W. Kamau Bell: You've often drawn comparisons between you and Barack. You both went to Harvard, you're both half Kenyan, devastatingly attractive...
Tom Morello: I have a pretty good outside jumper.
W. Kamau Bell: Yeah, pretty good outside jumper. So how disappointed is your Mom that you're not the first black president?
Tom Morello: (laughs)
Watch Tom Morello's very interesting answer:
W. Kamau Bell: Your latest single "we are the 99 percent" is about Occupy Wallstreet. You are deep in the Occupy Wallstreet movement. Why do you think it's so important for artists to be connected to social movements and should all artists do that?
One artist (who is a literal artist, as in drawing and painting etc), that was also involved in the Occupy Wallstreet movement is Robert Lyons. He is "An animation artist with a history in photographic and optical special effects that has worked with many of NYC’s most prominent production houses." His film and TV credits include: “Pee Wee’s Playhouse”, Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time” music video, Paramount Picture’s “Star Trek V”, Bill Morrison’s “Decasia” and Zbigniew Rybczynski’s “The 4th Dimension”. In 1992 he founded his own animation/effects company, Interface Arts. Currently he is working as a media arts professor at Pratt Institute and The University of the Arts teaching film and animation courses while also creating his own independent animation, documentary, and experimental films.
Five of Robert Lyon's experimental films have been officially selected by ROFFEKE. The other Robert Lyon film that has been selected is his documentary titled "Occupy Wall $treet, Taking the Brooklyn Bridge". It is a documentary "disguised as a music video. Shot over the course of apx. 4 hours on October 1st, 2011, in Zuccotti Park, and on the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC. It's day 14 of the Occupy Wall Street movement and a march has been planned, however the destination was as yet unknown. Participating for my first time, I wanted to document this emerging phenomenon and brought a video camera. As it turned out, for a brief time we collectively occupied The Brooklyn Bridge, at least until 700 of us were arrested. This was my experience."
You can watch the documentary here.
Long live positive rebellion!
And long live Tom Morello's awesome guitar solos :-)
This blog offers a behind-the-scenes look at ROFFEKE. ROFFEKE is pronounced "rafiki" which is a Swahili word meaning "friend". 'Friendship, Fun, Freedom' is the motto of the ROck 'n' ROll Film FEstival, KEnya. The mission of ROFFEKE is to promote rock music in Kenya by dispelling rock 'n' roll myths and misconceptions via the medium of film. The Purpose of ROFFEKE is "Lighten the Burden".