In 1986, The Surinamese military attacked the village of Moiwana during the Suriname Guerrilla War, killing at least 39 civilians, mostly women and children.
Above: Adrien Ajintoena, a member of one of the largest Ndyuka Maroon families, and a survivor of the massacre.
Born in 1909 – James Agee, American novelist, screenwriter, and critic.
Above: Robert Mitchum in the 1955 film Night of the Hunter. James Agee’s screenplay was based on the novel of the same title by Davis Grubb.
Born in 1909 – Eugène Ionesco, Romanian-French playwright and critic.
“Politics separate men by bringing them together only superficially. Art and culture unite us in a common anguish that is our only possible fraternity, that of our existential and metaphysical community.”
Born in 1928 – Nicolas Roeg, English director and cinematographer.
Above: Still from Roeg’s 1971 film Walkabout.
Nicolas Roeg died today.
Born in 1922 – Kurt Vonnegut, American soldier and author.
“I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.
Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ Day is not.
So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don’t want to throw away any sacred things.”
–from Breakfast of Champions
Mabel Nadine, born in 2006.
The Breath of God or When Mabel was Born
A day and a half of work,
and finally, you came. First
an ear, and then you.
Quietly, in the dark
cramped corner
of the kitchen, your eyes
told us not to be afraid.
We, lacking all experience
and qualification,
followed your lead.
But in spite of your assurances,
I needed further instruction,
and, as it happened, you had
arranged a private lesson.
When you got me alone,
laying your head on
my shoulder,
you sighed into my ear
the breath of life,
and we two were
living souls.
Born in 1971 – Sacha Baron Cohen, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter.
Above: Baron Cohen as Inspector Gustav in Martin Scorsese’s 2011 film, Hugo.
Born in 1901 – Robert Bresson, French director and screenwriter.
“Words should say in a film only things an image can’t”
Above: Still from Bresson’s 1966 film, “Au Hasard Balthazar”.
Born in 1945 – Wim Wenders, German director, producer, and screenwriter.
Above: Nastassja Kinski and Harry Dean Stanton in Wenders’ 1984 film, Paris, Texas.
Born in 1899 – Alfred Hitchcock, English-American director and producer.
“Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.”
Number 5 