Joseph Long

The Trap of Saving Cambodia -- 'It's the most dangerous country you'll ever visit, because you'll fall in love with it...and then it will break your heart'. That quote by former US Ambassador to Cambodia Joseph Mussemelli sums up the conundrum that is Cambodia in the powerful new documentary film 'The Trap of Saving Cambodia', which is creating long-overdue international dialogue about the dilemma facing America and the world. The film follows NGO leader American David Pred who is trying to put a global spotlight on troubling issues facing this country: government sponsored forced evictions; corruption on a massive scale; the underground trafficking of women and children. Equally disturbing, could the World Bank, joined by global superpowers such as the United States and China, be funneling billions of dollars in aid to this repressive government- which is referred to globally as an international criminal enterprise - with little or no accountability? History will remember the KhmerRouge and their notorious Killing Fields that followed the Viet Nam war as one of civilization's darkest moments. Genocide on a grand scale, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians perished. Could the monsters whohelped orchestrate that horror still be playing a dominating role in today's Cambodian government? 'The Trap of Saving Cambodia' serves as a wake-up call to the world, and forces us to question our role in what is really happening in this beautiful, tradition-rich corner of Southeast Asia.

Joanne's not hung up on height though she'd hate for Joseph to lose an arm wrestling match.

The Monomyth (often referred to as 'the hero's journey') is a description of a basic pattern found in many narratives from around the world. This universal pattern was described by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). A noted scholar of novelist James Joyce, Campbell borrowed the term monomyth from Joyce's Finnegans Wake. Campbell's insight was that important myths from around the world which have survived for thousands of years, all share a fundamental structure. In a well-known quote from the introduction to The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell wrote: ? A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.? The monomyth has influenced a number of artists, musicians, poets, and filmmakers, including Bob Dylan and George Lucas. Mickey Hart, Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead had long noted Campbell's influence and agreed to participate in a seminar with him in 1986 entitled From Ritual to Rapture. Campbell's work has been consciously applied by a wide variety of modern writers and artists, for example, in creating screenplays for movies. The best known is perhaps George Lucas, who has acknowledged a debt to Campbell regarding both the original Star Wars trilogy and its prequels.

Loud music. Pornography. Burning stuff to the ground. These are a few of Hesher's favorite things. And they are what Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) brings into the lives of 13-year-old TJ (Devin Brochu) and his father, Paul (Rainn Wilson) when he unexpectedly takes up residence in their garage uninvited. Told through the eyes of TJ, HESHER is a dark fairy tale about an eccentric unhinged drifter who appears out of nowhere to help a struggling family deal with loss in the most unconventional of ways. TJ is simply going through the motions of his daily life, quietly grieving throughout each day, until Hesher arrives like a force of nature, not stopping for anything in his path. Paul is also so grief-stricken the he can't muster the strength to evict the strange squatter, and soon the long-haired, tattooed Hesher becomes a fixture in the household. Hesher also befriends TJ's grandmother (Piper Laurie), who lives with them. She's extremely lonely as her son and grandson are unable to snap out of their fog. When Hesher arrives and appreciates her cooking and listens to her stories, it's as though she found a new friend, under very odd circumstances. The only friend TJ really has is Nicole (Natalie Portman), who is a supermarket cashier who comes to TJ's rescue when he first encounters Hesher. They have an odd relationship that's based, in part, on TJ's infatuation with Nicole. Although initially a rather terrifying character, over time Hesher's anarchy shakes the family out of their grief and helps them embrace life once more.