Corridor X

New York is a wonderful place for so many reasons. Not only does it offer culinary delights from around the world and a round-the-clock nightlife on any given night of the week, but also for it's many cultural aspects. In addition to the museums, plays, Broadway, it has a very unique alternative scene. Tuesday, on my way to work, I noticed that the free daily newspapers had an article on Brazilian Jui-Jitsu martial arts, so I grabbed it before I headed into the depths of the subway. I'm interested in all things Brazilian and I've heard of this martial art so I thought maybe I'd learn a little something about it and possibly add it to my list of things to try out once I move downtown.

In any case, there was a small blurb at the bottom of the paper advertising the Anthology Film Archives theater downtown that was showing a movie tonight only called "Corridor X", a movie about a highway that stretches from Germany through the former Yugoslavia,Greece, Turkey, and into Iraq. My interest was piqued about such a unique topic so Sean and I decided to check it out. A highway - I guess I've never really considered the fact that there are single highways that could potentially go from England to....China. After the second world war, this highway through Eastern Europe was built partially to make it easier for temporary workers to travel to Germany and work (among other Nationalistic ambitions in places like Yugoslavia). So every year millions would travel back along this road to return home for the holidays. It was destroyed during the Yugoslav wars after the Wall came down and still to this day bears evidence to wars between nations, people and capitalism, wealth and poverty, etc. It was very well done and was very powerful. I walked out of the theater amazed to be living in a industrialized country when so many people had lost things like their childhood and village they had grown up in because a mining company wanted to flood their town so they could dig up coal. It wasn't a typical leftist-propaganda piece, it showed many aspects of the issues along this highway, including the concentration camps and youth drafts to help build the original, the opinions of locals, the different stories of people who've travelled along this road (such as illegal Kurdish migrants from Iraq, children of guest workers, residence of the former Yugoslavia who now can't travel between countries, etc.) and the reason for the EU's investment into infrastructural components in Eastern Europe. There's some still shots and dialogue on the movie here, if you're interested:

http://www.tc-geographies.net/projects/melitopoulos/CORRX_story.html

Justinho, Thursday I found out I might have mono. That sucks. I should get the test results tomorrow....