As part of Reclaim Hosting’s blogathon during day 1 of Reclaim Open Michael Branson Smith (MBS) and I presented about the “Joy of Podcasting” live on ds106radio. The audio below includes our half-hour discussion around how and why we started the Family Pictures Podcast, as well as sharing our process. What’s more, it ends with ideas and potential spin-off projects for the future. The remaining hour and change of the audio is us recording episode 41 of the podcast on Alfonso Cuarón‘s Children of Men (2006) —part of our 6-film theme focused on “Families on the Run.”
Family Pictures Podcast on ds106radio and Episode 41: “The Human Project Lives”
In the actual podcast episode we explore the dystopian chaos of Children of Men (2006), a movie that somehow feels more real now than it did twenty years ago. We talk about the film’s relentless world-building with details like the graffiti, the cages, the Pink Floyd pig floating over the “Ark of the Arts” and how every frame feels like a visual essay on decline. We don’t spend nearly enough time on the jaw-dropping long takes (the car ambush and the Bexhill uprising), but there’s a deep dive into memory, loss, pets, and why the idea of family hits so hard when the future’s gone missing.
IWDRM GIF from Children of Men
I even try and sneak in some of Frederic Jameson’s The Geopolitical Aesthetic to talk about conspiracy theories and urban uprising, but I never could explain his theory well enough to be cogent. Anyway, it was a fun ride for episode 41 that marks yet another brick in the Family Pictures Podcast wall
The use of “oner” shots in Children of Men is pretty amazing. What looks like a handheld camera oner following Clive Owen through a bus, across rubble and explosions, into a building, getting blood on the lens. Amazing. And horrifying and immersive. Horrifyingly immersive. And the scene with the standoff by Michael Caine, then realizing he’d already cared for his wife because he knew how this was going to end. Gut wrenching.
I remember back in the early days of blogging yopu talking about how much you loved this film which pushed me to see it, so there is that, D’Arcy. You are always with me….footprints in the sand!
And then there was only one set of footprints. You were carrying me, Bava.
Coincidentally, the last cabin scene just came on. “Come on, pull my finger. Alright, I’ll do it myself then.” Oof.
That was a thrill to hear you and Michael talk about the process and then slide into a real recording. You nailed the surreal reality in how it was eerily real when it came out and more so now. I think I saw it a year or two ago on a long plane trip and still so damn good.
Loved that you tossed in the IWDRM of Clive Owen which had such a parallel to the one of Jeff Bridges leg wave from Big Lebowski. Talking about cinemagifs in that earlier session was a warm memory to how fulfilling it was to explore and build them. Makes me want to try again.
Hi Alan,
Do the live recording on ds106radio was a total blast. I think we might work that into our workflow because we are getting pretty good at them after 41 episodes! The real joy of podcasting is the long game of locking in with someone and doing that regular dance around an object of shared desire. This session was so easy because after so many episodes it has become so natural—that’s a real gift and very much that sense of a “moment” that Todd was talking about in the ds106 session. The moments come and go, enjoy them while you can.