Monday, April 29, 2013

Blog Assignment 5

Your last blog assignment asks you to compare and contrast two recent movies from Brazil: Cidade de Deus and Quanto Vale: Ou E Por Quilo?  These movies seem to share several thematic concerns: the representation of poverty and social marginalization, the representation of violence as an everyday phenomenon, corruption within the police force and the government, and the representation of the favela as a culturally important space within urban society.  Nonetheless, it seems that there are also important differences between these two films, both in terms of the way that these themes are represented and in terms of the overall message.  In this last post, comment on what you notice about the relationships between these two films.  How might they speak to each other? 

350 words or so.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Blog assignment 4

This posting is about the representation of history.  In the past two weeks, we have screened 3 films (Boys Don't Cry, The Thin Blue Line, When the Levees Broke) that use the documentary (or docu-drama) form to deal with a historical event.  Choose one of the films and read it in terms of the political intervention that the film attempts to make.   What is the political message of the film, and how does it mobilize various techniques (interviews, historical footage, media footage, documentary evidence, fictionalized reconstruction) to make it's case?  Why do the filmmakers choose to represent this specific event?  And what political, cultural, or social impact did this film have?

You may wish to do some outside research on the history you are describing, or on the reception and impact of the film  (using an internet search is fine for this.)  If you find something interesting, feel free to embed a link in your post so that your classmates can see it as well.

350-500 words, and as always, make your post by commenting on my post.

Brendan