Material (film)

Material is a 2012 South African film, directed by Craig Freimond and written by Craig Freimond, Ronnie Apteker, Robbie Thorpe, Rosalind Butler and Riaad Moosa. After playing at Film Africa 2012, it has been shown at numerous film festivals around the world (London, International Film Festival of India, Busan) and gained a reputation as one of the best original South African films and a significant leap forward for the country's film industry. Its portrayal of the lives of Muslims in South Africa was seen as an honest attempt to tackle some of the social issues facing the country's multiracial society.

Plot

Set in the Muslim Indian enclave of Fordsburg, Johannesburg. Material revolves around the tempestuous relationship between Cassim Kaif and his aging father whose one dream is for his son to take over the family’s fabric shop, which is struggling to stay afloat. However, Cassim wants to be a stand-up comedian, a notion that his traditionalist father strongly disproves of. When Cassim lands a gig at a local bar, he has to find a way of keeping it a secret from his family. The film's portrayal of the clash between youth, tradition and religion, alternates between heart-wrenching family drama and hilarious snippets from the world of stand-up comedy.

Pain

Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli, such as stubbing a toe, burning a finger, putting alcohol on a cut, and bumping the "funny bone". Because it is a complex, subjective phenomenon, defining pain has been a challenge. The International Association for the Study of Pain's widely used definition states: "Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage." In medical diagnosis, pain is a symptom.

Pain motivates the individual to withdraw from damaging situations, to protect a damaged body part while it heals, and to avoid similar experiences in the future. Most pain resolves once the noxious stimulus is removed and the body has healed, but it may persist despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body. Sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus, damage or disease. Simple pain medications are useful in 20% to 70% of cases.

Pain (philosophy)

Philosophy of pain may be about suffering in general or more specifically about physical pain. The experience of pain is, due to its seeming universality, a very good portal through which to view various aspects of human life. Discussions in philosophy of mind concerning qualia has given rise to a body of knowledge called philosophy of pain, which is about pain in the narrow sense of physical pain, and which must be distinguished from philosophical works concerning pain in the broad sense of suffering. This article covers both topics.

Historical views of pain

Two near contemporaries in the 18th and 19th centuries, Jeremy Bentham and the Marquis de Sade had very different views on these matters. Bentham saw pain and pleasure as objective phenomena, and defined utilitarianism on that principle. However the Marquis de Sade offered a wholly different view - which is that pain itself has an ethics, and that pursuit of pain, or imposing it, may be as useful and just as pleasurable, and that this indeed is the purpose of the state - to indulge the desire to inflict pain in revenge, for instance, via the law (in his time most punishment was in fact the dealing out of pain). The 19th-century view in Europe was that Bentham's view had to be promoted, de Sade's (which it found painful) suppressed so intensely that it - as de Sade predicted - became a pleasure in itself to indulge. The Victorian culture is often cited as the best example of this hypocrisy.

Pain (musical project)

Pain (typeset as PAIN) is a musical project from Sweden that mix heavy metal with influences from electronic music and techno. The project started out as a hobby project for front man Peter Tägtgren, whose idea was to fuse heavy metal with 1980s-inspired electro-industrial and techno influences. Tägtgren, who is also the vocalist/guitarist of Hypocrisy and producer of his own The Abyss studios, is the only current member.

Pain's self-titled debut was released in 1997, and since then Pain has released six more albums and a DVD. Starting with their second, all of Pain's albums have made the Swedish charts, thanks in large part to hit singles such as "End of the Line", "Shut Your Mouth", and "Same Old Song". In early February 2006, Blabbermouth.net reported that Pain had signed with Roadrunner Records. Currently, Pain is under the Nuclear Blast Records banner.

In 2008, Pain was on tour as a supporting performer for the Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish. During this tour singer Peter Tägtgren, drummer David Wallin, and bassist Johan Husgafvel were assaulted by a gang in Leipzig. Tägtgren received 10 stitches in his face, Wallin suffered a concussion and stitches to his head, and Husgafvel had his nose broken.

Mask (film)

Mask is a 1985 American drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, starring Cher, Sam Elliott, and Eric Stoltz. Dennis Burkley and Laura Dern are featured in supporting roles. Cher received the 1985 Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actress. The film is based on the life and early death of Roy L. "Rocky" Dennis, a boy who suffered from craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, an extremely rare disorder known commonly as lionitis due to the disfiguring cranial enlargements that it causes. Mask won the Academy Award for Best Makeup while Cher and Stoltz received Golden Globe nominations for their performances.

Plot

In 1978 Azusa, California, Rocky Dennis (Eric Stoltz), who suffers from a skull deformity, is accepted without question by his freewheeling biker mother's boyfriends, his "extended motorcycle family," and his maternal grandparents, who share his love of baseball card collecting; but is treated with fear, pity, awkwardness, and teasing by those unaware of his humanity, humor, and intelligence. Rocky's mother, Florence "Rusty" Dennis (Cher), is determined to give Rocky as normal a life as possible, in spite of her own wild ways as a member of the Turks biker gang, as well as her strained relationship with her parents. She fights for Rocky's inclusion in a mainstream junior high school, and confronts a principal who would rather classify Rocky as mentally retarded and relegate him to a special education school, despite the fact that his condition hasn't affected his intelligence.

Mask (disambiguation)

A mask is a covering worn on the face.

See also: The Mask (disambiguation)

Mask also may refer to:

Computing and technology

Film and television

Mask (Forgotten Realms)

Mask (/ˈmɑːsk/ MAHSK) is a fictional deity from the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms campaign setting. His portfolio (areas of concern) includes Shadows and thievery. Mask is a Neutral Evil Intermediate Power whose symbol is a black velvet mask tinged with red. His divine realm is Shadow Keep in the Plane of Shadow, and his Third Edition Dungeons & Dragons domains are Darkness, Evil, Luck, and Trickery.

Publication history

Ed Greenwood created Mask for his home Dungeons & Dragons game, a rewritten version of the Greek deity Hermes found in the original Deities & Demigods book, stripped of justice and caduceus.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977–1988)

Mask first appeared within Dungeons & Dragons as one of the deities featured in Ed Greenwood's article "Down-to-earth Divinity" in Dragon #54 (October 1981). Mask is introduced as the Lord of Shadows, god of thieves and intrigue, a neutral evil lesser god from the plane of Hades. Mask is commonly worshipped by thieves of any evil alignment, as well as neutral evil magic-users, assassins, and clerics.