Gunas and Fourth New York City Greek International Film Festival

I went to several films of the annual New York City Greek Film Festival. I may add to this post and describe some, but not yet. I was disappointed in most and in the selection. I had a brief discussion with another Greek lady who had not seen the films and may be “more conservative” than I am, at least by what this socially connotes. Our conversation gave me the idea for this post.

When I went for several years to the School of Practical Philosophy, nestled between the Greek Archdiocese and the Iraqi mission, and across the street from Bloomberg’s house on 79th Street in Manhattan, they talked about sattwic, rajastic and tamasic energy, or the three gunas, I believe from an old Indian-Sanskrit tradition system. Sattwa is associated with the morning, a serene mind, classical music, etc. Rajas is associated with work, competition, mid-day, etc. Tamasic is associated with night, lethargy, evil perhaps, etc. Of course sattwic is considered the highest evolved energy. I tend to see all sides of things in a holistic manner. For instance being in a calm, non-reactive meditative state (which I was not with family recently J and listening with a smile on one’s face to Mozart is in a way an evolved energy. But we are on earth, and to me, to enjoy and be it all, which to me is part of being authentic. Although quiet mornings may be my favorite time, who does not want to relish in getting their tasks done, progress through work, sweating through dance, yelling when one really feels like it, and the like? Likewise, a sort of lethargic, angry, gothic, evil-sexual energy adds diversity to life and expresses energy within us (this does not mean to hurt anyone – that’s why religious beliefs are important). There can be perfection in the disgustingness of a scary Halloween costume, or in the sexy, gothic professor from Harry Potter, or a teenager fully being/embodying black clothes, piercings and tattoos if it really is, at least for a few years, the “real” him or her. I think in many cases, energy transmutes from and to each of these gunas, perhaps even sometimes tamasic to sattwic as when forgiveness if quickly granted or love dominates hate. I visualize it as a verticle cycle. Other times, energy is stale.

Given all this, I would not mind a film or two about infidelity, alcoholism, a sex party, a fight, money scarcity, etc. (not they are all necessarily associated in all circumstances; I am quickly writing this entry so as to get on to some other work), but I do not want every damn movie to be that. To me, that MAY show something about the overall consciousness of the ethnic group’s film festival. Now, there are movies I did not see, and many more that were not in the festival because they were not entered or picked. However, I will go with my intuition. Every movie I saw had some or all of these themes: infidelity; brother and sister romance; lying in business; male dominance; clinginess to parents; and other crap, including in one “The Business Manager” having crap fall on one’s face through a busted pipe. Now in some cases, this was needed as a metaphor. Some old ladies may have been disturbed with t4he movie Dog Tooth, for instance, where kids are kept at home, controlled by the parents, except of course for the boy who can have a visiting prostitute, who is later replaced by his sister. When she finally feels that there is something wrong (rightfully so), she tries to escape. I won’t give this away, but the way she does this (and we don’t’ know if she succeeds in the end) shows us that her mind is still controlled by Dad. (If we think about it, our minds are mostly controlled, but that’s another post. Who is free?) In this movie, elements which may be disturbing to some or many were needed to convey the message and it was done brilliantly on many levels. In another movie, Four Black Suits, a dead man was carried in his casket across the countryside. The destination where he was taken as per his will was heartening, but I did not need to see him carried across the countryside for more than an hour.

At the same time, I would have liked some, yes, good old-fashioned, classy movies. I am all about balance. Stay in the middle road or come back to the right if you are left for a long time, to still have balance. I went to Manhattan to see the movie Black Field advertised as a relationship between a nun with a wounded soldier in the 1600s. The scenery was great and he looked like a mixture between Brad Pitt and Jesus Christ, but lo and behold a surprise! She was a hermaphrodite. Now there is nothing wrong with that, I believe in civil rights, and the whole thing, but don’t advertise it as a nun-Cinderella movie.

Nisos, or the Island, was a great movie, although it was off to a slow start. Although it showed infidelity, homophobia, and shady business and political figures, it did so in a brilliantly funny, matter-of-fact, and paradoxically indirect demonstrative way to show how full of it people are, even in a small idyllic island society. Religious, police, political and education figures, the supposed pillars of society, each had major issues.

My favorite movie was surprisingly the military movie Heart and Soul, which I saw because the manager gifted it to me. I usually do not like military films and could leave early if I did not like it, as he suggested. This film about civil war and world politics was "high energy" through the first class acting, directing and cinematography.

The film about a transsexual and her father, Dark Odyssey, was not too sattwic because of the dream images of a squirrel, that lasted to the end of the film. To me, this symbolizes our calm center of the "real" us, composed of our childhood before too much baggage, and our dreams and desires.

Of course, America America with director Kazan is a masterpiece, and a long one. I did not see it at the festival event. Rather, I saw it in pieces at the Avery Fisher Center of the Bobst Library of NYU. Stathis gave a brilliant performance. I love his askance smile. I would like to know if he ever married the woman from Constantinople. Black Fields is an old movie. It stayed within the confines of what Greek film could be about decades ago. The father's character was somewhat unbelievable, being so jolly with his home open to his daughter's male friends. Some Greek men do have that humor. The mother was played brilliantly by Ariadne Zapnoukayas, the wife of Nicholas Zapnoukayas, who played the father. The character was somewhat cliche, but she went inside of herself for depth and nuisance, even though her facial expression could have changed a few times. She was an exemplary actress. The actresses playing daughters played well too.

That Monday, I chose a film from the Asian International Film Festival that was there about a once-rich New Jersey businessman who goes to India to sell his property because he is broke. He is kidnapped and a comedy ensues. This was a funny film full of nuances on human nature. It was pleasurable and well-done. Different topics such as this were needed in the Greek film festival.