AhmirQuestlove Thompson cleans up at 2021 Sundance for his ‘Summer of Soul’ directorial debut
Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), the feature documentary directed by the Roots frontman Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, won both the 2021 Sundance grand jury and audience awards in the U.S. Documentary Competition category. Drawing from archival footage that had been hidden and unseen in a basement for over 50 years, Thompson recreated the Harlem Cultural Festival, a massive music event celebrating African American music that 300,000 attended in the summer of 1969.
The film tells the story of the festival staged at Harlem’s Mount Morris Park on six Sundays between June and August 1969. It featured an all-star lineup, including Sly & the Family Stone, Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Max Roach, Mahalia Jackson, and Mavis Staples.
News broke early Friday that Russian dissident Alexei Navalny – a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin – has died in prison. “On 16.02.24 in the correctional colony number three, convict Navalny felt ill after a walk almost immediately losing consciousness,” the Federal Penitentiary Service for Yamal said in a statement, noting that emergency services were unable to revive him.
Navalny, a social media-savvy activist who led an anti-corruption protest movement of hundreds of thousands against Putin a decade ago, was poisoned with a nerve agent in Siberia in 2021 – an attack he blamed on the Kremlin – and flown to Germany for treatment. He later defied the Kremlin and returned to Russia, where he was promptly sentenced to 11 years in prison for fraud and other charges.
In August, a court dumped another 19 years onto his sentence for good measure, and in December, he went missing in the prison system for weeks amid concerns that he was being moved to an even harsher prison.
On February 2,2021 during a hearing that will determine if he remains in prison for several years to come, opposition figure Alexey Navalny addressed the court, delivering a short speech in which he maintained his innocence and condemned Russia’s political and legal system for corruption and repression. Meduza publishes an English-language translation of Navalny’s courtroom remarks below.
“I would like to begin by discussing the legal issue here, which seems to me to be paramount and a bit overlooked in this discussion. There are two people sitting right there and one of them is saying: let’s lock up Navalny because he showed up [to meet with his parole officers] on Mondays, not Thursdays. And the other says: let’s lock up Navalny because he didn’t show up immediately after coming out of his coma. But I would like everyone to remember that the essence of this trial is to lock me up over a case in which I was already exonerated — a case that’s already been recognized as fabricated.
If we look at the criminal statutes — your Honor, I hope you’ve already done this once or twice — we’ll see that the European Court of Human Rights is part [of the Russian justice system] and its decisions are binding. The Russian Federation halfway acknowledged this ruling and even paid me compensation here. Despite this, my brother spent 3.5 years in prison because of this same case. I spent an entire year under house arrest for this same case.
Let’s do a little math. The verdict was in 2014, it’s 2021 now, and I’m still being prosecuted for this. Why this case exactly? There’s a reason and it’s not because there’s some shortage of criminal charges against me. Somebody wanted me arrested, the moment I crossed the border [after returning from Germany].
The explanation is one man’s hatred and fear — one man hiding in a bunker. I mortally offended him by surviving. I survived thanks to good people, thanks to pilots and doctors. And then I committed an even more serious offense: I didn’t run and hide. Then something truly terrifying happened: I participated in the investigation of my own poisoning, and we proved, in fact, that Putin, using Russia’s Federal Security Service, was responsible for this attempted murder. And that’s driving this thieving little man in his bunker out of his mind. He’s simply going insane as a result.
There’s no popularity ratings. No massive support. There’s none of that. Because it turns out that dealing with a political opponent who has no access to television and no political party merely requires trying to kill him with a chemical weapon. So, of course, he’s losing his mind over this. Because everyone was convinced that he’s just a bureaucrat who was accidentally appointed to his position. He’s never participated in any debates or campaigned in an election. Murder is the only way he knows how to fight. He’ll go down in history as nothing but a poisoner. We all remember Alexander the Liberator [Alexander II] and Yaroslav the Wise [Yaroslav I]. Well, now we’ll have Vladimir the Underpants Poisoner.
I’m standing here, guarded by the police, and the National Guard is out there with half of Moscow cordoned off. All this because that small man in a bunker is losing his mind. He’s losing his mind because we proved and demonstrated that he isn’t buried in geopolitics; he’s busy holding meetings where he decides how to steal politicians’ underpants and smear them with chemical weapons to try to kill them.
The main thing in this whole trial isn’t what happens to me. Locking me up isn’t difficult. What matters most is why this is happening. This is happening to intimidate large numbers of people. They’re imprisoning one person to frighten millions.
We’ve got 20 million people living below the poverty line. We have tens of millions of people living without the slightest prospects for the future. Life is bearable in Moscow, but travel 100 kilometers in any direction and everything’s a mess. Our whole country is living in this mess, without the slightest prospects, earning 20,000 rubles [$265] a month. And they’re all silent; they try to shut people up with these show trials. Lock up this one to scare millions more. One person takes to the streets and they lock up another five people to scare 15 million more.
I hope very much that people won’t look at this trial as a signal that they should be more afraid. This isn’t a demonstration of strength — it’s a show of weakness. You can’t lock up millions and hundreds of thousands of people. I hope very much that people will realize this. And they will. Because you can’t lock up the whole country.
The only thing growing in [Russia] is the number of billionaires. Everything else is declining. I’m locked up in a prison cell and all I hear about on TV is that butter is getting more expensive. The price of eggs is rising. You’ve deprived these people of a future.
Everything I’m saying now reflects my attitude toward the performance you’ve staged here. This is what happened when lawlessness and tyranny become the essence of a political system, and it’s horrifying.
But it’s even worse when lawlessness and tyranny pose as state prosecutors and dress up in judges’ robes. It’s the duty of every person to defy you and to defy such laws.
I am fighting as best I can and I will continue to do so, despite the fact that I’m now under the control of people who love to smear everything with chemical weapons. My life isn’t worth two cents, but I will do everything I can so that the law prevails. And I salute and thank the staff at the Anti-Corruption Foundation who have been arrested and all the honest people across the country who aren’t afraid and who take to the streets. Because they have the same rights as you. This country belongs to them just as it does to you and everyone else. We demand proper justice, decent treatment, participation in elections, and participation in the distribution of the national wealth. Yes, we demand all this.
I want to say that there are many good things in Russia now. The very best are the people who aren’t afraid — people who don’t look the other way, who will never hand our country over to a bunch of corrupt officials who want to trade it for palaces, vineyards, and aqua discos.
I demand my immediate release and the release of all political prisoners. I do not recognize your performance here — it’s a deception and completely illegal.”
Court Painter is joined by AHM as the final stroke is placed on the canvas.
AHM Press Attache to Court Painter is often seen on his Sunday stroll as a hunched, plodding figure with his beady eyes firmly fixed ground ward. However this Sunday he had a camera clutched tightly in his shaky left hand in anticipation of hitting the magic button with the finger of his right hand as soon as an image of delight caught his keen attention! ( this in spite of the microscopic fibres within the vitreous tending to clump and casting tiny shadows on his retina.)
Completing his stroll ,he promptly turned the images over to Court Painter for artful rendering in spite of Court Painter’s dislike of working off photographs produced by amateur shutterbugs.
AHM joins Court Painter in the studio.AHM calls this one “USA in process of shattering” found on a wall during his Sunday stroll
The Court Painter Vestigial Digital Initiative (CPVDI) has undertaken the arduous yet rewarding task to digitize all of Court Painter painting commissions in an effort to preserve and share them with the teeming masses who have a voracious appetite for buying all kinds of stuff. This digital technology effort will make it possible to spread the message of Court Painter over land & sea & challenging terrain by promoting his precious images on fridge magnets, children’s lunch boxes, SMLXL T shirts, face masks, inner fashions, teardrop flags, fine art prints suitable for framing, indoor & outdoor posters, wedding table talkers, wedding belly bands, disposable place mats ,roller banners suitable for flying behind Piper Cubs, wrapping paper, strut cards and stickers to name just a few.
Dr. Missy Mayhem posing with ScanSnap SV600 scanner.
Dr. Missy Mayhem PHD an expert on all things digital has trained unpaid studio interns to scan the masterworks using a Fujitsu contactless overhead scanner. The ScanSnap SV600 scanners overhead design eliminates any contact or friction with the precious paintings being scanned. It proves to be the ideal device for such an exercise because of the delicate surface condition and age of the Court Painter works. It was also a technological leap compared to previous efforts, which used a combination of flatbed and wand scanners, stitching together photos from digital cameras.
Dr.Missy Mayhem poses mysteriously with ScanSnap SV 600 scanner
Court Painter’s spacious studio has come alive with the hum of many types of digital printing machines, including production printing presses such as sheet-fed production printers, cut-sheet digital presses, production inkjet printers and continuous feed printers.
Investor seen with Court Painter on the shop floor
Once scanned and processed, the digital images are ready to be printed on various substrates and value added products ,ready for distribution to prestigious upper crust brick & mortar sales outlets as well as farmers markets and (get this) online.
It is impossible for the naked eye to tell the difference between the original hand crafted painting and a digital copy.
Court Painter demonstrates the fidelity of the digital copy to the original
The CDVDI will operate as a public service and profit centre by making a digital record of all the painted works the Court Painter has and will continue to produce in his illustrious career as a celebrity painter who specializes in painting celebrities.
If this initiative proves profitable, Court Painter would consider skipping the messy painting part which requires a small army of apprentices and go directly to digital. Stay tuned!
The Court Painter Studio Enterprise is perfectly aware that the majority of subscribers prefer 140-280 characters of text to hold their attention., however for the historical record it is necessary to test the limits of that textual endurance and launch into a fulsome description of the significant change in Court Painter’s 2021 workplace direction for revving up the studio to maximize profitsand avoid hedge fund vultures!
For those who just like to look at pictures, Press Attache and prodigious picture picker A Hardon MacKay , has made a selection of outstanding past commissions meantto sooth the eye and create envy in the competition.
Calgary power couple entertaining at home.
Aglance into the Court Painter’s studio a little past 6 am in the year 2021 : Fashionably masked staff arrive by a studio-sponsored Harley with a side car that features cushioned banana seats and Wi-Fi; acoustically accompanied by the familiar yet distinct boss throb of unmuffled cylinders. As unpaid studio interns social distance in single file, they are wearing weekend casual khaki, plaid jumpers and camouflage clamdiggers, even though it is a Wednesday. The studio kitchenette has green juice and kombucha growlers, which are free, as are breakfast pop up tarts and lunch in a cup. The studio is lined with easels and screens where remote portrait subjects pop up as talking heads. The Court Painter ,with his designer scarf flowing in the breeze, imperiously roller skates past everyone. Then everyone scrambles to find an easel—no one has assigned easels here— paintboxes are put down, and freshly cleaned painters smocks whipped from designer back packs are donned and finally over-the-ear headphones, and turn up the EDM to tune out the world for the next 12 hours. Everyone to a person knows they are part of a fresh art world and crushing it!
Soundslike Silicon Valley circa 2009, right? Well, surprise—this is the Court Painter Studio Enterprise in early 2021. More and more studios are adopting the art work culture invented by the technology upstarts. These are not the studios where Frieda Kahlo or The Painter of Light worked, clocking out at 5 sharp, eyeballing the corner easel. There is no corner easel here—just “creative hot spots” and open floor plans, wide as the prairie outside the window.
Court Painter’s studio used to be a sweat shop, but at least it had a clear purpose. You wouldn’t hang out next to your easel, let alone spend time there on the weekends. Then companies like Google came along and reinvented the rat race into something with purpose and, along the way, confused work with the rest of life. Now, your fellow unpaid studio interns are supposed to feel like members of a tribe. Hierarchies have been flattened, conventional job titles replaced by ones like “Banksy” and “Freida.” The vacation days are unlimited (not that unpaid studio interns ever take them). And forget about work-life balance. It’s all about work-life integration. Why else would the studio have on-site vending machines next to the nap pods with a choice of low fat nachos, organic snack boxes and $1 a bag sea salt popcorn after 7 pm?
Thesefanciful ideas were meant to liberate unpaid studio interns from the drudgery of the studio where they produce all the work and get zero credit. (that is an expose waiting to happen) Instead, Silicon Valley ruined work culture—not just for people in tech but for Court Painter’s studio. (which has an open washroom, a bring-your-low fat hot dog-to-work policy, and a cook book by the microwave where all bring your own food is free.)
The hallmarks of Silicon Valley work culture have now spread. Court Painter’s studio has its own in-office escape room full of paint by number sets and ready for team-building exercises. It has a slide that runs between the studio floor and the outside alley—in addition to the requisite Ping-Pong, foosball, and pool tables. There is a built-in meditation space, an on-call masseuse for relief from the long hours sitting at an easel, stretching canvas or cleaning brushes. Then there are the seemingly generous policies around vacation days and time off where unpaid studio interns are given the option to take two unpaid Fridays off per month . This is not just to be nice. “We think we’ll get a productivity lift from this perk,” A Hardon MacKay, the studio’s administrative human relations officer, whispered beyond earshot of the nosy staff.
The Court Painter Studio Enterprise has continued to modernize by modelling itself after a tech company, including a shift toward the agile methodology favoured in the Valley. “I have made trips to Silicon Valley, to meet with founders and investors in innovation,” says A Hardon MacKay. “I’ve brought back workplace ideas that have revolutionized our art studio practice. This has assured Court Painter can have liquid lunches and afternoon naps without being harassed by disgruntled unpaid studio interns looking for guidance on every paint stroke.”
According toAHM these workplace changes are necessary to feed the insatiable ever expanding celebrity and political portrait commission juggernaut. A juggernaut that mostly hedge fund clients continue to feed in their belief in the investment value of Court Painter’s work backed by the marketing savvy of his trusty sidekick A Hardon MacKay.
An envoy hired to defuse tensions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous commercial lobster fishermen in Nova Scotia has released a bleak interim report highlighting poor communication and a lack of trust between both sides.
The report by Université Sainte-Anne president Allister Surette found perhaps the only thing the fishermen can agree on is blaming the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for the situation.
“The lack of trust and respect has been presented to me by many of the individuals I interviewed,” Surette said in his interim report filed with Federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan and Carolyn Bennett, minister for Indigenous-Crown relations.
Surette interviewed 85 people — 81 per cent were non-Indigenous.
As a special treat to accompany this exclusive dispatch, Court Painter is taking the opportunity to reveal unrelated random pictures that never the less are considered eye candy in some circles and considered a rest for the eyes for those who grow weary of the text.
Dispatch dated January 23,2021
Court Painter’s posts became the single most influential tour de force influencing the art media of the last year, the unpredictability that came to be relied upon even as they took a mental toll on the less talented, academically burdened and flat out cerebral tricksters that populate the shaded edges of the art underworld.
Rumours of banishment are travelling halfway around the globe faster than Court Painter can get his silk slippers on.
Perish the thought, but an art world without Court Painter leaves us with a series of questions. What happens to an ecosystem like the art world when the portraitist who represents both the centre and a source of certainty in aesthetic order is banished? On top of that, what consequence does that have on patrons and his 1% client list.
Art critics and other gatekeepers of the art world are convinced that, even as Court Painter’s influence continues, not much will shift with online potential sales. However , Court Painter’s power of persuasion is sustained by his unknown subscribers and the traditional portrait painters who proliferate and grovel in the sunless shadows of the art establishment. Banning Court Painter could have the paradoxical effect of emboldening his supporters or sending them to other less classy sidewalk renderers whose talent is close to equal but obviously priced too low for a discerning clientele that Court Painter attracts.The effect on elite taste would be incalculable.
As of this posting, Court Painter remains in large measure, a digital hermit—many tech companies have made substantial offers to attract his presence and imagery, from YouTube and Snapchat to TikTok—and chances are he won’t stay ostracized for long. Modest super art stars like Court Painter usually observe the norm of staying out of the limelight and not commenting on their competition, but Court Painter is not likely to observe that norm any more than he observes other norms, his Press Attache AHM was heard to say. “To the extent that he remains an influential 19th century style creative and opinion leader for the 21 century art world, the volume might get turned up even more than we expect. So you better watch out ,you better not cry, cause Court Painter has a painter’s eye and wants a piece of that capitalist pie!”
It’sthat very sense of defiant norm-breaking that gives a dangerous meaning to his portrait studio and its leading edge implications, the lasting effects of which have extended well beyond the rough & tumble of social media. The Court Painter’s last year can best be described and understood as a “modernist art crisis, for the blue collar crowd” which makes his ostensible role in our pictorial lives on the assembly line no less complicated than before. He may on occasion take a day off , but the repercussions remain.
“I think Court Painter’s output, for a lot of studio portraitists, was a persistent stressor for the nine to five practitioners .”(anonymous)
Court Painter’s pictures were often erratic in a way that fed digital native, ruffled collar and art world uncertainty, but it has been noted that even unpredictability, when it comes in a steady-enough stream, can feel more like sureness. With the threat of having him banned, many art groupies are experiencing a new kind of instability. As Court Painter advances to centre stage and as Breaking news agencies turn their attention towards him and his platform expands, to some extent it will be a welcome change with a swelling in certainty and will come as an increase in arousal for people, whose most passionate experience is a guilty pleasure attraction to a brush wielding alpha male who alas remains forever out of reach and in a condition of the unrequited.
“You can’t get to wisdom from information. You can get to wisdom only from knowledge. So confusing information for knowledge has pretty intense and real social consequences.“
Ayad Akhtar novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, for his play “Disgraced””His latest novel, “Homeland Elegies,” is out now. He is also the president of Pen America.
inconversation with
Anand Giridharadas ,Writer. @TIME editor-at-large. Author: @WinnersTakeAll, THE TRUE AMERICAN, INDIA CALLING. MSNBC political analyst.
