#cowboysinparadise #femtheory #wheresmyextracredit

@adelinekoh's been up to all kinds of good lately, employing Twitter as an engagement tool in her Cultural Studies and Feminist Theory courses. (I introduced Adeline in the previous post. She's an Asst. Professor of Literature up at Richard Stockton College, NJ.)

A recent assignment in her Seminar in Feminist Theory course required students to live-tweet while watching Eat, Pray, Love and Cowboys in Paradise. Translation? Use your phone during the movie, kids! All cool, long as you talk about second-wave US feminism and minority/international feminism. (More on her assignment here. Meanwhile, Cowboys in Paradise academic DVDs are still available.)

I joined the conversation too, hoping my involvement would earn me the minimum wage-equivalent of 10 cents for every #femtheory- and/or #cowboysinparadise-laden tweet. No dice. But I had a blast. And for all the #femtheory students thanking me profusely since, a 'lil secret: creators like speaking to an engaged audience about their work. So thank you.

A highlight for Adeline: when student @taraeckel commented "I love that even though Virmani says he doesn't think Cowboys in Paradise is an academic film, [sic] the issues are there. Shows how important these issues are in the world, and not just in textbooks."

Highlight for me? This warning from @AvaSTK523: "May or may not throw up. Most likely WILL. Finishing touches on @AmitVirmani essay..." (She has since said it had nothing to do with me, but with her deadline-related nervousness, thus taking away everything that was cool about her tweet.)

Special thanks to @JamesPomar for archiving the highlights from one of the live-tweet sessions.

'Borrowed' top pic from www.kellimarshall.net and this interesting post on Twitter and the College Classroom.

We have a trilogy

A new film competing at Cannes this year explores the phenomenon of European female sex tourists in Kenya. It's supposedly the first in a planned trilogy, but I'm going ahead and claiming it as Cowboys in Paradise, Part III.

Sure, it's not a documentary. And it's set in Kenya, which is not, like, a part of Indonesia or anything. But the film's called Paradise: Love. Close enough.

Then there's this still from the film. Different, but familiar enough to evoke memories of the original (see masthead above), damn thing screams sequel art-by-numbers. .

Mostly, I'm claiming the film as part of our franchise because it features graphic scenes and lots of nudity. That's what some said about Cowboys (before actually watching the film), and now they can have their closure.

Others had dismissed it as outright pornography, which brings us to the second installment in our franchise. You might know it as Koreana, the video of a white dude having sex with an Indonesian woman in a hotel room in Bali. The clip surfaced on the net around the same time as our trailer went viral, leading some in Indonesian media to call it Cowboys in Paradise, Part II. Naturally.

Review in Good Vibrations

Sexologist learns a thing or two watching "Cowboys in Paradise". Full review here **with potential spoilers**.

(Thanks to Dr. Martha Lee. And to HC for the link.)

Review in Yawning Bread

Loved this piece on "Cowboys in Paradise" in Yawning Bread. For one thing, it's a favourable review. Flattering, even.

Mostly, though, I'm grateful to Au Waipang for recognizing the film's efforts to present "the situational complexities and human frailties" surrounding its subject. Even if he had disliked the film, it would be enough.

P.S. What he overhears some audience members discussing after the screening is as mind-boggling as it is hilarious.

Overdue

Should have gotten to this sooner! My thanks to the following for listing our Vancouver screenings in print &/or online. We owe our decent turnouts to you.

Georgia Straight (Craig Takeuchi)

Miss 604 (Rebecca Bollwitt)

Schema Magazine

She Does the City

Westender

Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre

... and any others I may have missed.

On Triple R FM (Melbourne)

Interviewed with Paul Harris for his Film Buff's Forecast show. I was up after Joe Dante (Gremlins, Innerspace) and Bob Rosen (former Dean of UCLA School of Theatre Film and Television), and I remember thinking it was the wrong lineup for a first-time filmmaker. I was sure Paul was going to floor me with some question on film theory. Instead he got me with his Annabel Chong curveball.

(Recorded live at the Forum Theatre, 31 July 2010. Thanks JD for sending the link. It was awesome to see you again, and I can't wait to see your next film.)

Don't cue the porno music yet

artsHUB (Australia) published a review of "Cowboys in Paradise" last week. Curiously, there was no mention of the film being vulgar or pornographic. Oh wait, this reviewer actually saw the film.

Old talk radio

Radio Australia program from way back covers the controversy surrounding 'Cowboys in Paradise'. Features Bagus Sudibya, Vice-Chairman Bali Tourism Board; Richard Moore, Executive Director, Melbourne International Film Festival; Dr. Belinda Lewis, Senior Lecturer, Monash University. Windows Media required.

(Link submitted by Jonathan, Brisbane)

A national shame for Japan?

Interesting article in Nikkan Gendai, Japan's national newspaper, via Tokyo Reporter. Starts by referencing "Cowboys in Paradise" and then gets funny-weird.

I'm in no position to argue facts with a "pink" journo. Hell, I'm happy to concede I don't know how men in Bali elongate their tongues. But why are Japanese women traveling for "fun, fun, fun" a national shame? And relative to whom? J-men who travel overseas for similar purposes?

In the news

I'd post my thoughts on the recent controversy but I'd only end up repeating what I've said elsewhere. Here are links to some recent articles/clips on the film and related events:

CNN

Time

Sydney Morning Herald (article & TV clip)

The Independent UK

Vancouver Sun

The Boston Globe

Jakarta Globe (Interview)

Jakarta Globe (after they watched the full film)

Update / 2 July

L.A. Times

Film's not out yet, but there's a sequel?

Another Bali-related vid is in the news and online chatter. Titled Koreana Bali, it's an amateur video of a white man and Indonesian woman having sex in their hotel room in Kuta. For some reason, it's being referred to "Cowboys in Paradise 2". One TV channel even calls it "more vulgar than (the original)."

They haven't seen our film, of course. But it's nice of them to deem our film less vulgar than a private sex tape.