Miguel Del Morales in Cuba feliz

Directed by Karim Dridi (2000)

Miguel Del Morales, the 76-year-old troubadour who strums and sings his way through Karim Dridi's uplifting film ''Cuba Feliz,'' embodies the wandering minstrel as a man of the people and the repository of an impoverished nation's hard-won emotional wisdom. As he travels from one city to another in his native Cuba, meeting up with local musicians and jamming with them, Mr. Del Morales, who is known as El Gallo (the Rooster) suggests a Latin-American Willie Nelson (without his band), indefatigably making his way along his country's dusty roads. A wiry, weather-beaten figure, El Gallo, clad in a black tank top and sombrero, is first glimpsed smoking a cigarette and gazing over the Havana harbor as a cargo ship slips into port. The song he sings with an impassioned resignation is a lament of the hardship of life, the passing of time and loves lost but not forgotten. Although ''Cuba Feliz'' has the look and sound of a documentary, it's really a loosely constructed musical road movie with a screenplay (by Pascal Letellier and Mr. Dridi) that follows El Gallo from city to city on a national tour undertaken largely on foot. Toting his guitar, he ambles from Havana to Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Camaguey and Trinidad, ending up back in Havana in the same spot from which he started… LINK youtube Cuba feliz

Moonlanding 1969

Reconstruction and montage by dolf pauw

Presenter Henk Terlingen reports about the moon trip of the Apollo 11 from a studio of the NTS in Hilversum. Rudolf Spoor watches from the control room. Many guests are present in the studio. 
The launch is closely monitored add the Simon Stevin public observatory in Oudenbosch. A temporary base has been set up for this in a school, where antennas are set up. With this the radio contact with the Apollo-11 is collected. A farmer watches the moon landing on television while milking a cow. 
A model simulates the moon landing, where a man blows through a pipe to blow up dust. After the landing there is applaud. 
We (The living room was filled with family and neighbors and me), also watched on a Philips black and white TV at home in Dordrecht to this broadcast I was fifteen years old.
LINK Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid

Sita's ordeal by fire

Ramayana, Painted in Kamasan Bali - Date around 1915 
research Dolf Pauw

The story: This is a key episode in the Ramayana story, one of the most frequently depicted scenes in classical Balinese paintings. Rawana, demonic king of Langka, kidnapped the goddess Sita and kept her in captivity. After the fall of Langka and the death of Rawana, goddess Sita was reunited with her husband, Rama. But after such a long absence, Rama doubts her faithfulness. Distressed by Rama’s suspicion and in order to demonstrate her purity, Sita orders Laksamana, Rama’s brother, to prepare a pyre into which she jumps. However she is protected by Agni, the god of fire, and the fire turns into a lotus. The scene: Agni can be seen in the centre of the paintings with Sita at his feet in a lotus floating on a pool of water. Both are enclosed in a golden aureole, which indicates a god. The servant figures, Twalen and Merdah are seated on the ground close to Sita. On the right, at the top of the ramp, from which Sita has jumped, are Trijata, Sita’s companion during her captivity, heavenly priests and monkey spectators. Hanoman, the monkey general, is below the ramp. Rama and Laksamana appear on the left of the tree with several gods above them and monkeys and other animal creatures below. Flowers descend from above, as a manifestation of Sita’s purity and favour with the gods. 
LINK Virtual Museum of Balinese Painting