Bella Leon
Bio
Welcome to my digital diary!
I have a vast but useless knowledge of cinema, and I just love to write.
You can expect to find random articles regarding various subjects, poetry, short stories, and anything film related. Happy reading <3
Achievements (1)
Stories (24/0)
Five Movies About the Movies
Hollywood makes movies about every avenue of life. There are movies about space, the ocean, the creatures of the ocean, and there’s even movies about treasure hunts. You’ll find that each beloved moving picture has no bounds on what subjects to tackle and express with each flicker of the frame. Or rather, the filmmakers of such movies find that there is no subject, place, or theme that cannot be explored. With that being said, it is no surprise that Hollywood and filmmakers everywhere like to make pictures about the process of filmmaking, going to the movies, and Hollywood itself. Hollywood loves talking about Hollywood, so there’s no shortage of great pieces of film that have expressed the artistic endeavors of being a filmmaker, actor, or lover of all things cinema.
By Bella Leon10 months ago in Geeks
Female Filmmakers You Should Be Watching
Most movies are made by men, but historically speaking women ran Hollywood. Before the commercial success of movies in the 1920's, they worked in editing rooms, wrote scripts, labored behind the camera, and in front of it. Successfully aiding the vision of giants like Charlie Chaplin, women have always been a central part of the magic of movies. Soon after women were pushed aside for male workers, the advent of male auteurs began booming. In the last ten years, though, more women have been found behind the camera, in editing rooms, and whatnot. But even still, there's more well-known auteurs such as Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg than woman. I mean—can most of you even name more than a few female directors?
By Bella Leonabout a year ago in Geeks
- Runner-Up in From Across the Room Challenge
My Father Use to Say
My father use to always say: In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth, but that’s where He fucked up. While the statement reveals much about my father’s cynical disposition, there is a veil of truth behind such smug words. That is, God created the world and he shouldn’t have. Maybe I have inherited my father’s apathy for humankind, but I’ve seen enough of life to have personal supporting evidence. My first example—as I’m sure you’re wondering—is my father. He was born in the “rough” part of New York—his words, not mine. And when I was a child, he always said that his life was hard. Being poor and the son of immigrants, he believed the America Dream was not designed for newly-turned Americans. So, he made himself like everyone else, which wasn’t surprising to hear. He had a knack for being cliche. Then again, don’t we all? He’s my first piece of evidence that God should not have created his Frankenstein—the human race—because my father is scum. Having been the worst father to walk planet earth or whatever else is the equivalent of a father in another galaxy, you’d think I would be the perfect blueprint for a villain’s origin story. But I’m fine; I have a nice job as a designer in the fashion capitol of the world: the Big Apple—doesn’t get better than that, right? I’m married to a nice lawyer, and I have a great relationship with my friends and mother. There isn’t anything wrong with me except the notion of being related to him.
By Bella Leon2 years ago in Fiction
Movie Recommendations Based on Your Zodiac Sign
Movies aren't just an experience. It's life and everything in between (at least, this has been true for me). And with life, you have a variety of characters, moments, and emotionality that spills between each moment. Zodiac signs are the pinnacle expression of life. It denotes to character and its relationship with nature. With Zodiac signs and movies, both are able to express something about character, aesthetic, and thinking. So look to the stars and you might find a new gem. Here's a list of movie suggestions based on your Zodiac sign and where you can currently watch them.
By Bella Leon2 years ago in Geeks
A Black Ink Oddity
There are seven billion people on this planet, and I always have to remind myself that every one of them live each day in seven billion different ways. I’ve developed an indispensable way to remind myself of this fact; I scribble words across the edge of my arm every morning. With my pen outlining the blue veins climbing my arm, important words marry my skin, and recently—especially since my sister’s funeral—I don’t feel inclined to washing it off. I like writing notes on the back of my hand. I’m not a forgetful person or anything, and it’s not as though I don’t know how to use the notes app in my phone. I am comforted by the act of swiftly moving my hand across my own skin. It affirms something that typing on a phone could never achieve. Before my sister passed, I liked to write my grocery list across my fingers or note phone numbers on the edge of my wrists. Every so often, I liked to paint on my arms—in black ink—the curves of a fortifying building or a tree that dips sideways. But after my sister died, I’ve been writing notes across my arm like a detective that scribbles the details of a crime scene in his notepad; I like to remind myself that I must justify why I deserve to be here. And today, on her birthday, I write a note: find the brown bull, and then burn it.
By Bella Leon2 years ago in Fiction
Ex Machina and Appropriating Shakespeare
The contemporary world has inadvertently collected political, religious, and social suggestions from William Shakespeare. Due to being regarded as one of the greatest dramatists who ever lived, coupled with effusive adoration for authoring myriads of socially relevant plays, William Shakespeare’s work has become stripped, reformed, and relentlessly but discreetly gyred into other mediums by many artists. According to the treatise on Shakespeare’s appropriated work, Shakespeare and the Ethics of Appropriation edited by Alexa Huang and Elizabeth Rivlin, William Shakespeare should not be subjected to victimization by the seemingly unethical appropriations, rather the work provides agency and ethical context to another society, allowing the appropriators to bear the fruit of Shakespeare’s labor.
By Bella Leon2 years ago in Geeks
Five Movies That Black Female Artists Made Better
I had always believed, even as a mere child, that film is great because of strong visual components. And it is, but I quickly reformed that idea upon watching Casablanca (1942). As the story goes, the competent and lovable best-friend of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), Sam (Dooley Wilson), plays a song upon the request of Blaine’s former flame, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman). The sweet tune of “As Time Goes By” drifts through the scene, uplifting the spirit of the film. The scene is among the most famous and beloved in American cinema. But the power of the scene is not due to the sultry voice of Sam, the sadness in Ilsa’s eyes, nor the cultural impact. The scene’s power stems from music’s ability to craft a tangible environment, ultimately elevating the final product.
By Bella Leon2 years ago in Geeks
The Truth Behind U.S. and Canadian Indigenous Boarding Schools
Content warning: murder, colonialization, genocide, and physical, mental, and sexual abuse In May of 2021, it was announced that over 200 bodies were found in unmarked graves on the property of The Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, Canada or more accurately, on the traditional territory of the Secwepemc. Established in 1890, it was considered one of the largest residential schools in Canada, peaking at 500 students in the 1950s. It was first established as an acculturating Indigenous school. But the school finally closed in 1978.
By Bella Leon2 years ago in The Swamp
Ikiru Movie Review
In Japanese, Ikiru means “to live” and by viewing the widely unmentioned masterpiece of Akira Kurosawa, one might seek compassion rather than anger, another might find love instead of hate, or meaning instead of a vacant existence. In Ikiru, Takashi Shimura portrays Kanji Watanabe vulnerably and powerfully. At the beginning of the film, Watanabe is diagnosed with stomach cancer. His life flashes quite literally before his and the audience’s eyes. From the opening scene of the stark monochrome X-ray chest of Watanabe, the grimace face of death follows his sauntering like a shadow; Watanabe has a frown glued to his chin. Ikiru means “to live,” as that is the quest that the director, Kurosawa, desired to observe.
By Bella Leon2 years ago in Geeks
