Robert Lemelson
According to Ruby’s book, film can be used a research tool. Visually experiencing something gives us a greater understanding of it, rather than just reading or hearing about it. Ruby expresses the idea that film makers looking to make a visual ethnography have a lot of responsibility to the culture they are sharing so as to give them fair and accurate representation, free from artistic molding or outside influences. They should not highlight the differences in culture, but merely document it in true form. We have studied many people that have made contributions to ethnography such as Robert Flaherty, Timothy Asch and Jean Rouch. An anthropologist that is currently still making major a contribution to this field is Robert Lemelson.
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Lemelson starts off this film by explaining why he is there and the local religion and things such as karma. The subject, Kerata, explains that he has visions of what according to him is Rangda. According to Balinese mythology, Rangda is a child-eating demon queen. Another explanation for this is just as his brother had stated, that these visions had started after having had consumed contaminated (with pesticides) eels from the rice fields. According to local doctors, the fact that Kerata ate contaminated eels may have affected his wife’s pregnancy. His wife had a miscarriage. Kerata goes to visit a traditional healer. Kerata and his wife state that they don’t believe in this form of medicine and that western medicine is more effective. What’s odd about this is that despite not believing, the husband states that he felt a bit of burning sensation, to which his wife replies “well he was worse that I thought.” Later on in the film a third reason as to how this mental illness was caused is presented years later. Kerata feels attached to a military uniform. He states that he feels comfortable and safe but then talks about some war that had occurred and how he believes he may have been there because he is so interested in that
Beyond the Lights, is a romantic drama film Directed by Gina Prince-Blythewood. The film premiered in September 2014 at an international film festival held in Toronto, and this followed by its release on November 14th, 2014 in the United States. The film is one of the strangest music industry romance based films, alternating between the entertainment business, wisdom and heartfelt flourishes. Yet, Gina Prince-Blythewood manages to show all the elements of her play into an irrefutably entertaining package.
This film absolutely deserves to be recognised as it has a positive impact on both the indigenous and white community and how we can gain
The film that was conducted by '' Wayne Blair'' in 2012 was called ‘The Sapphires’ which was about four indigenous girls that have a special talent and strive to show their skill and talent by audition for a talent competition. In which where they meet their manager Dave also known as the sole man. As they start to gather up their group they travel to Melbourne to ask Kay if she would like to join. But unexpectly they find Julie in Melbourne too looking for them to audition too, Although Kay who still lives in Melbourne she get persuaded to do an audition with the girls to travel to Vietnam but kay had not wanted to audition but soon had second’s thoughts. The director Wayne Blair is also an Indigenous Australian and had directed this film
The movie I was assigned was, In the Heat of the Night starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. This film took place during the late 1960’s in Mississippi, where Virgil Tibbs, a black Philadelphia homicide detective, is traveling. Upon his travel, he unintentionally gets involved in a murder investigation of a business man. He was first accused of committing this murder when a police officer became suspicious of him. After they determined his innocence’s, he was then asked to help solve the case because of his vast knowledge and experience dealing with homicide crimes. He eventually agreed to help because he knew it was the right thing to do. The process for finding the killer was determined to be difficult, but even more so when Tibbs’s efforts
In effect all the techniques mentioned above portray a society of individuals who are weary of the world they live in. They are rejects who lead a pitiful existence in a wasteland called earth because they are not fit enough to go the out-world colonies. Suppressing their own natural instincts for the sake of physically surviving they really the walking dead. Scientific progress conducted not for the best interests of humanity but for the best interests of business has effectively brought about the progressive degradation of society. By exploiting and destroying the natural world human can no more find solace or beauty so as to recuperate their weary minds and rekindle their dying spirits. In summary the techniques that are unique to film such as camera, lighting, costuming, colour and location works in conjunction with common literary techniques such as visual symbolism, irony and characterisation to effectively convey the relationship between humanity and nature.
Jacquelyin Kilpatrick , Celluloid Indians. Native Americans and Film. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1999
Released September 29, 1950, Sunset Boulevard is a film noir of a forgotten silent film star, Norma Desmond, that dreams of a comeback and an unsuccessful screenwriter, Joe Gillis, working together. Ultimately an uncomfortable relationship evolves between Norma and Joe that Joe does not want a part of. Sunset Boulevard starts off with an establishing shot from a high angle shot with a narrative leading to a crime scene from a long shot (a dead body is found floating in a pool), this narrative throughout the film establishes a formalist film.
The film, Under the Same Moon, is a great piece of work that portrays the extreme difficulties faced by illegal immigrants. It was saddening to see all of the everyday struggle and to know that this is going on in the world to this day. I found that this film really goes with the what we learned in module 2 about immigrants in Guatemala and the movement in Chiapas, Mexico. After learning about immigration and knowing more about Mexico, I feel as though this film does an excellent job on showing a realistic example of an illegal immigrant doing all they can to make money for their loved ones. I would definitely recommend the movie to really anyone. It is educational, emotional, and has a great plot showing a whole different culture.
Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson create a world full of adventure in their film, Shrek. The film revolves around the main characters, Shrek, Donkey, Lord Farquaad, and Princess Fiona. Lord Farquaad attempts to rid his kingdom of fairy-tale creatures and offers money to anyone who captures them. A talking donkey, referred to as Donkey, is captured, manages to escape, and meets an ogre named Shrek who lives alone in a swamp. Lord Farquaad then sends all of the captured fairy-tale creatures to Shrek's swamp. Meanwhile, Lord Farquaad is in search of a princess to marry, so he may become King. When he hears of Princess Fiona locked away in a tower because she is cursed, he decides to have her rescued and brought to his kingdom for a wedding. Shrek
During this course, I had the opportunity to watch several documentaries that enlightened men on different perspectives of cultural diversity. These documentaries contained a variety of different methods used to examine several cultural diversity issues within America. Racism, sexism, ageism, and social class were the main topics that were examined in these videos and documentaries. As part of the process, researchers creatively designed experiments that uncovered how people instinctively respond when it is not apparent that they are being watched. Reports such as these must be carefully crafted and presented in an objective manner. If critical steps are overlooked, this kind of research tactic can easily been interpreted as intrusive, dishonest, bias, or unethical. That might ultimately defeat the purpose and distract the viewer from understanding, and that may become counter-productive to the message the researcher is attempting to convey. All documentaries presented were necessary for us to gain a true consideration of the cultural diversity issues this country faces. Some documentaries contained the element of surprise by using hidden camera tactics. It is no secret that cameras have a tendency to change individuals’ attitudes, if they are conscious of the fact that they are being filmed. Though all of the video and documentaries were impactful, the two documentaries that had the most impact on my learning were:
The motion picture Belly explores the ghetto and the characters that live in this dark and obscure world of violence and criminal behavior. Tommy or "Bunz", and Sincere, who both live in New York, have differing views of criminal life. Bunz lives a mixed up, drug-run lifestyle, while Sincere aspires to be a law-abiding family man. To help the audience get the full effect of evilness portrayed by the character, the scenes are very dark and gloomy. There are, however, lighter scenes in which the good heart of one man is represented. The lighting in Belly helps with the characterization within the movie. One character is shown as a dark figure, and one as an almost holy figure, plus disillusionment is brought out nicely through lighting effects.
Bordwell, David, and Kristen Thompson. Film Art an Introduction. 6th ed. of the book. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2001.
Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universally understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films; Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films; Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society using sound and editing.
Visual anthropology is generally used with another form of data collection, but is significant on its own. Hints any documentary you have ever watched on China, Tibet, or Africa (those only being some of many.) Images can capture moments in time that cannot be described perfectly. Being that a picture is worth a thousand words, what would a 30-minute film reveal? Images are good to pick up and highlight things that the anthropologist may have missed, or something that is tough to accurately describe. Auditory and visual perception can really make a person relate or have empathy towards something. This is a very good way to get your research out to the not so highly educated or the ADHD youth. Visual anthropology can really describe the “visual aspects of human culture, such as art, tools and other artifacts, body movement, facial expression, dance, or public ritual” (Strong) no matter how beautifully you can describe something, the reader will never see what you see. That is exactly where visual aids come in. The greatest thing about visual work is the ability to temporarily render your veiwers hypnotized. If you can execute it right, you can really expand a viewers mind without forcing them to read a fifty page research paper. Millennials will love
‘Then came the films’; writes the German cultural theorist Walter Benjamin, evoking the arrival of a powerful new art form at the end of 19th century. By this statement, he tried to explain that films were not just another visual medium, but it has a clear differentiation from all previous mediums of visual culture.