THE PHILADELPHIA JUNTO.: Justine Time

Saturday 10 June 2006

Justine Time

Travel Notes:

Justine in Nemrut Dag, Turkey Justine in Burkina Faso Justine riding an ostrich in South Africa		Justine Shapiro was born in South Africa and grew up in Berkeley, California, where she lives today with her young son. She attended Tufts University in Boston where she studied history and theater. She moved to Paris to study theater with Phillippe Gaulier and later went to Hollywood where she appeared in films and television movies including "I'll Do Anything (by James L. Brooks), "Storyville" (20th Century Fox), "Floodtide" (Granada Television), and "SeaQuest DSV" (Amblin Entertainment). During four years in Los Angeles, Justine taught English to immigrants, and their stories inspired her to take the next step in her life. Justine returned to the San Francisco Bay area and became involved in several documentary projects, including Voices from the Storm about Gulf War veterans and IDG Film's Nagasaki Journey. In 1995, Justine began producing an independent documentary film titled Promises, featuring seven Israeli and Palestinian children in Jerusalem. Rather than focusing on hard news, "Promises" offers a human portrait of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The film was nominated for a 2002 Academy Award for best documentary. It won News and Documentary Emmys for best documentary and for outstanding background/analysis. The film also received audience awards at the San Francisco, Vancouver, Sao Paolo and Rotterdam film festivals, as well as juried awards at the Hamptons, Valladolid, Locarno, Munich and Jerusalem film festivals. With Globe Trekker, Justine has nearly conquered her fear of flying as the show has taken her all over the world. Justine loves to travel and has explored much of Europe, Israel, Mexico, Morocco, and the Palestinian territories on her own. She speaks French and Spanish.

Justine Shapiro Quotes Travel philosophy "I think that the way to connect with other "distinct" cultures is to go with an open heart and spend time with the locals. Many travelers spend time within the glass bubble of the resort or the hotel or the organized tour. People are the same the world over and the only way to experience this is to spend time with the people." "You go some place and suddenly behold a landscape you've read about but never seen before. I feel that that's the most exciting experience. Just like I don't want someone to tell me what a movie's about, I want to see it for myself." "I believe that it's only when you read, travel, and talk to people that you can come to realise that the things you've taken for granted all your life aren't necessarily right. People think that when they travel somewhere they're going to go and learn about that place. I think what happen a lot is that people go and learn about themselves." "Just as long as they keep an open mind, put thought into how they choose to spend their money and leave their preconceptions at home, then travel can be a wonderfully enlightening experience, both for the backpacker and the people they run into along the way." Good and bad food "The strangest thing I've ever eaten are live jumiles (beetles) in Mexico." "You'd be amazed what you do when a camera is pointing at you and the fact is that many people do believe in the "enhancing" properties of snake blood so I had to try it. My philosophy is: if it ain't gonna kill me, I might as well try it." Favourite places " India is a place that turns all your notions upside down and wakes you up to the many other ways of perceiving time, life, and spirituality." Sound advice "Mali is a beautiful wonderful country and the Dogon Escarpement is impressive. Make sure you don't go when there are wind storms and bring photos of yourself and family to show to the families there. They love to see where you come from. Postcards from your country also make a great gift." Worst experience "The scariest thing was not on a GT shoot. I was camping in Baja California, high up in the mountains in the middle of no where and in the river beds where the cave paintings are. There was a flash flood at 11PM. That was friggin' scary. The water rose so incredibly fast and there were about eight of us and eight mules backing up against the cave walls hoping the water would stop. It finally did at 5 AM. Not fun!"

BROADSTREETREVIEW.COM INDEX

Articles by Richard Carreño
Diego Rivera's ghost in Detroit October 15 2013 The city of Detroit may be broke, but the Detroit Institute of Arts owns $2 billion worth of art works. Its most valued pieces, by the Communist Diego Rivera, portray heroic workers triumphing over stoic managers. In the best capitalist tradition, Rivera’s frescoes are now being held hostage by a pair of union-busting Republican politicians.

Dissecting West’s ‘Death of General Wolfe’ August 06 2013 Benjamin West’s Death of General Wolfe was once a hallowed symbol of British imperialism. Now it’s been hijacked by Canadians, whose supply of national icons is otherwise limited. National Gallery of Canada. 380 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. www.gallery.ca/en.

Pittsburgh’s culture quest July 24 2012 The Mellons and the steel mills are gone, but Pittsburgh today boasts first-class museums, music, theaters and universities. The trouble is, they’re all in the wrong part of town.

Discovered: La Salle’s unsung art museum November 14 2011 An obscure museum in a North Philadelphia basement houses world-class treasures by masters like Tintoretto, Edouard Vuillard, Rembrandt Peale, Georges Rouault and Joseph Epstein. Most remarkable of all, admission is free. La Salle University Art Museum. Olney Hall, 1900 W. Olney Ave., lower level. (215) 951-1000 or www.lasalle.edu/museum.

Matisse and Barnes: A tale of two museums October 04 2011 Henri Matisse was one of the three great revolutionary artists (with Picaso and Duchamp) of the early 20th Century; Albert Barnes was a brilliant collector of revolutionary art. They made a great team until Barnes’s insufferable personality drove Matisse away, with consequences that still reverberate today.

‘Picasso and the Paris Avant-Garde’ at the Art Museum February 23 2010 Curator Michael Taylor has unveiled, for the first time in recent memory, the astonishing range, depth, and quality of the Art Museum’s Picasso holdings. But his show falls a few bricks short of an Anne d'Harnoncourt blockbuster. “Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris.” Through May 2, 2010 at Philadelphia Museum of Art, Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th St. (215) 763-8100 or http://www.philamuseum.org/.

Antiquity, looters and the Penn Museum November 10 2009 Who are the best stewards of ancient artifacts— enlightened Western curators whose museums stole the loot long ago, or dictators of Third World lands where the treasures were originally found? James Cuno of the Chicago Art Institute (who believes the former) confronts the Penn Museum (which favors the latter). "Iraq’s Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur’s Royal Cemetery." Through Spring 2010 at University of Pennsylvania Museum, 3260 South St. (215) 898-4000 or www.penn.museum/sites/iraq.

‘American Stories' at the Met in New York October 18 2009 “American Stories,” currently at the Met in New York, reveals an indebtedness to Philadelphia's artistic patrimony. Almost the whole show could have been assembled from Philadelphia holdings or works by Philadelphia artists. So why is the Art Museum so modest about its contributions? “American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915.” Through January 24, 2009 at Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue and 82nd St., New York. 212-535-7710 or http://www.metmuseum.org/. Art

Museum’s admission hike June 29 2009 The Art Museum recently raised its admission fees, a fund-raising model that is strictly 20th-Century. Then it hired as its new director Timothy Rub, a successful advocate of the 21st-Century model: free admission. Does the Art Museum’s left hand know what its right hand is doing?

Venice: Nice place to visit, but…. March 31 2009 There’s no place like Venice to jump-start your romantic gene. But before you move there, remember: The plumbing stinks. And try schlepping groceries, or hauling a suitcase, or finding a doctor or a decent restaurant or a neighbor who’s under 50.

Newspapers and the Internet March 03 2009 In the Internet age, what will happen to fact-based journalism as daily newspapers fold? Contrary to what you hear from print journalists, the quality of coverage could improve. Which would you prefer: The Inquirer, or a Philadelphia edition of the New York Times?

Vidocq: Philadelphia's Sherlock Holmes December 20 2008 Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan and Sam Spade are all legendary but fictitious private eyes. But Edgar Allan Poe and Victor Hugo were inspired by a real Philadelphia gumshoe of literary dimensions, as I discovered behind the door of the Vidocq Society in Center City. The Black Tower. By Louis Bayard. William Morrow, 352 pages; $24.95. http://www.louisbayard.com/

Sarah Palin and the ‘C’ word September 13 2008 Thanks to Sarah Palin, the 800-pound gorilla is out of the cage. The 'C' word— class— is the one word in the American lexicon that's even better hidden in polite public discourse than race. And it has little to do with money.

Alfred J. Munnings at Brandywine Museum July 29 2008 A remarkable new show at the Brandywine River museum is a tribute to the great sporting artist Alfred J. Munnings and also to the private collectors of Chester County who’ve accumulated his works without fanfare.“Alfred J. Munnings From Regional Collections.” Through Sept. 1, 2008 at Brandywine River Museum, off U.S. 1, Chadds Ford, Pa. (610) 388-2700 or http://www.brandywinemuseum.org./

The horror of globalization February 16 2008 What is a German discount food chain doing in Philadelphia, pampering its customers and employees alike and otherwise violating cherished local customs? Don’t these foreigners know what we Americans did to the Hessians the last time we got really angry?

George Stubbs paintings at Penn April 17 2007 The English painter George Stubbs is largely forgotten outside racing stables, geezer men’s clubs and faux clubby steakhouses. But he transformed the way artists depicted horses and sporting scenes. Equus Unbound: Fairman Rogers and the Age of the Horse. Through June 15, 2007, at Kamen Gallery, U. of Pennsylvania’s Van-Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 3420 Walnut St., first floor. Free and open to the public; photo ID required. (800) 390-1829.

Christie’s and ‘The Gross Clinic’ January 03 2007 As a leading art auction house, Christie’s well understands the role of a dummy bidder in jacking up the price of a work. In Jefferson University's recent sale of The Gross Clinic, Christie’s consultants apparently found an unwitting dummy in the Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton. Has Philadelphia’s art community learned anything from this $68 million lesson?

What price admission to the Barnes? August 12 2006 Hefty admisssion increases are the new order of the day at New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum. Derek Gillman, new chief of the Barnes Foundation, may be tempted to follow suit. Here's one hard-nosed reason why he shouldn't.

Celebrating ....

Saturday 10 June 2006

Justine Time