I feel like my film would relate to Sarah Polley’s “Stories we tell” and “This is how we Roll” by Kat the most. This is how we roll actually inspired me to change from the research paper to doing the documentary film. She filmed a sport and I will be filming 2 hopefully. The film will be based on my family members who are currently student athletes. Polley’s film will be similar to mine because of the family plot. I would be filming on the school’s campus, at an elementary school, and a high school. Two are in the same borough and one is borderline Brooklyn. I don’t travel by train a lot so I’m not sure how that would go. I guess filming the train rides will be a key point because that is how one of my participants gets to school. I already asked them if they would cooperate with the film and they said sure. I was going to do a football student athlete, but he is currently in his track season. The mode or modes, would most likely be performative with participatory. The participants in the film are very passionate about their sport and even if they don’t make it to the big league, they still have a plan to fall back on. I felt this film was long due since there are like several memes about student athletes. There are several films about kids who play sports and continue to go on as a celebrity athlete. I feel this film would be different because I know these guys, and yes previous filmmakers could have developed a relationship with those players, I will always have these guys because we’re blood.

 

The iron triangle was interesting and heart-wrenching. I have been to Citi field quite a lot and to know that this spot that had genuinely helped people with car trouble was shut down for hideous reasons actually broke my heart. These people, came from their countries to here looking for the American dream and actually was able to get a grip onto it just to have it yanked back from them. I remember in my political science class how it was common for these things to occur. The fact that I was able to see this happen in a film that this is what congress do is disgusting. There were some of the congress that tried to help their people and community and, yet it didn’t result in a happy ending. The decided to take jobs away from people and their families all just because they wanted to put another mall there. I found this to be extremely stupid because queens center mall is not to far from that are. What made me upset was that after stripping these people out of a job, the model couldn’t be done, not until the roads were done. They knew it was not going to be able to be built and during that meeting, the congress woman mentioned this to those fools and, yet those evil people did not care and still voted to close down those shops. Those who closed down the shops did not even give the people enough time to move their things. This film was able to make you relate to the issues these people felt. Some still had things in the shops that was earned with their hardworking check just to have it thrown in the garbage. It just shows how those who already are making their money don’t care for those who have to work for theirs.

 

Their Final Destination

The film we watched last Tuesday, Night and Fog was probably the first documentary I’ve seen on the holocaust. In the beginning it shows people freely filling up these train carts to their final destination. No one had a clue of what or where they’d be going, if so, I highly doubt one would get on those carts of the black transport so willingly. Carts were packed about 100 people per cart. One scene shows this family where it was a father and his three kids. One kid looked about 4 or 5 years old and as he looked directly into the camera it seemed as if he didn’t want to go and it’s as if he knew where he was going wasn’t going to end well for his family. As majority if not all, arrived at their final destination, they were given striped uniforms, tattoos and were shaved. The SS were watching them which means the doctors were also SS. These doctors would experiment on them, doing all types of harsh, unimaginable things to these innocent people. Later in the documentary, it showed those who were too weak to fight for their meals as starving thieves took advantage of the frail. As these photos and footage were shown, it made me feel helpless. I wasn’t thought of while this happened but it’s like these innocent people were treated like this because they were Jewish. They showed those who were decapitated, starved, and those who were regretted getting on the Black Transport. At the end, it was bodies after bodies that were just dropped into ditches. Young, old, man, woman, they were just lifeless and being tossed as if they weren’t once human. One part that sticks to me is when the lady had her eye socket blown out and they just tossed into that pit. Right after her was a man who looked like he’s been shot with a cannon to his back side. The ending images of this documentary were very disturbing but they were real. Knowing that these images were real just makes Hitler look even more evil. I can’t recall who it was who said this but, there were three Nazi’s who went to court and they all said, “I’m not responsible”. That boiled my blood because not only did they help set this entire transport to these camps up but they really wouldn’t fess up to this monstrosity. They caused millions to die and said these three words and were not found guilty, like you took millions of lives and there’s no to own up to their horrendous crimes? Guess it was just too much handle, although taking the lives of innocents wasn’t much.

 

 

 

 

“Sometimes???? Filmmakers really need to look at a cast and ask themselves: are there too many men here??? How many men do we really need??? Why are there so many men” I came across this post on a social media account and there was another post under it with the same thing with different concerns for them. The audience are starting to speak up about what they want from filmmakers. Maybe the audience has always expressed the way they felt but this was a first for me to see it. There are several films whether old or new that are slightly biased with the cast. Some filmmaker’s casts too much of certain people based off gender, race, and other physical appearances. Recently there has been quite a few outbursts, if you want to call it that, that show other actors or actresses that turned down a role or spoke out for their colleagues because of the discrimination they faced. The audiences aren’t the only ones who’s had enough of not having a more diverse cast. This quote does remind of the discussion we had in class about ethics. As we summarized wat Nichols said in chapter 2, we described the purpose of ethics for a filmmaker. The filmmaker would have respect toward those who are being filmed. Yes, these are actors but does that mean just because lines are given to them that they shouldn’t still be respected? Some filmmakers are known for their work based off their usual style, some would have too much of this in their film or too less of something. Some of the audience are just tired of the same old roles, played by the same old’ actors or actresses. It’s time for a change and some filmmakers are adjusting their work but is it enough for their viewers?

Game of Thrones? More Like Games Played with My Heart

 

So, I have recently finished the season finale of the HBO series Game of Thrones. I seriously can’t believe they’ve ended it like that. I’ll try to no go into great depths about the show in case others haven’t started their binge but I’ll go around it instead. So tonight, I’m usually waiting for the “watch next” at the bottom of my screen but no! Not this time, the producers actually left me watching ‘til the very end which included the credits (which I’ve skipped partially) and their intake about this particular episode. The producers usually describe the way the episode was put together and what to expect on the next episode but I don’t care much for it because I’ll find out myself when I watch it. As I was watching them talk about how they changed the characters usual behavior and how it shaped the season finale episode, it’s like they were shocked themselves on how it ended. Throughout the season’s last episode, there was so many shocking cliffhangers which lead to me being extremely shooketh. My best friend finished this episode before I did and her response for it wasn’t nearly as epic as it truly was. The producers seemed to have put their all into this last episode unlike the other seasons. They really outdid themselves with making it seem like a certain person was going to die, or get executed. Once I get to a shows last season I would google it and see if I missed anything but I didn’t miss a thing in this one. The events that lead t the final minutes of the show really messed with me. I was shocked and then hurt and then angry and then sad, and plenty more emotions were stirred tonight. If you haven’t watched GOT, I highly suggest it.

316 words

I’m not a fan of documentary films but maybe I’ve been watching ones that just hold no interest at all. Although the film “Nanook of the North” had little to no dialogue besides the text provided by filmmaker Robert Flaherty it was interesting. It wasn’t like the usual documentary films I’ve seen which is with people talking directly to the camera or just amongst others about their situation. This was more of visual type of film. This type of film reminds me of an old cartoon that’s in black and white where music is the only thing playing but you’re still able to understand what was going on.

Now to talk about the film in details, the life of an Eskimo seems harsh. It’s said that certain things were staged. One scene where they were in this canoe and the entire family, including a dog, came out just looks to be fake. It could’ve been real on some cases because maybe they didn’t want to make several trips back and forth but the way it looked, just made it look unreal. The eskimos way of hunting was also shown and again some of it wasn’t real. Flaherty seems to try to portray a different image of the eskimos, one that would make them look savage like. Yes, they had to hunt for food and would eat raw meat but the time the filmmaker filmed this, newer technology was being used by Nanook. There are more scenes where things were changed for Flaherty’s sake but there were also real moments captured. Those moments would be when Nanook would hunt for food and still find time to play with his children. The children Cuncyou and Allie are seen to laying while Nanook and Nyla are building the igloo and it just looks so normal, like having a camera n them didn’t affect their behavior.

I also agree with another classmate Bar Niazov as he points out in another post about the influence the sponsor had on the film. The sponsor Revillon Freres, a fur company helped with the shaping of the documentary. As Nanook was trading furs for other goods, that’s all you seen. They also had this specific type of animal they captured and would sell. It was a white fox they would capture and kill. The trader they traded with had that same type of animal hanging up behind him. Nanook and his family even had on fur coats but maybe they were provided with those for the film or that was theirs already prior to the films.

This documentary was the first of many that I’ve analyzed and seen the truth behind the filming. With the help of Bill Nichols and his description on certain things, I now know that all Documentaries aren’t all real but it can be portrayed to look like it.

 

https://qccdocumentaryfall2017.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/3337/files/2017/09/nanook-1.docx