Back to the long late office hours

These are strange August days. Not as strange as last year's, but still.

Insomniac

2 nights in Iasi, over the weekend, followed by 1 good night's sleep, and then another insomia. I can think of happier times. Also noticing this makes me ill-tempered,if not outright furious. I somehow expected that age would diminish my sleep requirements, yet this has yet to happen.

Leaving Timisoara

A wonderful quote from A Goldsmith of Words: “We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.” Amadeu de Prado died in 1973 of the rupture of an aneurysm in his brain, of which he’d been long aware.

From here.

Good for a drive, though

Laser-beam eyes?!

Well, who cares, but my tiny car likes this on a September Friday night.

1 train trip, 2 documentaries, [nearly] 3 hours each

1. Sex Traffic [2004]: recommended by my Refugee course coordinator, it's been one of the toughest films I've seen in the recent past.
The plot outline -although well and comprehensively written- couldn't possibly reveal all there is to this story:

Boston based Kernwell Industries is an American defense contractor. One of those contracts is to deploy 3,000 peacekeepers to the International Peacekeeping Coalition's work in the Balkans. Because of the near epidemic problem of sex trafficking of young Balkan women, Kernwell has decided to support the charity, Worldwide Federation Against Forced Migration. Kernwell's head of charities is Madeleine Harlsburg, the wife of the company's CEO, Tom Harlsburg. Although it does not have a pristine reputation as a good social corporate citizen, Kernwell hits a bigger public relations problem when it is learned that one of those 3,000 peacekeepers was caught trying to buy the services of a teen-aged prostitute in Sarajevo. Although not named to the media, that person is Sergeant Callum Tate, who swears he was trying to save that woman. In reality, Tate has evidence of a larger conspiracy of sex trafficking. Regardless of the truth or falsehood of accusations, some within Kernwell will do whatever they require to protect their organization's brand. Meanwhile, the Moldovan Visinescu sisters - Lena and Vara - believe they are moving to London with Vara's boyfriend Alexi to lead a better life to be able to send money back to support their mother and Lena's infant son. However, they soon learn that Alexi has instead sold them into a white slavery ring. Speak For Freedom, a London-based non-profit organization, works in many areas including monitoring sex trafficking in order to assist authorities in stopping it. Daniel Appleton, one of its employees, gets involved in trying to save the Visinescus.

[Taken from the IMDb, here.]

2. When the Road Bends: Tales of a Gypsy Caravan [2006]: a very different story, which I've nevertheless appreciated quite a bit. Though not certain who exactly recommended it to me, I recall having planned to watch it for a while now, and well, today was the day. And I was glad that it managed to [at least slightly] counterbalance the previous documentary's heavy effects.

Shot by legendary cinematographer Albert Maysles, this dynamic musical documentary follows five Gypsy bands from four countries who unite for the Gypsy Caravan as they take their show around North America for a six-week tour, astounding every audience they meet. Their musical styles range from flamenco to brass band, Romanian violin to Indian folk. And with humor and soul in their voices, they celebrate the best in Gypsy culture and the diversity of the Romani people in an explosion of song and dance.
As the film follows the amazing performances and behind-the-scenes action from the tour created by World Music Institute, we discover the real lives of these musicians. We visit Macedonia, Romania, India and Spain, meet their families and see what music brings to their lives. The tales of these characters are woven between their performances - allowing us to understand and celebrate Romani culture and the prejudice of their shared ancestry.
The "Gypsy Caravan" tour extravaganza features performances by Macedonian diva and "Queen of the Gypsies" Esma Redzepova, traditional Indian folk troupe Maharaja, Romanian Fanfare Ciocarlia, the violin wizardry of Romanian group Taraf de Haidouks and the Antonio El Pipa Flamenco Ensemble.

[as described on the IMDb, here]

Tagline: "They Changed The Way Campaigns Are Won." [1993]

Finally seen it! Yesterday night was the dedicated night - and here I am, sharing it with the world:
It was The War Room, and here's its IMDb entry and here the Wiki one.

At the start of the 1992 Democratic primaries, D.A. Pennebaker, a revered documentary filmmaker, pitched the idea to the Clinton Campaign to allow for access into the campaign strategy sessions [...]. The Clinton campaign agreed, and allowed Pennebaker to focus on Communications Director George Stephanopoulos as well as Lead Strategist James Carville. [...]
There was a media revolution during the 1992 presidential campaign. The Clinton camp embraced the new news phenomenon while the rest of the country was being flooded with character, competence, and image press rather than platform and political information. The 1992 campaign exemplified the shift of United States political coverage from platform information and traditional press to what it is today: a character and celebrity focused popularity contest. Voters were getting their information from outlets such as late night talk shows, Donahue and MTV. Citizens were gaining perceived knowledge from these outlets and feeling satisfied that they had the information they needed to vote. Many argue that voters were not receiving important information about candidates’ platforms but because of their perceived knowledge, voters were not seeking additional information.
The historical context surrounding this film is important to note because the film is intertwined with history: the access granted to the filmmakers was unprecedented and the type of campaign the Clintons were running was entirely new, especially by focusing on the new news. The War Room not only documents the campaign history as it unfolds but it makes history in its access to the campaign.

To me, both James Carville and George Stephanopoulos are simply brilliant after having watched this: Just take a look at the Quotations section on Carville's page :)

Here's a taste: