waiting and silence is a new video on proost made by paul hutchinson and narrated by pádraig ó tuama.it is a 28 minute documentary, which explores a quaker meeting during an act of worship. it's perfect for lent exploring the role and function of silence and contemplation in our society. delighted to have this land at proost which continues to surprise against the odds with all sorts of creative content... there is a trailer here on youtube which gives the flavour.
if you follow the blog you'll know i am a big fan of silence - see for example the presence of silence
for the first time in a while the advent grace was nine, where we take the traditional nine readings from nine lessons and carols and invite nine people to choose a piece of music and do something else - a reflection, ritual or whatever.
this year was great with a whole range of contributions. a favourite of mine was the first ever contribution from dave and helena who are new to grace. they made this wonderful film to go with the reading from isaiah 9 about 'the people walking in darkness'.
we have quickly added this to proost so it's available to anyone now - it may be a bit late for this year but tuck it away for next if so!
song of the sea is an amazing animation - go see it! sadly lots of people think you have to have kids to go and see a film like this but this really is not the case! it's an extraordinary film. it's a beautiful tale and stunning drawing - worth seeing for that. but it's also moving and powerful leaving you with a lot to think about. there's a mythical tale that runs parallel to a story of loss with some of the mythical characters played by the same voices as the characters they resonate with in real life. brene brown would have a field day in relation to the numbing of emotions to avoid pain - which leads to numbness across the board. in the case of the film it leads to losing the magic of and in life. i have been reflecting since that it is song in the film that frees trapped emotions - and art has that power in a way nothing else does… anyway i don't want to spoil the story. but it's a bit like where the wild things are with it's parallel of max's life and the monsters on the island. the forthcoming pixar film is also set to explore emotions which looks fun (though the trailer suggests it won't succeed in avoiding clichéd gender stereotypes). song of the sea has 99% on rotten tomatoes 100% on flixster, mark kermode gave it 5 stars - so i am not alone in my being wowed.
last night i went to see the film chasing ice which was put on by ealing transition. it's well worth seeing if you get a chance. if you are in doubt about the shifts in climate, after watching james balog's time lapse movies of glaciers you will have a visual picture that is at the same time utterly compelling visually and will make you want to lament. it's what he calls the extreme ice survey. the commitment to place 25 cameras in extreme positions and conditions to take hourly photographs of glaciers is amazing...
james balog gave a TED talk in 2009 and towards the end of this you see some of the time lapse movies. it's well worth 20 minutes of your life.
i have been meaning to go to a gathering of ealing transition for a while so it was good to finally go and meet people and hear of local initiatives in response to climate change and shifting our dependency on oil. it's an extraordinary movement. one of the anglican 5 marks of mission is care for the environment. one brilliant way of doing that would be to join in with transiition if it's going on near you.
it was a great day at ADVENTurous yesterday - if you liked the movies shown, several were from proost and three were made especially for ADVENTurous.
elf issues and garbage garbage were both by jon birch and shown in the day
prophet(tear) and wonky donkey were both on display in the exhibition and harry performed wonky donkey.
if you are interested in advent resources on proost, have a look at our advent news which summarises lots, or click on the seasons button and search advent and/or christmas.
oh and it's been pointed out to me after my blog post yesterday that advent actually starts today - advent sunday - of course! so all you people who have advent calendars with a dec 1 or advent candles with a 1 what were you thinking?!
it's been quite a remarkable few months on proost. wonderful content has just made its way to us as if by magic! we've had seasons before where we've had to do much more searching it out. this month on proost we have two new artists which we always love...
tim dendy is a london based freelance video maker, vj and photographer who is in moot. years back we did a series of worship images in a video tape as it was then between the ground breaking collective one small barking dog and grace. anyway he has created 7 movie loops using time lapse photography that are really gorgeous - VJ Loops 4. tim's loops seem to blend both the beauty and fast paced nature of life in the city. if you look on the VJ loops 4 page you can watch one of the loops there. in keeping with the ever shifting realm of technology we have made these loops hd size - i.e. great quality and size.
then we have an album dark matter from a feckless boy. they hail from scotland and their music is soulful, aching and spiritual. there's something in the scottish soil that seems to cultivate this sort of soulful artistry in wonderful measure. have a listen to the preview track beza's song on the album page.
i have got to know jonathan simpson through his dad phil who is a good friend and who works at cms. his dad travels around asia networking, catalysing and supporting mission. his son has clearly caught the love of asia and travel and he is quite the photographer. have a look through the images on his web site which is a lovely site all round.
anyway these days if you've got a decent camera which jonathan has, you can shoot fabulous movies and there are several movies on the site as well...
jonathan has put a movie together and entered it in india is... - a competition to capture something of india in a short film. his movie is india is for skiers. go and have a look and do take the trouble to vote for him!
...we have a couple of new ones on proost...
noisy night is ideal for all ages on christmas day and complements silent night from previous years. noisy night began life as an asbojesus cartoon
immaculate mary is a spoken word piece by harry baker animated by jon birch reflecting on mary, an ordinary girl being visited by an angel
i have a new book out imagining mission with john v taylor which i have co-authored with cathy ross
