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	<title>Screen Machine &#187; A Very Screen Machine Christmas</title>
	<link>http://www.screenmachine.tv</link>
	<description>Film criticism and cultural commentary based out of Melbourne, Australia.</description>
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		<title>A Very Screen Machine Christmas</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. The time when we willingly succumb to mass-hallucination, and for one brief shining period we believe in the enduring strength of the human spirit. Concepts like peace and goodwill no longer seem like political rhetoric, but instead compel us to regain a mythologised compassion for our fellow man. Despite the fleeting nature of this illusion, for a few weeks in December we can believe it to be so. We can also believe that a fat old man in a flamboyant red suit is going to come down our chimney and leave gifts for us under a hewn pine tree. And for those in the Southern Hemisphere, the beginning of summer can seem like a time of snow, sleigh rides, open fires, and knitted jumpers bearing the image of reindeer.
In a modern secular society, people’s responses to the season range from cynicism, to nostalgia, to piousness (if only for a week or two). But cynicism or indifference is too easy. To fully buy into the illusion requires an investment in the cultural ephemera the season provides. Screen culture provides a wealth of content for this very purpose. Recurring themes of redemption, renewed faith and enlightenment make for some of the corniest, soppiest, most far-fetched texts ever produced. And is that not what Christmas is all about? Ebenezer Scrooge learned this the hard way. It may be humbug, but if we collectively will it into existence, it is as much a reflection of the&#8230;]]></description>
		<link>http://www.screenmachine.tv/2009/12/21/a-very-screen-machine-christmas/</link>
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