Courtney Hunt’s film Frozen River reveals the economic struggles that two single mothers face. Both these women live in upstate New York near Quebec. Lila Littlewolf a young single Native-American mother lives in the Mohawk reservation between the Canadian and American border. Although it is difficult for her to distinguish between the two borders, this also presents an enticing opportunity to become involved in the business of human trafficking. Ray Eddy an older white single mother finds herself coincidentally crossing paths with Lila while searching for her lost car. The poverty-stricken lifestyle and unfortunate circumstances both mothers endure causes them to take a chance as human traffickers. Lila and Ray are intrigued by the illicit, …show more content…
In the film Lila and Ray become reliant on the business of human trafficking with the intentions of supporting their families. Additionally, the film presents the social issue of human trafficking along the Canada-US border. Canada’s border issue has become pervasive and among one of the worst. It is considered to be one of countries with the highest human trafficking rates, “estimates indicate that between 1,500 and 2,200 are trafficked from Canada into the United States every year” (Barnett, 5). Ray’s conflicting involvement along the border occurs as a result of overcoming her ambivalence that is portrayed through “aesthetic reflections upon experiences of liminality and deterritorialization” (Raussert, 5). Due to the border issues that are prevalent throughout the film, the genre of the film has been categorized as a “border film”. These issues remain relevant throughout the film, but unravel with the social issues that cause the viewer to part ways. This allows us to sympathize and become concerned with what will become of the struggles the family faces throughout the film, while disregarding the social issues that remain pervasive. Ray and Lila’s struggles become the center of the film and a concern to the audience of whether they will be able to overcome their own crisis. Ultimately, this leaves out the victim 's fate and makes it …show more content…
In the film Frozen River Ray’s misfortunes affect the well-being of her two sons. The trailer that Ray’s family lives in has poor insulation, causing them to suffer through the harsh winter. One night as Ray is out making her trips smuggling her son realizes that the pipes of the trailer are frozen. Frustrated by the situation he goes out of his way to unfreeze the pipes under the house. Without the consent of Ray, he uses a blowtorch to unfreeze the pipes of the trailer. The portrayal of this scene is crucial in understanding the level of poverty that Ray’s family is deeply entrenched in and why Ray is in desperate need of a new trailer. This scene allows the viewers to empathize and justify Ray’s actions in taking on the dangerous endeavour of human
In both the movie, La Misma Luna, and the newspaper series, Enrique’s Journey, migrants are faced with many issues. The most deadly and scarring issues all relate back to bandits, judicial police, and la migra or Mexican immigration officers. The problems that arise are serious to the point of rape, robbing, and beating. It is not easy crossing the border illegally and secretly, but the successful ones have an interesting or even traumatic story about how it worked for them.
In Borderlands, the realities of what happens by the border instill the true terror that people face every day. They are unable to escape and trapped in a tragic situation. After reading my three classmates’ papers, I was able to learn a lot more about this piece than I originally encountered just on my own. I was able to read this piece in a completely new light and expand on ideas that I did not even think of.
Norman Mclean’s A River Runs Through It explores many feelings and experiences of one “turn of the century” family in Missoula, Montana. In both the movie, directed by Robert Redford, and the original work of fiction we follow the Mcleans through their joys and sorrows. However, the names of the characters and places are not purely coincidental. These are the same people and places known by Norman Mclean as he was growing up. In a sense, A River Runs Through It is Mclean’s autobiography. Although these autobiographical influences are quite evident throughout the course of the story they have deeper roots in the later life of the author as he copes with his life’s hardships.
The emotional letter that Juan left for his mother might be one of the most emotional scenes in the documentary. The pure emotions that the letter was written by Juan to her mother leaves the audience with the bonds and emotions felt between the kids and families. Juan Carlos’s father abandoned the family years ago and left to New York, consequently Juan believe it is his responsibility to provide for his family. He also wants to find his father in New York and confronts him about why he has forgotten about them. The story of Juan is not just about migration of children, but also the issue of family separation. The documentary does not dehumanize but rather bring the humane and sensitive lens to the story of Juan where the human drama that these young immigrants and their families live. Juan Carlos is not the first of Esmeralda’s sons to leave for the United states, his nine-year-old brother Francisco was smuggled into California one month earlier. Francisco now lives with Gloria, his grandmother, who paid a smuggler $3,500 to bring him to Los Angeles, California. Once Juan Carlos is in the shelter for child migrants his mother eagerly awaits him outside. After she sees him she signs a paper that says if Juan Carlos tries to travel again, he will be sent to a foster home.
An example of the cycle followed by her father, his father, and his father before him is told when Blunt recalls a major blizzard in December 1964 that trapped the family and some neighbors in their small homestead. She unemotionally describes how her father simply proceeded to go through the motions of keeping the pipes from freezing, calmly accepting the fact that he could do nothing as the storm progressed and he could not prevent loss of a of their livestock. Or how when he first ventured out to check on the animals in their nearby barn and nearly lost his way back in whiteout conditions. Later, when the storm passed, she told of playing amongst the frozen corpses of the cattle, jumping from ribcage to ribcage, daring her older brother and sister to cut off pieces of the animals, all with the calm acceptance that this was so normal, nothing strange about it.
Using both English and Spanish or Spanglish the author Gloria Anzaldua explores the physical, cultural, spiritual, sexual and psychological meaning of borderlands in her book Borderlands/La Frontera: A New Mestiza. As a Chicana lesbian feminist, Anzaldua grew up in an atmosphere of oppression and confusion. Anzaldua illustrates the meaning of being a “mestiza”. In order to define this, she examines herself, her homeland and language. Anzaldúa discusses the complexity of several themes having to do with borderlands, mestizaje, cultural identity, women in the traditional Mexican family, sexual orientation, la facultad and the Coatlicue state. Through these themes, she is able to give her readers a new way of discovering themselves. Anzaldua alerts us to a new understanding of the self and the world around us by using her personal experiences.
Human trafficking is “Modern Day Slavery,” in Canada today. From April 2007 to December 2013, there were 50 cases where human traffickers were found guilty, and from those cases, 97 people were convicted of human trafficking offenses. The Ontario Women’s Justice Network (OWJN) defines human trafficking as the recruitment and control of individuals that are exploited and taken advantage of against their will, (OWJN, p. 1- 2). There are various forms of human trafficking in Canada and the victims are vulnerable in all classes, genders, ages, and industries, but research needs to improve to validate concrete statistics. However, there are many Canadian sex workers that do object to the regulation of their chosen profession of prostitution
... a border be it physical or psychological. Examining both novels as well as doing secondary research into the Canadian border, will also help in understanding Canadian identity. A deep analysis of the two novels will also overcome the constellations of the symbolic imagery that is narration which will dramatize semantics of belonging, loss, and absence that is within the definite of the historically bound and personal context of Canadian experience.
There are many believed reasons for the increase in trafficking in the last decade. In general, the criminal business feeds on poverty, despair, war, crisis, and ignorance. The globalization of the world economy has increased the migration of people across borders, both legally and illegally, mostly from lower class to high class countries. International planned crimes taken full advantage of the more independent flow of people, money, goods and services to extend its own goal internationally (CRS, 2008). Many abusers are being put into jail for rape and abuse to minors and adults. As a community, it is needed to do more interdisciplinary interventions, just to care for the victims of trafficking, but also to help prevent the cause of it. Popular Defenders, an organization that trains local citizens to interact with victims of gender violence, started a task about female human rights. A way that communities are helping th...
Human trafficking is the act of coercing someone into working against his or her will. Anyone can be a victim, especially young girls who are vulnerable to the captor’s lies. Victims have been found anywhere from driving ice cream trucks to touring boys’ choir. In her talk, Noy Thrupkaew shares several examples about how people are deceived and coerced into coming to the United States and being forced to work for someone else. She focuses on how close to home human trafficking really is and how the victims don’t necessarily need saving but solidarity. In Noy Thrupkaew’s speech about human trafficking, she not only shares her own story but also the different situations regarding how the crime functions. Because the speaker
“How can you buy or sell the sky-the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. Yet we do not own the freshness of air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us? We will decide in our time” (Chief Seattle: 1855). In the Documentary “Flow – for the love of water” it visualizes the global crisis we face on Mother’s Earth as it pertains to the diminishing of fresh water. The Documentary portrays along with the help of experts that this global crises is affecting each and every one of us in today’s society including animals. The film shows us that water is constantly being wasted, polluted, and privatized by big co operations. Prime examples of these greedy companies were mentioned in the film such as Nestle, Thames, Suez, Vivendi, Coca Cola and Pepsi.
Mystic River is a crime novel went straight to the bestseller lists on 2001 written by Dennis Lehane. The reproducing film Mystic River by Clint Eastwood also won countless Awards. As Lehane points out in his interview with Linda Richards: “ 50 percent of the reviews has said this is not simply a crime novel.” Which obviously pleased him. The psyches and nature of human are the most fascinating parts in his novel. In the story Dave Boyle was abducted as a child and being molested. He lives under struggle and shadow for his entire life. When his childhood friends Jimmy’s daughter being murdered, he became the prime suspect. But who really is the murderer? Dennis Lehane makes this cliffhang the cadenza in his story. Dave Boyle is no doubt the central character in Mystic River. Dennis Lehane gives Dave Boyle a really complex life story and an unpredictable personality, but Clint Eastwood simplifies this character, which also simplifies the plot, making the movie less complete.
Bestseller journalist, Sonia Nazario, in her literacy non-fiction, Enrique’s Journey, describes a young man’s journey trying to reconcile with his mother in the United States, but has to go through many obstacles to reach her. Nazario’s purpose is to inform readers about how immigration affects children and their mothers in Central America. She adopts an optimistic/determined tone in order to reveal to her readers the difficulty and bravery the children have to face to get to the United States. Nazario begins her credibility with ethos to retrace an abandon teenager’s journey through Central America, pathos to follow the mother son relationship, and logos by giving facts and statistics for illegal immigrants in the U.S.
According to estimates, more than 700,000 people are trafficked every year for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labour. They are transported across borders and sold into modern-day slavery. Over the past decade, trafficking in human beings has reached epidemic proportions. No country is immune. Clawson (2009) discusses how the search for work abroad has been fueled by economic disparity, high unemployment and disruption of traditional livelihoods. It recognizes neither boundaries nor borders. Consequently profits from trafficking feed into the casket of organized crime. Trafficking is fueled by other criminal activities such as document fraud, money laundering and migrant smuggling. Because trafficking cases are expansive in reach, they are among the most important matters. (Clawson 2009)
By chronicling the journey of this immensely talented young girl, the documentary explores the current issues of immigration and homelessness in America in a strikingly personal way.