“Your movies are shit”, said to me, the first-year, senior, film major at the best arts boarding school in country. I have tirelessly made film after film since the age of eight, eventually wanting to reach even higher with my film education. Having been given the privilege to actually study film in a classroom setting, I was ecstatic. After being told my whole life how talented I am, after getting into the best high school film program in the country, my ego was shattered when my stone-faced roommate didn’t even make eye contact while mumbling “Your movies just aren’t good.” I would consider myself literate. I’ve been through 1st grade being an avid reader along the way so my understanding of English is quite decent. Although the concept of being literate is not that simple. Take someone with a masters degree in English and drop them in some African village, their literacy will mean nothing. Literacy is based on surroundings. Though to be literate is not only to be proficient in reading and writing. One can be literate in math, science, history, art, or in my case… film.
My roommate was a year and a half younger than me and he had the nerve to tell me I was no good. It was the age difference that struck me. I was on such a high pedestal that I failed to notice his quite apparent talent. “Your movies are shit” was the best advice I could receive from someone like him at the time. I’ve never been told that before! Although due to my arrogance I took his comments with a grain
One does not necessarily have to cluck in disapproval to admit that entertainment is all the things its detractors say it is: fun, effortless, sensational, mindless, formulaic, predictable, and subversive. In fact, one might argue that those are the very reasons so many people love it. At the same time, it is not hard to see why cultural aristocrats in the nineteenth century and intellectuals in the twentieth hated entertainment and why they predicted, as one typical nineteenth century critic railed, that its eventual effect would be to over turn all morality, to poison the springs of domestic happiness, to dissolve the ties of our social order, and to involved our country in ruin." said Neal Gabler, the author of Life in the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality. I agree with this quote, that entertainment is mind numbing and lessen the values of our society. Back in the nineteenth century, entertainment was something that actually stimulated their minds,
In all honesty, I don't remember a lot about becoming literate. I didn't have a special moment or time when I knew that reading or writing going to take me somewhere. According to my mom she started to read to me when I was one, so there wasn't anything that could've excelled me much farther before going into kindergarten. One of the requirements in elementary school was to read every night which I believe was an important factor of me improving my literacy. Reading and writing used to me excite me because I would immerse myself into a book or write a whole new universe on a page. I made reading and writing something personal to me. I now realize that every book and every piece of writing can be worthwhile in one way or another.
Rarely has a film impacted an audience and held the test of time as the film Gone with the Wind. I have always been curious if director, Victor Fleming and producer, David O. Selznick and screenplay writer, Sidney Howard knew what they were creating a masterpiece and how this film would have such an enormous impact on audiences for years to come. Interestingly enough there were some who thought the film should not be made, as Irving Thalberg said to Louis B. Meyer in 1936, “Forget it Louis, no Civil War picture ever made a nickel” (Ten Films that Shook the World).
Diversity in films is important because representation matters. Viewers are drawn to shows with ethnically diverse lead cast members. Mostly all viewers love to watch shows that reflect and relate to their own experiences. Reddigari, a freelance writer, also expresses the question of why we lack diversity in films. “Hollywood has been producing inspiring films intended to capture the beauty, joy and sorrow in everyday life. As much as we love our favorite movies, we can’t help but notice that many of them fail to capture the life experiences of all moviegoers, leaving the voices of millions of Americans from diverse backgrounds underrepresented” (This Tumblr Shows the Startling Lack of Diversity in Film). Diversity in films is an important topic in society because it represents equality and people of color to look up to.
The movie I chose to watch is Courageous. The precipitating event in this movie is the car accident that takes the life of Emily Mitchell. Her father, Adam Mitchell, and the rest of her family are traumatized by the sudden death of their 9 year old daughter/sister. In thinking about information that would be gained in the first contact with Adam Mitchell, one thing that stands out about his previous state of mind/functioning is that he was somewhat uninvolved with his children, taking them for granted. This fact can also be a trigger for how he processes this event, causing a crisis for him as he realized his
Director Brett Harvey documentary, The Culture High is an interesting story that takes a raw and honest look that tears into the very grit of modern day marijuana prohibition to reveal the truth behind the arguments and motivations governing both those who support and those who oppose the existing pot laws. As we ask ourselves will marijuana be legalized in our lifetime? Or is the “war on drugs” really fundamentally affecting this country? This documentary states two reasons why the information on cannabis is kept from the public, either just one joint can cause psychiatric (mental illness) episodes similar to schizophrenia (a long-term mental disorder) or the addiction and how this drug can lead to another drug. The thesis that this documentary
I define literacy as being able to express my thoughts and emotions. I know everyone has different opinions and emotions. Therefore, everyone will write differently and read in a different pace. Also, everyone likes different types of books, for example fiction or nonfiction. As a result, everyone’s literacy journey is unique. Everyone has a different definition when it comes to literacy which is what makes it special. Some prefer to read and others prefer to write. It all depends on personal preference.
When thinking about ones literacy, what first comes to mind is reading and writing, but literacy can cover many other aspects of life. It is usually not until a student reaches his or her college years that they realize they are “literate” in anything they are passionate about. This could include sports, technology or music because literacy is defined as “fluency in any given topic” (Writing about Writing 798). I am literate in lacrosse, a sport with rules and vocabulary that most people don’t know about and frankly I would have no idea about those things either if it weren’t for the people that helped me become literate in the sport. Sponsors of literacy often turn up in people’s memories when asked about how he or she became fluent in their
Becoming literate opens the doors to more educational and employment opportunities. In our increasingly complex and rapidly changing technological world, it is essential that individuals
What were Edwin S. Porter's significant contributions to the development of early narrative film? In what sense did Porter build upon the innovations of contemporaneous filmmakers, and for what purposes?
There are many different types of film and film genres. A film can fit into more than one genre, but there are some genres that are more general than others. Some examples of film genre are animated, science fiction, documentary, comedy, and historical fiction. Within each genre, there are also specific characteristics that help support themes and story lines within that genre.
Westward expansion, although simply a pact to move westward caused conflict and anger to Northern and Southerners. This tension rose due to the fugitive slave act, and the Kansas-Nebraska act. In 1845 the phrase manifest destiny was coined. Many Americans assumed it was their God-given-right to spread westward, bringing American culture with them (285). This phrase empowered Americans to move west, however, conflict arose in the conquest of lands such as the annexation of Texas which led to the Mexican-American War, acquiring California and New Mexico. These newly acquired lands led to pressing questions if they would be free or slave states which was a precursor to the climactic fugitive slave act. In 1850 President Taylor enacted the 1850 Compromise. Taylor agreed for California to become a free state under the Union, for New Mexico and Utah to decide if they were free or slave states through popular sovereignty, and the slave trade to be abolished in the District of Columbia (310). However, the fourth and most controversial portion of the 1850 Compromise was the Fugitive Slave Act. This stated that it was Americans moral duty to return escaped slaves to their masters, there was a $10 reward for individuals who returned a fugitive slave, so the number of kidnappers increased leading to escaped slaves to be returned to their masters (310). This caused anger to accumulate among Northerners, Nash states, “In a few dramatic episodes, notably in Boston, literary and
To myself, the definition of literacy is having the ability and means to read and/or write. Although this seems as though it is a stereotypical and common definition, I have found during the course of my life that this definition holds to be true to my personal being. When I was younger, I used to think literacy was simply the literacy book that we read out of during English class. The more that I grew, the more I realized that literacy was having the ability to read the book- not the book itself. While in junior high, my English course was referred to as a literacy course. During this course, we learned on what basis literacy forms. The teacher explained that literacy is not the words on the page; literacy is having the means of reading the words, and having the ability to comprehend what exactly it is that we were reading. Though this seems similar to cultural literacy, it is actually quite different. Cultural literacy is having the ability to comprehend and participate fluently in a particular culture, whereas literacy is just having the ability and means to read and/or write in general.
Not everyone welcomed enclosure nevertheless, there were many who gained from it. Many of the large landowners were able to experiment with their crops and rear larger, healthier cattle. However, the majority of land tenure was in the form of tenant farmers who in turn employed agricultural labourers. Some of the larger tenant farmers in Suffolk could employ over thirty labourers, the farmers themselves not having to indulge in manual work and as a result, becoming more socially distant from the agricultural labourers. On the other hand, smaller tenant farmers could only employ labour on a casual and/or seasonal basis and socially, were not far removed from the labourers they employed. Enclosure enabled many of these tenant farmers to gain long leases on the land, therefore allowing them to spend money on much needed improvements to their farms. Another advantage of enclosure was the increase of food production which ultimately made food cheaper. Not all tenant farmers were able to make a success of their new, larger and much improved farms. As a result they would then have to sell their farms or lease which allowed the more successful farmers to increase their already large farms. We already know that many farmers had leases from the large landowners however; there were also many that did not. Many farmers had farmed their land for many years, or even centuries without a written lease or agreement. This led to many families not being able to prove their ‘right’ to farm the
There is a definite difference between how men and women are treated in the workplace environment. In the Times article, the differences are explained by three trans men since they were able to see it as a woman and a man. As a man, they are given more authority and more respect compared to women who were belittled and insulted by other men in the workplace including their bosses. All of the men interviewed for this article noted that their colleagues that were also men made a lot of sexist jokes, or inappropriate comments about the females working in the office without thinking twice about it. Women also have to prove themselves worthy of praise of success, the example in the article included how harder it is to get published as a woman versus