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REMINDER!
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: EARLY WORKS screens tonight 6:30pm at Close-Up Film Centre.
Intro by Second Run's Mehelli Modi

Currently on many 'Best DVD and Blu-rays of 2016' lists, our JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER EARLY WORKS is now just £7.99 at Amazon!

I appreciate the hard work Second Run put into this and I'm not done yet, but boy is this set super annoying so far. Usually I like Gareth Evans, but his essay is really trying to hard to be fun and wacky at least in the bit I was able to read before losing patience. I've only gone through the shortest of the films so far, but they all just come across as a college student's attempt to be funny and political in an Adult Swim inspired way without succeeding at all. Of those Postcards from Sun City, Arizona is the best in that its aesthetic choice is at least amusing. Land on Enchantment is also decent if limited by its runtime. It doesn't bother being funny and just lays out a few facts allowing the situation itself to cause confusion rather than Oppenheimer'sactive attempts to place confusion.

I'm hoping the longer films are better. Anyone see them yet?

I watched the whole set and wasn't especially impressed by anything, but I'm not much of a fan of Oppenheimer's "big" films (terrific subjects, but I find the filmmaking slack and callow, not up to the challenge(s) of the material).

I feel likewise about his first feature, haven't seen the second yet. I'll tough it out of course, but for now I'm putting this in the pile of discs I'm just supporting the company with.

Brilliant, had no idea this was a thing. Glad to see the Globalisation Tapes is included, I'll be picking this up right away.