SwiftSessions Blog

A short film shot entirely on a cell phone.

Greetings  Swiftsessions blog readers:

My name is Mr. S.  I am a student of Political Science and History.  

I will be posting commentary and reviews once every other week on various issues that grab my attention (hopefully you will also find them interesting).  The fundamental purpose of my doing so will be to foster reasoned debate, with the hopes of gaining new insights and revealing interesting perspectives.

I Hope you enjoy.

Regards, Mr. S.  

First, have a look at this article I came across (otherwise, the following will make NO sense)

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989987,00.html

Lets look at this from a completely scientific point of view first (and when i say scientific, I mean that all metaphysical and/or religious considerations be cast to the way side). That being the case, the option to choose hair color, eye color, or any other phenotype could simply be seen as a means by which we (the parents) can intervene in the course of nature. 

In the same way that a child born in, say, the 16th century with a common viral infection would have had slim chances of survival – the advancement of science has made this medieval tragedy non existent by today’s standards. Perhaps the medieval family saw their child born with this then-life threatening infection as ‘fate’, which would almost certainly have resulted in death – ONLY because there was no means of parental intervention – ie: effective medical treatment. Would the medieval family see our use of modern antibiotics on our children diagnosed with a similar illness at birth as tempting with fate?
(continue reading…)

Chaplin acted in, directed, scripted, produced and eventually scored his own films as one of the most creative and influential personalities of the silent-film era. In a review of the book Chaplin: A Life (2008), Martin Sieff writes: “Chaplin was not just ‘big’, he was gigantic. In 1915, he burst onto a war-torn world bringing it the gift of comedy, laughter and relief while it was tearing itself apart through World War I. Over the next 25 years, through the Great Depression and the rise of Hitler, he stayed on the job. He was bigger than anybody. It is doubtful any individual has ever given more entertainment, pleasure and relief to so many human beings when they needed it the most.”

The following clip is the conclusion from his movie “The Great Dictator”. He drops out of his comedic role to address the audience directly in a speech. I love how powerful and relevant his words are. But at the same time, it’s sad and unfortunate that nothing has changed since he gave this speech over 60 years ago.