Names and faces
Fans have gathered at a Detroit concert venue to remember singer Chris Cornell. A candlelight vigil was held Friday night outside the Fox Theatre where Cornell performed Wednesday night with his group, Soundgarden. He was pronounced dead early Thursday morning after being found unresponsive in his Detroit hotel room. The Wayne County medical examiner’s office said the 52-year-old Cornell hanged himself. A full autopsy and results of toxicology tests are pending. Cornell’s wife has said he may have taken more of an anti-anxiety drug than he was prescribed. During Friday night’s vigil, some musicians and fans sang songs made popular by Cornell. Fan Julie Webber of Grosse Pointe Farms lit candles and said “his music will always be alive.” Melissa Kidd called Cornell’s death “an indescribable loss.”
Director Alejandro Inarritu debuted Carne y Arena — Virtually present, Physically invisible,a visual art installation, at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s the festival’s first virtual reality film to be an official entry. The artwork seeks to capture migrants’ experiences crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. It’s centered on a seven-minute virtual reality experience via a headset — taking Carne y Arena outside traditional cinema into an emotional journey. Inarritu, the Oscar-winning filmmaker of Birdman and The Revenant, has been working on the exhibit for four years. “The highest technology with the most beautiful human beings is a very powerful combination,” Inarritu said in an interview. “The experience of working with the immigrants was the most inspiring and rewarding [part] of all these years that I have devoted myself to this project.” The exhibit officially premieres next month in Milan at Fondazione Prada before appearing at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Tlatelolco museum in Mexico City. But Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux insisted Inarritu take it to Cannes first after the filmmaker previewed it for him. Inarritu said he was struck by the stories of people from Mexico and Central America while researching the border crossing tale incorporated in his multinational drama Babel. “I had to do a lot of travel and a lot of research with border patrol officers and a lot of immigrants from Mexico and Central America,” said Inarritu. “And the stories I heard and the situation of these people — which is not even close to what it is now, and it was already tough — they haunted me.”