In my Criminal Justice class we watched a documentary film called What I Want My Words to Do to You by Eve Ensler.  The film offers the audience a look into the minds and hearts of the women inmates of New York’s Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. Eve Ensler conducts s writing workshop consisting of 15 woman, most of whom were convicted of murder. The woman had a series of excersies and discussions that would expose their reality and the crime they committed. For example they be assigned a topic to write about like the crime they committed or to write a letter to their mothers and more. Then they would meet in a classroom, sit in a circle and each would read aloud what they have wrote and the rest of the ladies would give commentary on how they could make it better. Actors then came in to give an emotional performance of the woman’s writing in front of the entire prison. My teacher was amazing enough to bring in one of the woman from the film. Her name is Keila Pulinario she was 20 when she first entered prison and was featured in the film. She served 20 years, her conviction was first degree murder. It was nice to get clarification on the myths about prison to hear from someone who has been. Keila shares her experience to bring awareness on how the criminal justice system doesn’t always do it’s job. She also does it to show the mistreatment of the woman go through in the prisons. This film definitely falls into the category of participatory because the director, Eve Ensler sits in on the discussions and sometimes gives the ladies feedback. I believe she uses pathos because the film is emotional, the woman are talking about their crimes and coming to terms of their harsh realities.

The Gleaners and I by Agnes Varda  was a very interesting film to watch and I really enjoyed it. It shed a spot light on what many people ignore throughout the day. The way we waste many thing, when people are picking things up off the sidewalks or whatever the harvesters left behind, or homelessness if I may say. I never knew there was a term for this before watching this film. Many people may think if they see someone picking something from the sidewalk like furniture they are homeless or poor. For some of the people we saw it was sad because that was their only source of food and if they didn’t find any they really couldn’t do much. There are people who don’t like for anything to go to waste and some even hoard things. Someone else can create something beautiful with someone else’s  scraps. There were artist in the film that used recycled items to make pieces, like the man who used old car parts. I relate to the film in a way because when I was younger my mom would pick up furniture off the sidewalks. It’s a little similar to going to a second hand stores and buying used furniture the only difference is one is free and the other isn’t. The man with the rubber boots from the film said he was an activist. He doesn’t have to pick off the streets but he does it because people waste so many good things. The film really got me thinking and should get everyone thinking how much food, cloths or furniture we throw away. I know that I  waste a lot of food and feel guilty when doing so. It was nice to see the involvement of the director. She wasn’t just behind the camera filming them do what they do she was also a gleaner and filmed herself picking up heart-shaped potatoes and of things she found on the streets.

I watched this documentary called the Nightmare during the weekend. The film was about people talking about their experience with sleep paralysis. When somebody is in a sleep paralysis the person can’t move their body, they try really hard to move but just can’t. It is a terrifying thing to go through you can see terrifying black figures voices everyone has a different experience. Truthfully the film got me a little paranoid to sleep because I felt that I was going to become temporarily paralyzed in my sleep that night. There was a story with one of the people that his girlfriend had sleep paralysis, that same night it was his first experience having and episode with sleep paralysis. This was frightening to me because how when the girlfriend told him about it he then had it as well. Was it because he then started to think about it too much and researched about it that it brought out this interest in his mind then it happened or was it bound to happen? Some of the “dreams” they would have are so intense it felt like the dark shadows are touching them and hurting them. A girl had a episode where it started out with a noise. A loud noise that sounded like “spirits or demons screaming at you” then she could sense a presence standing over here as she played in her bed. Again she felt the really sound noise it felt as though it was right in her ear. She could sense that what the figure was wearing was red. “Every centimeter of her body feels like a ton” this means to me that you can’t move at all like as if there were a bunch of bricks on you. She tried to look at the face “trying to move and I want to see it and I am straining to look up, I could barely move my head.” She had gotten rid of the presence by saying Jesus a multiple times she said it felt like a “victory”. For other people it’s not that easy to get out of their sleep paralysis. To some people it can feel like their in their episode for hours but it would actually only be for 2 mins.