Bicho ruim

(...) I learned something new about animal behavior last week, and it seems really timely. A reindeer cyclone is when a herd of reindeer facing a predator put the calves in the center and whirl around fast, making it difficult to impossible for the predator to pick off one reindeer. The more of us who speak up the harder it will be to persecute any single person who says trans rights are human rights or what’s being done to immigrants is terrorism. It’s not the only example from the animals. When threatened, musk oxen likewise circle up, facing outward with their huge horns, calves again in the middle of the ring.  Some say that murmurations – those beautiful flights of thousands of starlings undulating and pulsating as they whirl through the sky together – create flocks that are hard for predators to attack. There’s safety in numbers, which is why a lot of prey animals move in herds and flocks and schools. For those who dissent from what this new administration intends to do, we m...

Legendary Armenian filmmaker Artavazd Peleshian is set to release La Nature (or Nature ), his first film in almost three decades at an exhibition in Paris. Premiered by the Fondation Cartier, La Nature brings together amateur shots of nature, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and grandiose landscapes from the internet, juxtaposing the overpowering force of nature with human ambition. Texto completo aqui.

O que Vassili Grossman não viu ou não conseguiu descrever por palavras em Bem Hajam! talvez se perceba com mais clareza nas Quatro Estações , de Artavazd Peleshian. E o que Peleshian não mostrou ou não conseguiu filmar, talvez se consiga ver no livro de Grossman. Ambos, Peleshian e Grossman, são Sísifos, condenados a intermináveis trabalhos em tempos difíceis. Longos e árduos caminhos, com subidas e descidas, numa luta permanente com as leis dos homens, dos deuses e dos elementos. Mas a palavra correcta será “luta”? Os pastores arménios que deslizam montanha abaixo, abrindo sulcos por entre a neve ou as rochas, protegendo com o próprio corpo as ovelhas, não retirarão algum prazer daquele trabalho? É que, no fim de contas, há ovelhas, livros e filmes, vivos. Ovelhas, livros e filmes carregados de vida.