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As you may or may not know, I’ve become somewhat of a Francophile in recent years; there are loads of French people in London, and practically every one I’ve met has been lovely. More than that, the French appreciate art and artists more than any other nation, especially compared to the British! When I’m in France, I feel a sense of belonging. It’s too bad I discovered all this after Brexit! So anyway, because of my love of France, I keep an eye on events at The French Institute in South Kensington, and on Thursday they held their 10th annual ‘Night of Ideas’, where they present a series of talks, dance and music, all for free!  Talk 1 was with Dancers; they talked about having no plan B, being fearless, and just going for it! Dance teaches you discipline and self-confidence, so combined with the fearlessness of youth, you get to where you're going wherever that is. For me, in my films, I need to remember how I thought when I was young. So many decades have passed, and so many failures experienced, it kind of blunts your edge. I need to be bold and fearless again!  Talk 2 was very contentious, for me, anyway. I’m someone that believes that war should always be the last possible resort, but this panel on ‘The Baltic Frontline’ was the most one-sided, belligerent panel I’ve seen, possibly ever! It was hardly a balanced debate, but rather the same old 'sabre-rattling' from the West, towards Russia. I love a recent quote from a former MI6 spy, pointing out that a continent of 500 million relies on a country of 342 million, to protect it from a country of 146 million! So obviously, Europe does need to get its house in order! 'We need to win the war!' Declared Marie Mendras, in a bellicose tone. She also labelled Russia as cowards! The debate lacked any nuance, or perspective. It was just plain propaganda! They kept referring to Russia as a dictatorship, but I know for sure that the UK puts more people in prison for things they say, or post online, than practically any other country on Earth! There was also the usual Zelensky worshipping. Let me be clear; Russia should absolutely not have invaded Ukraine, but I remember when Ukraine and Poland both hosted the Euro’s (football tournament), and how so many journalists exposed Ukraine as being the most corrupt country in Europe, and how there were groups of men that were openly Nazis! As a brown man, Ukraine was never on my list of countries to visit, because of such reasons. Yet, as soon as the war started, the media and the West, suddenly made Ukraine the bastion of virtue! Like most people, I don’t buy a word of their bullsh!t. Especially in light of all the unjust wars they’ve dragged us into, as recently as the past 25 years! (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria) And now the panellists are baffled as to why young men don’t want to fight in another war?! Fight for what?! A country we have no stake in? We don’t own homes, we don’t have wives and children, what are we fighting for? The machinations of the elites, who start these wars from the comfort of their armchairs, knowing that they nor their ilk will never face a single discomfort! These people are so disconnected from the working class, it’s laughable! Corrupt politicians, open borders and an endless stream of migrants who become competition for jobs, housing and services, are far more of a concern to people on the ground, than Russia! Finland is very war ready, in terms of population, infrastructure and military. Estonia is also prepared. The UK's infrastructure and population is very ill prepared. A fire at a single electric substation closed down the UK's main airport. We would not survive the kind of bombardment that Ukraine has survived, which is a fair point. The UK, as anyone that lives here knows, is a joke. There’s no National Security when it comes to our infrastructure, because of years of under-investment under privatisation; it’s all foreign owned too! The main problem is, the West has cried wolf so many times, it's hard to believe them anymore! The UK has instigated so many unjust wars this century, that even if faced with a ‘just war’ (whatever that is), we as the public, don't believe them! The panel, like the entire establishment, was completely ‘pro war’! Which is easy to be, when you’re not going to be the ones fighting and dying in battle. If it were up to me, I’d put all the people that want a war in a room and let them fight it out, whilst normal people around the world just get on with living our lives in peace.  Talk 3 was the best talk in my opinion. The panellists were all very well-informed and cut through the narrative pushed by the media, and gave answers that were based on data, not opinion!
The establishment is concerned about Gen Z mistrusting the media, but look at how we've been lied to! Covid was a scam that enriched the elites, Palestine is forever presented as the villain; the suffering and genocide of their people constantly justified as a rational response. The panellists get this. The idea amongst Gen Z is that the establishment is basically the new aristocracy: journalists, judges, government, they're all part of the same beast; a beast that only wants to sustain a system that benefits it. Young people get no benefit from society, so why wouldn't they turn to the extremes of politics, when those extremes offer them hope. One of the panellists said that picking out Gen Z’s voting intentions is sensationalist. There's no big chasm in voting patterns. The general population is moving in the same direction. The media talks about young men turning to the far right but the biggest trend is women voting green! But that doesn't suit the narrative. Actually, a lot of young men are also turning to the Greens! But again, it's all about the narrative being pushed, which is another reason why no one trusts mainstream media! Young people on the far left and the far right both share a distrust of politicians and the media and establishment, but how to solve those issues is what separates them. Generally speaking, young people still lean left compared to the rest of the population, so this worry about the young turning right, is overblown. The role of social media in polarisation cannot be understated. Social media takes complex views and complex people and reduces them to a single, overarching opinion. There's far more to a person, and an issue, than simply 'pro or anti-immigration' for example. The solution to so much mistrust at all levels, is to band together at a local, community level and change our local community first. A solution suggested by Rosie Campbell. We can't rely on politicians or the media to solve our problems, clearly! We must do it ourselves at a local level. Basically, there's a massive mistrust because there is so much inequality, and INJUSTICE! We don't live in fair society, and everyone can see it and feel it, and that's what is driving division in society! Bravo to the panel! They were hitting all the right notes!! That's the solution. Banding together at a local level. Build your community. If there’s strength and cohesion at a local level, there’s inevitably strength at a national level too. We’re too self-focused and atomised in our lives, and I hate to say it, but it’s completely deliberate. People are facing an ever more powerful ruling class, and even though we outnumber them by a few billion, if we feel alone, we behave in a way that confirms our powerlessness. If we come together, and act as one, we become powerful, and a threat to the powers that be. Divide and rule; the oldest play in the book, and one that continues to work on a global scale. Anyway, it was a great night! The highlight for me wasn’t actually any of the events, but chatting to fellow attendees; one beautiful French woman in particular. Too bad she lived in Bristol with her boyfriend! Haha!
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 At a time when humanity should be coming together, we seem to be drifting further apart; I guess scarcity of resources and the insatiable avarice of the elites will do that.
With the recent US intervention in Venezuela and Trump’s repeated desire to take Greenland, the title of this talk seemed more relevant than ever. Unfortunately, the lecture was about smaller oil rich countries, and more about ‘data’ than agenda or philosophy. To be blunt, it was boring, and reminded me of being at school, where you’re physically fighting to keep your eyes open as you doze off. The only tid-bit of useful information was the fact that global reliance on hydrocarbons is increasing instead of waning, meaning we won’t hit ‘peak oil’ for another two decades! The catastrophic effect this will have on the environment is unfathomable. We’re rushing head first into an irreversible catastrophe, for what? Man’s insatiable desire for money and power.  I can’t find the notes I made for this talk and I don’t recall much about it, but I do remember not being convinced that the powerful will ever face prosecution.
I mean just look around at the aftermath of the Epstein files; one of the most heinous crimes in modern times, attacking the most vulnerable in society, and zero repercussions for the perpetrators. What an unjust world we live in.  I attended this brilliant talk about the challenges facing ‘creative freelancers’ a few months ago, so I’ll just post the notes I made at the time:
‘Precariousness and insecurity of employment plague the life of a creative freelancer. On average, they earn less than 25k per year, which is less than the minimum wage! Consequently, there’s an inability to plan or save for the future: not being able to afford to have a family, not being able to save for a pension, not even being able to afford to date (especially as a man, where you're expected to foot the bill)! Unable to get loans, car insurance, mortgages, etc. Not to mention malpractice and exploitation! The industry has a reputation of being difficult to enter, so employees get exploited, as they don't want to lose their place, or the opportunity to enter; ‘if you don't do it, then someone else will!’ From a 'quality of life' perspective, it is absolutely NOT worth being a creative freelancer! Low paid, intermittent work is absolutely no recipe for a good quality of life. It's no wonder poor mental health is so prevalent amongst freelancers, especially in Film and TV. You pretty much need to have a partner with a 'stable' job/income, or you need to come from money. 60% of creative freelancers have no savings for retirement! That’s a ticking time bomb. The industry keeps going on about 'diversity', yet non-white creative freelancers suffer worse outcomes compared to their white counterparts in all aspects. The creative sector is worth £125 billion to the UK economy, yet if other sectors worth as much (such as finance or defence, etc) had a workforce plagued by even a fraction of these problems, you can bet the Government would do something about it! Is the industry so valuable, because exploitation and low pay are so rife? An audience member suggested. The good news is, organizations are starting to think about these issues, and what can be done to solve them. Also, universities are pumping out creative graduates year after year, and there's not enough jobs, so it's a buyers market. Employers can demand more for less, as they do. Universities should be honest about the reality of finding work as a creative, yet still encourage students to pursue their passions. 80% of the challenges facing creative freelancers relate to money.’ As a creative who has never had a penny to his name, none of this was new to me, when it came to my own life, yet I was surprised that the issues I’m facing, are faced by the majority of people within the creative industry! Especially given that it’s such a lucrative industry! One could argue that a career in the creative sector isn’t worth pursuing, but in pretty much all sectors of the economy, the wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few. We pay our taxes so governments can look after our interests and regulate industries to make them fair; clearly the massive inequalities in the world today are a result of weak/corrupt government. The question is, what are we going to do about it?  Let’s be real. The world of film can be very elitist, and film festivals tend to mirror that elitism.
One of the great things about the ‘London Film Festival’ is that they make it open and inclusive for everyone, holding many free events, with tickets allocated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. The talks I attended were in that vein, and were very good. However, I didn’t take notes and don’t recall much about them! The thing I do remember, however, is that a girl fainted during one of the talks. The speaker was discussing the visceral effect of cinema, when based on true stories. She showed us clips from films to prove her point, one of them being the scene from ‘127 Hours’ where the main character cuts his own arm off with a pen-knife. All we heard was a loud thud, and the audience member was laid out on the floor, completely unconscious! She’d passed out due the harrowing clip from the movie! The power of cinema ladies and gentlemen!  This talk at The Royal Society featured an Astronaut, who spoke about her experiences of going into Space, and was fascinating.
The main takeaways for me were that Space is really bad for humans! It has all kinds of negative effects on the body, such as muscle wastage, especially in the legs. The Astronaut made the point that disabled people may theoretically be better Astronauts than able-bodied people, because what if they didn’t have legs? Also, on average, an Astronaut will gain 7cm in height whilst in Space, because the lack of gravity means the spine elongates and loses its natural curvature, which causes a lot back-pain! She also floated the idea that there was accelerated ageing in Space. All in all, it was a great talk, that rid me of any desire I had to go up into Space! European Fragmentation and the Single Currency – Talk at the LSE – Monday 29th September 202521/2/2026  I say it to pretty much every creative person I meet: “Your input is your output.”
So take an interest in EVERYTHING! It’s term time, so that means all the FREE talks and lectures at London’s many universities are back on! The London School of Economics, in particular, has a calendar full of events, so definitely sign up to their newsletter! Anyway! My main takeaways from this talk were that, according the speakers, Europe’s economy remains sluggish, especially compared to the US, and definitely in terms of investment from Venture Capitalists. The speakers were all too aware of the demographic slow down in Europe, and were proud of the fact that Europe is an attractive destination for migrants, again, in comparison to the US and China. European leaders want to attract more migrants to fill the gaps left by an ageing population and falling birthrate. One of the speakers talked about the fact that European Leaders need to be brave in the face of unrest from their citizens, and was confident that they just need to ride out the storm. I was left dumbfounded to be honest. The powers that be, only have one goal: economic growth. The wishes of their populations and the damage to the planet (you can’t have infinite growth on a finite planet!) be damned. The economy is a Ponzi-scheme where you need an ever-growing base to funnel money to the top. If people aren’t having kids, instead of addressing the reasons and their concerns, just import people to ensure the base of the pyramid keeps growing. There was all the usual blathering on about the need for Europe to be militarily self-sufficient and less reliant on Russia for energy. There will always be money for war (they call it ‘defence’, but it’s the kind of defence that always results in protracted wars). So no different than the narrative that’s already fed to you by the mainstream media. What’s sad, having spoken to some students at the talk, is that there is a conformity of opinion: there was no sense of questioning the narrative being presented to them. These students will go on to become the leaders of tomorrow, and the status quo, the establishment, will continue with business as usual; and we all know that ‘business as usual’ only benefits those at the very top, the rest of us be damned.  This was a great talk with the screenwriter of Pixar’s ‘Inside Out’, ‘Meg LeFauve’ and her husband, ‘Joe Forte’, organised by the Gorilla Filmmaking Guru himself, Chris Jones!
Too bad I can’t remember any of it!!  I forgot to add this talk, because I’m writing this 8 months later, and am sifting through the backlog. There’s actually a few talks I’ve forgotten to post, but at this rate, I’ll never catch up!
So anyway, just going to post the notes I made in real time: Exactly.ai - An 'Ethical ai.' -isn't that an oxymoron? You train your own model based on your own work. Your model is private; sharing is up to you. A lot of people are already using it 'discreetly' despite some companies banning a.i. just because it's a wild west Suddenly, all emails are eloquently written, etc. The genie is out of the bottle. The tech is moving so fast, and the law is slow to catch up, or as in the UK, the law works for the thieves (i.e. the tech industry). Absolutely great discussion and absolutely on point. Shame we never see these types of debates on mainstream news channels. It's a literal free for all, with tech companies stealing creative work on an industrial scale, before the law catches up with them, and consumers using a.i. like it's free candy.. everyone is just so excited by it. The ethics are never discussed, let alone the carbon footprint. It's just accepted that the genie is out of the bottle, and we as people must adapt to it, as opposed to the other way around! Preventing a climate catastrophe is not compatible with the adoption of a.i.! But this again, is never discussed. Everything is driven by capitalism, and getting the most for less. Corporations would rather pay less for good enough, rather than pay more for creativity. The consumer, with its increasingly short attention span, is also happy to consume content that is merely good enough. We're creating a world full of slop! Of all the panelists, the lawyer, and the architect were most positive about a.i. The audience was mostly fatalistic. The fundamental question is, do the benefits of a.i. outweigh the costs, on a long-term scale. We're at the very beginning of the journey.  Once again, I attended this talk 8 months ago, so will just post the notes I made at the time:
The coming change is unlike anything we've ever encountered. The modes of managing change of the past, will have no bearing on the future... Mass unemployment by AI. One of the reasons for this is the mismatch of identity. There are jobs, but people aren't willing to do that work, because it doesn't match the identity of the person. Eg. Blue collar workers won't do pink colour jobs. Altruistic capital? Quiet quitting. Cost to productivity- because people feel like they're doing something meaningless. People WANT to contribute, but the work that we do does not stimulate our human needs. Is the purpose of law to provide jobs for lawyers so they can provide justice to 'consumers'? Is medicine there to give doctor's a job, or to give people treatment? People who work white collar jobs are intrinsically tied to the identity of their job. They want to be the lawyer or doctor that 'was' ..Now, that job has changed. The entire 'work' landscape is now dynamic. As a 'worker' you have to be adaptable and separate your identity from what you do. Kids in school need to be taught that. They have to be dynamic and adaptable. That means they'll have to be training and learning their entire life, not just until they're 21. Workplaces of the future won't be so 'top down' (autocratic) - it will have to be more democratic, where the relationship between workers is more peer to peer. But to get there will be difficult, as those at the top will resist it fiercely. No one knows what the jobs of the future will be: people have to be allowed to experiment, on the payroll! So much money is spent on 'restructuring' in organizations, and this 'experimenting' can come from those expenditures. It also empowers the workforce, and they're more productive because of that. The problem is, employers don't want to invest in skills that their employees can take to another job/organization. Maybe governments need to then step in. The future workplace MUST be flexible. Why not different occupations on different days? Monday's you're a baker, Tuesdays you're a teacher? People need to FEEL something from their work and their lives! It needs to be enjoyable and meaningful. So much productivity is lost to mental health and lack of motivation issues. The human psyche is fragile. Fear stumps cognitive function, including creativity. Fear of losing your job impairs your thought process. The challenge of the future workplace is uncertainty. How do we respond? Flexibility in jobs and continuous investment in learning! One company can't do it. It requires systemic change. Everyone, top and bottom, every company, needs to be on the same wavelength. |
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A chronicle of films, shows, and theatre I've seen, as well as books I've read, and talks I've attended. Archives
March 2026
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