film.

Annika Banfield, co-producer
Folke Johansson, producer

read Carole Quattro Levine's article

Amen! Please make a print edition.
Anee W.
read the April 2008 issue