[{"id":516,"date":"2022-12-05T05:28:41","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T05:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/?page_id=516"},"modified":"2022-12-19T13:03:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T13:03:51","slug":"brazil-the-second-mother-que-horas-ela-volta-2015","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/brazil-the-second-mother-que-horas-ela-volta-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"BRAZIL: The Second Mother (Que Horas Ela Volta, 2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Present Mirrors the Past\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/777989333?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"525\" height=\"367\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1>Present Mirrors the Past<\/h1>\n<p>by Isabella Diaz<\/p>\n<p><strong>Please read the crafter statement before watching the video essay.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Brazil as well as a lot of Latin America love telenovelas. A theme prominent in telenovelas is social class. It is a very clear trend on the screen to see the protagonists always blue eyed, blond haired, and the side characters such as the servants or the villains are always people of color, whether from indigenous or black races, and ethnic features such as mine, brown skin, dark hair, and dark eyes. Growing up, I recognize the only people to ever look like me on the telenovelas were the servants. On campus, I can\u2019t help, but observe that the majority of people who look like me are the workers doing cleaning maintenance, and not really the academic staff or students. Looking back into history, black and indigenous people were forced into slavery under the encomienda system. The people who were domestic house slaves in the past are the same people who continue to be house servants today. People of color, throughout history, continue to suffer from a cycle of oppression that continues to be normalized. Not only is the treatment of black and indigenous people normalized, but it is also perpetuated on the screen by forcing black and indigenous people into only being characters such as house servants.<\/p>\n<p>However, recently, in Brazil, there has been a social movement pushing for the reformation of the treatment of domestic servants in Brazil. The issues highlighted throughout this movement have also been highlighted in the film, \u201cQue Horas Ela Volta.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cQue Horas Ela Volta,\u201d focuses on the domestic house servant Val, a woman of darker complexion, who serves the family of Dr. Carlos and Barbara, a white family who has inherited wealth. The film\u2019s camera mainly centers on Val in her sleeping quarters. In Brazil, the sleeping quarters for domestic servants are known as quarto de empregada which is translated to maid\u2019s room, a room the size of a cupboard. A darkly lit corridor downstairs leads to Val&#8217;s quarto de empregada and in contrast open, brightly lit spaces upstairs leads to the dorms of the wealthy family. Even though Dr. Carlos and Barbara have a nice guest room to spare Barbara, they choose to force her into the quarto de empregada. Even though Val is treated with a lot of respect and cordiality from the family, Val is clearly always an employee first, and specifically a woman of color first, to the white family. Dr. Carlos and Barbara\u2019s family live on the top level of the household while Val lives on the bottom floor. This housing represents a model that mimics the racial hierarchy that exists in Brazil, where white people are the ones mostly at the top when it comes to wealth and social class, while people of color tend to be mostly at the bottom. This is further magnified through the racial housing segregation that exists in Brazil, people of color live in favelas and white people live in mansions. This imitates Brazil in the past with the segregation of people in slave quarters and the homes for white people.<\/p>\n<p>Another dynamic that reveals the treatment of domestic workers is the dynamic between Val and her daughter Jessica. Val has never taken an active role in being Jessica\u2019s mother since Val left Jessica at a young age to be a nanny to Fabinho, the son of Dr. Carlos and Barbara. When Jessica returns into Val\u2019s life, they have to grow a dynamic of mother and daughter that did not exist before. Something I noticed about every one of their interactions was Val always correcting Jessica\u2019s behavior on how she is supposed to interact with Dr. Carlos and Barbara\u2019s family. Val will frown on Jessica for asking questions or being outspoken to the family. Val was reprimanded for asking to use the guest room upon her arrival to the home instead of being crammed into her mother\u2019s quarto de empregada. Even Jessica eating some of Fabinho\u2019s favorite ice cream became a huge big deal in the household. Val would tell Jessica that she can\u2019t eat that ice cream because that is for Fabinho and we have our own for us servants. In one scene, Barbara is seen giving Jessica a dirty look of disapproval for eating a spoon of Fabinho\u2019s ice cream, too. In another scene, Barbara hires people to get rid of the whole pool because she saw a rat swimming in it, but in reality she was referring to Jessica. Val first reprimanded Jessica for swimming in the pool that only belongs to Dr. Carlos and Barbara, but Barbara was the one who further escalated such a miniscule problem. To anyone else, none of these things look like a big deal, but to Val and Barbara, these are deals that violate the dynamic that is supposed to exist between employer and servant. Val and in extension Jessica are not entitled to things such as nice ice cream, nice rooms, or a beautiful pool while the wealthy white family are entitled to these things. Val doesn\u2019t even question these things, if anything, she passes these social standards onto her daughter, the next generation of Brazil. These social standards have existed since the introduction of the encomienda system and have been passed down through for generations. They have been imprinted onto Brazilian society resulting in it becoming normalized. Val has it ingrained into herself to be beneath Dr. Carlos and Barbara not only because of her occupation, but also because of her complexion.<\/p>\n<h2>Works Cited<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/videos\/bestoftv\/2013\/04\/29\/pkg-darlington-maids-rights-brazil.cnn\">CNN<\/a>, Cable News Network, 29 Apr. 2013<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/videos\/bestoftv\/2013\/04\/29\/pkg-darlington-maids-rights-brazil.cnn\">.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Latina, The Passionate. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/thepassionatelatina\/2020\/10\/12\/the-legacies-of-slavery\/\">The Legacies of Slavery<\/a>.\u201d The Passionate Latina, 12 Oct. 2020.<\/li>\n<li>Randall, Rachel. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/14701847.2018.1531224\">Full Article: Cordiality and Intimacy in Contemporary Brazilian Culture<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/14701847.2018.1531224\">.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Santos, Barbara. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.voaafrica.com\/a\/episode_new-film-sheds-light-how-domestic-work-brazil-resembles-slavery-times-4349256\/6111111.html\">New Film Sheds Light on How Domestic Work in Brazil Res<\/a>.\u201d VOA, Voice of America (VOA News), 8 July 2020.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Present Mirrors the Past by Isabella Diaz Please read the crafter statement before watching the video essay.\u00a0 Thank you. Brazil as well as a lot of Latin America love telenovelas. A theme prominent in telenovelas is social class. It is a very clear trend on the screen to see the protagonists always blue eyed, blond &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/brazil-the-second-mother-que-horas-ela-volta-2015\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;BRAZIL: The Second Mother (Que Horas Ela Volta, 2015)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2756,"featured_media":0,"parent":494,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-516","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/516\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":511,"date":"2022-12-05T05:24:25","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T05:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/?page_id=511"},"modified":"2022-12-12T02:21:27","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T02:21:27","slug":"japan-your-name-%e5%90%9b%e3%81%ae%e5%90%8d%e3%81%af-2016","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/japan-your-name-%e5%90%9b%e3%81%ae%e5%90%8d%e3%81%af-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"JAPAN: Your Name (\u541b\u306e\u540d\u306f, 2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"kugelman video essay\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/777978712?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1>People, Places &amp; Things<\/h1>\n<p>by Grace Kugelman<\/p>\n<p><strong>Please read the crafter statement before watching the video essay.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Aspects of \u201cYour Name\u201d that immediately stuck out to me were the artistry of the animation and how that romanticizes basically everything in the movie. \u201cYour Name\u201d is a 2016 romantic fantasy anime produced in Japan, which is also where the anime style was created. The two main characters from the movie, Mitsuha and Taki, grow up with very different lives. Mitsuha is the estranged daughter of the mayor of her naturally beautiful, rural hometown, Itamori. Her grandmother raises Mitsuha and her sister under the Miyamizu shrine, which is the familial water shrine that represents their past duties as priestesses. Taki lives with his dad in an apartment in Tokyo. He uses Tokyo\u2019s public transportation to get to school and then has to work at a restaurant most days after school to help supplement his dad\u2019s income and make their lives more comfortable. A commonality we see between both characters is the fact that both of them aren\u2019t happy with their lives and wished for something different. When the characters started switching bodies with each other, they realized that they wanted the life the other one led. Mitsuha was jealous of Taki for living in a big city where he had endless possibilities of what to do with his life. Taki was jealous of the quiet, slower paced life Mitsuha had in the scenic town of Itamori. Why this stuck out so much to me is that what Mitsuha and Taki didn\u2019t realize is that the lives they both led, the lives that both of them disliked so much, were lives that were desirable by others. They didn\u2019t have bad lives at all, in fact there was so much that both Mitsuha and Taki had to be grateful for, yet they couldn\u2019t see the beauty and wonder of the lives they led and instead kept thinking that they\u2019d find happiness in a different life.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that this movie is in the anime style helps to emphasize the beauty of the lives led by Mitsuha and Taki. While showing drafts of my video essay to my classmates, I kept getting the same general response, \u201cthis movie is so beautiful,\u201d \u201cI love the artistry of the animation,\u201d \u201ceverything in this movie is so pretty\u201d. I realized that not only is anime a beautiful art form, but my friends didn\u2019t realize that the scenes they were looking at were scenes from the movie that the main characters hated. That\u2019s when I learned anime romanticizes its content through its artistry.<\/p>\n<p>Anime doesn\u2019t prioritize photo-real representation or 3D design. Rather the various styles of anime purposely emphasize different things. Kawaii style focuses on bright, pop colors; chibi style makes characters appear much younger than they actually are, emphasizing a youthful, \u201ccute\u201d design. <em>Your Name<\/em> falls under the beautiful style of anime, it is characterized simply by its showstopping art, it\u2019s captivating and mesmerizing because of the attention to all the little details. Combine that with the slow pans, gradual zoom-ins, and adapted \u201cpillow shots\u201d (courtesy of Yasujiro Ozu) that contributed to the relaxed pace of the movie by breaking up scenes with images of bare settings or a random household item that almost \u201cseem out of place\u201d. All of those factors contribute to the fact that <em>Your Name<\/em> is clearly a movie that romanticizes life, and helps to convey the message that people need to stop worrying about being happy when they buy a fancy car or start earning six-figures.<\/p>\n<p>Another aspect of anime is the incorporation of religion and spirituality. As I mentioned earlier, Mitsuha\u2019s family belongs to the Miyazumi shrine. The grandmother\u2019s speech included in the first part of the video essay is Mitsuha\u2019s grandmother explaining to them a particular belief that they hold- how people are constantly connected through various things. Sharing food, sharing time, sharing physical touch, sharing space- all these little things bring people together and form relationships. Relationships are another thing that make life beautiful. Once again, the grandmother\u2019s speech focuses on smaller things that people typically overlook, similar to how anime emphasizes small details that people often disregard. There are plenty of opportunities to find happiness and joy in the life you currently live.<\/p>\n<h2>References<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Ellis, Theo J. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/animemotivation.com\/anime-art-styles\/\">10 Types of Anime Art Styles Commonly Seen in Popular Shows<\/a>.\u201d <em>Anime Motivation | Where Anime &amp; Motivation Collide<\/em>, 15 Nov. 2022.<\/li>\n<li>Singer, Leigh. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bfi.org.uk\/features\/enigmatic-pillow-shots-yasujiro-ozu\">The Enigmatic &#8216;Pillow Shots&#8217; of Yasujiro Ozu<\/a>.\u201d <em>BFI<\/em>, BFI, 12 Dec. 2016.<\/li>\n<li>Swale, Alistair D. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1057\/9781137463357\">Anime Aesthetics Japanese Animation and the \u201cPost-Cinematic\u201d Imagination<\/a> \/ by Alistair D. Swale. [electronic Resource]\u202f: 1st ed. 2015., Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2015.<\/li>\n<li><em>Your Name<\/em>. Directed by Makoto Shinkai, 2016.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People, Places &amp; Things by Grace Kugelman Please read the crafter statement before watching the video essay.\u00a0 Thank you. Aspects of \u201cYour Name\u201d that immediately stuck out to me were the artistry of the animation and how that romanticizes basically everything in the movie. \u201cYour Name\u201d is a 2016 romantic fantasy anime produced in Japan, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/japan-your-name-%e5%90%9b%e3%81%ae%e5%90%8d%e3%81%af-2016\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;JAPAN: Your Name (\u541b\u306e\u540d\u306f, 2016)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2756,"featured_media":0,"parent":494,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-511","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/511\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":515,"date":"2022-12-05T05:23:50","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T05:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/?page_id=515"},"modified":"2022-12-06T15:47:25","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T15:47:25","slug":"france-elle-2016","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/france-elle-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"FRANCE: Elle (2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Shattering the Glass Ceiling mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/778201876?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"525\" height=\"219\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1>Shattering the Glass Ceiling<\/h1>\n<p>by Haydn Wilfinger<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe presence of woman is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the development of a story line, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation,\u201d (Mulvey 809 qtd. in Film: Psychology, Society, and Ideology). While Laura Mulvey, a film theorist best known for establishing the Male Gaze Theory in Film, takes liberties in her discussion of cinematic female figures, assuming only women are the object of the camera\u2019s voyeuristic glance and that all directors are men, her view of a male-centered industry is indisputable. Almost 80% of all filmmakers in the US are men; more concerning, only 4% of the highest grossing US movies between 2007 and 2017 were helmed by women (Navarro; Cooney). Based on a recent Europe-focused study, a mere 27% fall2017 French films were female-directed (Scott).<\/p>\n<p>As evidence demonstrates, film as a medium is dominated by the male perspective; as such, it serves as a vessel for men\u2019s desires, with the camera honing in on the female figure, prying into what\u2019s hidden, what\u2019s private without remorse. It\u2019s captivated by her movement, latching onto her like a parasite, its look, and by extension, his look, constant, unflinching, an unyielding examination of her. The man\u2019s gaze is quick to critique but ever-present, unwilling to look away even in her most vulnerable moments; the woman is powerless, unaware of the attention she attracts.<\/p>\n<p>Paul Verhoeven\u2019s startling and transgressive film, <em>Elle<\/em>, initially fulfills Mulvey\u2019s perspective of cinema. Focused on an icy and complex woman, Mich\u00e9le Leblanc (played by Isabelle Huppert), and her attempts to uncover her masked rapist, Verhoeven\u2019s camera mercilessly hounds her, trespassing into her office and peering into her house. In a particularly alarming scene, we track Mich\u00e9le from across the street as she closes her windows and turns off her lights, the film slightly shaking as if the man is holding the camera, his grip unsteady as he frantically follows her figure. In moments like these, Leblanc\u2019s back or side is facing the screen. By disallowing Huppert from engaging with the film, Verhoeven steals her agency, forcing the audience to prioritize his perception of her instead of the truth. Even when Leblanc glances in the direction of the frame, she looks through it, oblivious to its watching eye and one-sided interpretation.<\/p>\n<p>Yet Verhoeven has larger ambitions in mind, and while certain sequences conform to Mulvey\u2019s standards, with male sexual desire and tension that engulfs the frame, Verhoeven ultimately adopts a thornier portrait. In a perverse shift of roles, Mich\u00e9le is allured by the attention she receives, capitalizing on this male\u2019s dark impulses to service her own lust, navigating this power imbalance stealthily.<\/p>\n<p>For the majority of the piece, <em>Elle <\/em>rejects genre conventions and Mulvey\u2019s insights, instead adopting the <em>female gaze <\/em>to contextualize Mich\u00e9le\u2019s worth and experiences. While her sense of security is stripped by the film\u2019s camera which latches onto her presence in both public and private settings and the unknown assailant who reduces her to a vessel for taboo pleasure, Verhoeven never doubts Mich\u00e9le\u2019s place in the world, painting her as a passionate and capable woman who, undeterred by the stereotypes and expectations that dog her every move, assumes the dominant role in both her business and personal life. It is Mich\u00e9le who enlivens her<\/p>\n<p>co-workers to further sexualize and heighten the violence in their new video game. It is Mich\u00e9le who proves a worthy adversary to her rapist, afraid of his motives, but unwilling to kneel to his threats- fighting with household objects, weapons, and words to free herself from the patriarchy. In a clever twist on the voyeurism formula, it is Mich\u00e9le who looks down at her male neighbor through the window, binoculars in hand, masturbating to his movements. Ultimately, \u201cIt [the female gaze} is a subtle but strong way of using lenses to enhance more than just raw masculine consumption\u201d (Mead), and while Mich\u00e9le remains trapped within this male-centered system, she carves out her personal space within it in which the power dynamics are reversed. At times Verhoeven indulges in Mich\u00e9le\u2019s sexual currency, accentuating her figure through both distant tracking shots and various states of undress, but he never allows the <em>male gaze <\/em>to suffocate her ambition, her intelligence, or her agency.<\/p>\n<p><em>Elle\u2019s <\/em>insistent portrait of a woman resisting and overcoming patriarchal customs mirrors today\u2019s society\u2019s attempts to overthrow the repressive global film industry which prioritized male stars and employees, ignoring the abuse and exclusivity they perpetuated. According to a recent US Today survey, which questioned 843 women who work in Hollywood, 94% of them shared that \u201cthey have experienced some form of harassment or assault, often by an older individual in a position of power over the accuser\u201d (Puente and Kelly).<\/p>\n<p>Now, sparked by the global explosion of the #MeToo Movement, the decades of silence have transformed into a wall of deafening noise, with male executives and supposed industrial titans being exposed for their crimes. On October 5, 2017, the New York Times published an expos\u00e9, uncovering decades of misconduct sustained by Hollywood mogul, Harvey Weinstein, sparking an expansive investigation into dozens of sexual assault and rape allegations connected to him (\u201cHarvey Weinstein timeline: How the scandal unfolded\u201d). Less than 3 years later, Weinstein stood in chains, his predation visible to all.<\/p>\n<p>A similar fate awaited Roman Polanski, some 40 years ago, after being placed on trial for statutory rape, before he fled to France. His most recent film, <em>J\u2019accuse\u2019<\/em>, while met with rave reviews from critics, has been challenged amid fresh allegations of his misconduct, this time from Valentine Monnier, a photographer and actress, who alleges rape (Tidey).<\/p>\n<p>The tide is turning. Those who have gatekept film for years, suppressing the voices of those beneath them, are losing their privilege, their actions criminalized, their exclusion recognized. Films are for everyone; they\u2019re an escape available to all. It\u2019s our duty to uphold that promise.<\/p>\n<h2>Works Cited<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Braudy, Leo, et al. <em>Film Theory and Criticism : Introductory Readings<\/em>. Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 809.<\/li>\n<li>Cooney, Samantha. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/5087673\/film-directors-diversity-report\/\">The Number of Women Who Direct Hollywood Movies Is Still Embarrassingly Small<\/a>.\u201d <em>Time<\/em>, 4 Jan. 2018.<\/li>\n<li>\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/entertainment-arts-41594672\">Harvey Weinstein Timeline: How the Scandal Unfolded<\/a>.\u201d <em>BBC News<\/em>, 10 Jan. 2019<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/entertainment-arts-41594672\">.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Mead, Eleanor. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/videolibrarian.com\/articles\/essays\/the-meaning-of-female-gaze-in-film\/\">What Is the Female Gaze in Film?<\/a>\u201d <em>Videolibrarian.com<\/em>, 13 Oct. 2022.<\/li>\n<li>Navarro, Jos\u00e9 Gabriel. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/696871\/movie-director-gender\/\">Gender of Movie Directors in the U.S. 2019<\/a>.\u201d <em>Statista<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/696871\/movie-director-gender\/\">.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Puente, Maria, and Cara Kelly. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/life\/people\/2018\/02\/20\/how-common-sexual-misconduct-hollywood\/1083964001\/\">How Common Is Sexual Misconduct in Hollywood?<\/a>\u201d <em>USA TODAY<\/em>, USA TODAY, 20 Feb. 2018.<\/li>\n<li>Scott, Sheena. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/sheenascott\/2019\/03\/08\/international-womens-day-an-increase-in-women-film-directors-in-france-study-shows\/?sh=441f5ff87d98\">International Women\u2019s Day: An Increase in Women Film Directors in France, Study Shows<\/a>.\u201d <em>Forbes<\/em>, 8 Mar. 2019.<\/li>\n<li>Tidey, Alice. \u201c\u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.euronews.com\/my-europe\/2019\/11\/17\/j-accuse-screenings-cancelled-in-france-after-protest-at-roman-polanski\">J\u2019accuse\u2019 Screenings Cancelled after Anti-Polanski Protest<\/a>.\u201d <em>Euronews<\/em>, 17 Nov. 2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shattering the Glass Ceiling by Haydn Wilfinger \u201cThe presence of woman is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the development of a story line, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation,\u201d (Mulvey 809 qtd. in Film: Psychology, Society, and Ideology). &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/france-elle-2016\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;FRANCE: Elle (2016)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2756,"featured_media":0,"parent":494,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-515","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/515\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":512,"date":"2022-12-05T05:20:38","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T05:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/?page_id=512"},"modified":"2022-12-12T04:09:10","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T04:09:10","slug":"south-korea-forgotten-%ea%b8%b0%ec%96%b5%ec%9d%98-%eb%b0%a4-2017","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/south-korea-forgotten-%ea%b8%b0%ec%96%b5%ec%9d%98-%eb%b0%a4-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"SOUTH KOREA: Forgotten (\uae30\uc5b5\uc758 \ubc24, 2017)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Gerardi Video Essay Final\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/780006717?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"525\" height=\"308\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>by Daniela Gerardi<\/p>\n<p><strong>Please read the crafter statement before watching the video essay.\u00a0 Also, please be aware that (1) the video essay may be overstimulating, and (2) the video features blood and scenes that may make some viewers uncomfortable. Thank you.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Contrary to an increasingly popular belief, the media being produced in the Korean Wave is not all created equal; its topics span over a wide range of lighthearted to deeply sentimental subjects. With the most popular product of the Korean Wave being Korean-pop (K-pop) boy bands who each have loyal die-hard fan bases and music awards to their names, these bands have shifted the international spotlight onto South Korea in recent years. Superficially, this spotlight has allowed the world to peek into South Korea\u2019s thriving music industry filled with upbeat songs and lyrics that fans can sing along to happily. The impressive aspect about the media being produced in the Korean Wave is the way it has surpassed language barriers and made its way onto an international stage. Never before has the world seen such an interconnected fanbase that has bonded so strongly over media produced in a language that is not their own. This media is highlighted in addition to South Korea\u2019s flourishing cinema industry that is filled with award winning films and television series that have also gained attention from the Korean Wave.<\/p>\n<p>When first introduced to these forms of media, it can be overwhelming, as the individual industries within the Korean Wave are booming and constantly producing content that is consumed by a growing and impressive international audience. The Korean Wave, or <em>hallyu<\/em> in Korean, marks the beginning of the popularity of Korean media in the global market (Jin et al). Initially highlighted in the beginning of the video essay, the bright colors and playful sound of K-pop shines through while progressively starting to overstimulate the viewer as they are given an insight into how K-pop is initially perceived. This is intended to parallel the typical experience of a viewer\u2019s first introduction to the Korean Wave. There is an abundance of media that can easily lead to overstimulation from the bright colors and unfamiliarity of the concepts and culture that surrounds the media.<\/p>\n<p>The connection between the media of the Korean Wave and international viewers would not be possible without the technology that has connected the countries of the world through social media. Most importantly in this case, streaming platforms have been the preferred technology used by consumers of Korean Wave media to access this content. The global music industry transformed as well since it is now able to profit off of international sales after once relying on physical sales to gain revenue. This massive expansion of the music industry gave the opportunity for a non-English pop music genre to break out into the mainstream American and European scene (Kim 107). Without this technology, there would have been no way to connect international audiences to South Korea, and South Korea\u2019s now successful industries would never have seen the popularity they do today.<\/p>\n<p>Media from the Korean Wave is outwardly known for upbeat and colorful scenes, however now with an international spotlight, the media has shifted to include a more serious variety of subjects. Ranging from discussions from poverty to mental health to harmful societal standards, examples from the Korean Wave such as K-pop have incorporated these subjects into their song lyrics so they can resonate with their audience. The act of using such a large platform to address taboo subjects in Korea has resulted in an incredibly powerful message saying that the youth of South Korea are ready for change. The cinema of South Korea has also used their platforms as tools for emotional processing of traumatic events in the country as well as societal issues within South Korea.<\/p>\n<p>Initially while starting this project, I did not want to address the serious topics brought to light in my ultimate movie of choice, <em>Forgotten<\/em>, directed by Jang Hang-jun. I wanted to focus on the brighter aspects of the media from South Korea, but I was eventually drawn to the beauty in the contrast between the different sides of the Korean Wave. In taking a step back to see the importance of addressing serious issues through media, I was able to appreciate <em>Forgotten<\/em> equally with all other parts of the Korean Wave. Throughout this video essay alongside the lyrics from \u201cTrauma\u201d by Seventeen, scenes from the film <em>Forgotten<\/em> are shown to represent the hidden struggles that parts of the Korean Wave media choose to push away in order to highlight more positive and glamorous parts of life. The beauty of balance is highlighted in this video essay, and it is important to recognize its importance to viewers inside and outside of Korea. These deeper messages are emphasized in order to promote the change needed to foster conversation on taboo subjects and to impact populations around the world.<\/p>\n<h2>Works Cited<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Jin, Dal, &amp; Tae-jin Yoon. &#8220;Korean Wave| The Korean Wave: Retrospect and Prospect \u2015 Introduction.&#8221; <em>International Journal of Communication<\/em> [Online], 11 (2017): 9. Web. 24 Nov. 2022<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.proquest.com\/legacydocview\/EBC\/6665516?accountid=8285\"><em>The Soft Power of the Korean Wave : Parasite, BTS and Drama<\/em><\/a>, edited by Youna Kim, Taylor &amp; Francis Group, 2021.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Daniela Gerardi Please read the crafter statement before watching the video essay.\u00a0 Also, please be aware that (1) the video essay may be overstimulating, and (2) the video features blood and scenes that may make some viewers uncomfortable. Thank you. Contrary to an increasingly popular belief, the media being produced in the Korean Wave &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/south-korea-forgotten-%ea%b8%b0%ec%96%b5%ec%9d%98-%eb%b0%a4-2017\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;SOUTH KOREA: Forgotten (\uae30\uc5b5\uc758 \ubc24, 2017)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2756,"featured_media":0,"parent":494,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-512","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/512\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":510,"date":"2022-12-05T05:14:06","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T05:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/?page_id=510"},"modified":"2022-12-05T05:15:22","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T05:15:22","slug":"chile-rara-2016","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/chile-rara-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"CHILE: Rara (2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Final Draft Geibler.mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/777973225?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"525\" height=\"293\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1>A Child&#8217;s Perspective<\/h1>\n<p>by Anna Geibler<\/p>\n<p>In 2002, Chilean judge and mother of three, Karen Atala\u00a0Riffo\u00a0and her husband divorced and mutually agreed that Atala\u00a0Riffo\u00a0would maintain custody of their three daughters. A couple of years later, Atala\u00a0Riffo&#8217;s\u00a0girlfriend moved into their home, which resulted in her ex-husband filing for custody of their children, on the basis that the mother&#8217;s lesbian relationship would be harmful to their daughters. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court of Chile, who gave custody to the father, claiming\u00a0&#8220;that the mother\u2019s sexuality would cause irreversible harm to the children\u2019s development&#8221; (LII).<\/p>\n<p>In the film\u00a0<em>Rara<\/em>\u00a0(2016), Chilean director Pepa San Mart\u00edn took inspiration from this case to create the film\u00a0<em>Rara.\u00a0Rara\u00a0<\/em>does not follow the mother&#8217;s story, nor the father&#8217;s, and shows none of the custody battle on screen. Rather,\u00a0<em>Rara<\/em>\u00a0follows the story of freshly 13-year-old Sara, and her pubescent world of crushes, dealing with her little sister Cata, planning a birthday party, and petty fights with mom.\u00a0In\u00a0the background of all this, lies the ongoing battle between her parents, due to her mother\u2019s relationship with a woman.\u00a0<em>Rara<\/em>\u00a0successfully captures the viewpoint of a tween, with most of the dialogue related to Sara\u2019s parents being placed in the back of a scene, or only briefly mentioned.\u00a0Since Sara is so young, she does not see or hear everything that goes on behind closed doors, and neither do we as the audience.<\/p>\n<p>In this video essay, I chose to highlight the scenes in the film that capture how Sara as the protagonist sets the tone for the movie. In an interview to promote the film, actress Mariana Loyola, who plays Paula the mother, explains &#8220;the point of the view of the movie is her (gesturing to Sara&#8217;s actress Julia\u00a0L\u00fcbbert), that is the interesting thing about the movie, it&#8217;s not an adult perspective, it&#8217;s a child&#8217;s perspective&#8221;. Through this perspective, the movie explores familiar relationships and the experience of growing up with a non-traditional home life. It highlights how adults in Sara&#8217;s life weaponize her own struggles with growing up to fit their own prejudices. It shows how kids slowly begin to inherit these prejudices from role models in their lives, and how they combat or accept these issues.<\/p>\n<p>Another major aspect of the film is the mother-daughter relationship. Sara and Cata are unique in that they have three mother figures in their life, their biological mother Paula, Paula&#8217;s girlfriend\u00a0L\u00eda, and their father&#8217;s new wife, Nicole. Like most girls her age, Sara has many on-screen squabbles with her mother Paula, and in her immaturity and innocence, her complaints against her mother to her father snowball into growing tension and eventually a custody war between the two. What her prejudiced father, who isn\u2019t made into a villain but rather a man acting out of love in hateful ways, fails to understand is that Sara is perfectly happy and healthy living with Paula and\u00a0L\u00eda. The movie contrasts scenes with Sara sharing sweet moments with her moms and sisters, with arguments and pressure coming from her dad and grandfather, to show the highs and lows of growing up, especially with a divorce.<\/p>\n<p>In 1997, American film critic Phillip\u00a0Lopate\u00a0wrote a piece for the New York Times titled\u00a0<em>When the I In a Film Is a Childs.<\/em>\u00a0In this piece, he writes about how few films revolving the inner life of a child tackle serious issues, saying,\u00a0&#8220;What is more difficult for the film artist is to render a child not as symbol but as complex, flawed individual, groping to make sense of the world.&#8221; (Lopate). This encapsulates exactly what I believe director Pepa San Martin does with the character of Sara, and with\u00a0<em>Rara<\/em>\u00a0as a whole. Sara is tasked with carrying the weight of both her father&#8217;s insistence on her leaving the mother, and her mother&#8217;s insistence on her father&#8217;s ignorance and exploitation tactics. She is tasked with explaining to her sister why they can&#8217;t talk about their mother&#8217;s girlfriend. She is pressured at school to prove herself as straight, to fit in.\u00a0<em>Rara\u00a0<\/em>is\u00a0not about a custody battle, but rather the everyday battles of growing up, where childhood is forced to be left behind due to societal pressure. Sara as the protagonist serves as the perfect critique of how society pressures young woman to fit a heteronormative, idealized mold at the cost of their innocence and youth.<\/p>\n<h2>Works Cited<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UufYGZlHbh0\">Interview with Julia\u00a0L\u00fcbbert\u00a0and Mariana Loyola about \u201cRara.\u201d<\/a> YouTube, Teddy Awards,\u00a0\u00a016\u00a0 Feb. 2016.<\/li>\n<li>Lopate, Phillip. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1997\/03\/16\/movies\/when-the-i-in-a-film-is-a-child-s.html\">When the \u201cI\u201d in a Film Is a Child\u2019s<\/a>.\u201d The New York Times, 16 Mar. 1997.<\/li>\n<li><em>Rara<\/em>. Directed By Pepa San Martin, Le Tiro Cine, 2016.<\/li>\n<li>Legal Information Institute. \u201cA<a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/women-and-justice\/resource\/atala_riffo_and_daughters_v_chile\">tala Riffo and Daughters v. Chile<\/a>.\u201d Law Cornell<a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/women-and-justice\/resource\/atala_riffo_and_daughters_v_chile.%20Accessed%204%20Dec.%202022\">. Accessed 4 Dec. 2022<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Child&#8217;s Perspective by Anna Geibler In 2002, Chilean judge and mother of three, Karen Atala\u00a0Riffo\u00a0and her husband divorced and mutually agreed that Atala\u00a0Riffo\u00a0would maintain custody of their three daughters. A couple of years later, Atala\u00a0Riffo&#8217;s\u00a0girlfriend moved into their home, which resulted in her ex-husband filing for custody of their children, on the basis that &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/chile-rara-2016\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;CHILE: Rara (2016)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2756,"featured_media":0,"parent":494,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-510","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/510\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":509,"date":"2022-12-05T05:04:50","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T05:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/?page_id=509"},"modified":"2022-12-05T05:04:50","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T05:04:50","slug":"philippines-billie-emma-2018","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/philippines-billie-emma-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"PHILIPPINES: Billie &amp; Emma (2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"The Queer Female Space\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/777938480?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1>The Queer Female Space<\/h1>\n<p>by Hajar Gaznawi<\/p>\n<p><strong>Please read the crafter statement before watching the video essay.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Billie &amp; Emma is a coming of age film, with many of the typical characteristics of one: a sweet love story, themes of growing up and the loss of childhood innocence and emphasis on inner turmoil and dialogue. However, it tells the story through a specific lens of the queer female experience. The protagonist, Emma, is a star student, leading her school assembly and having high hopes of winning scholarships for college and studying to be a lawyer. She is one of the most popular girls at her all-girls Catholic school, adored by her friends, boyfriend, teachers and principal. This is all put into jeopardy when she unexpectedly gets pregnant. To make things worse, she begins a tentative friendship that quickly develops into something much more with the new girl, Billie. Billie was sent to live with her aunt and Catholic school in the Philippines countryside after her parents learned about her sexuality. Emma has two choices: to submit to societal expectations, or to subvert those expectations and make space for herself.<\/p>\n<p>In her subversion, she is supported by two people, her mother and Billie. Her mother, who had Emma at a young age and by herself, indicated by Emma\u2019s lack of a father figure, does not want her daughter going through the same experience alone. She knows what it feels like to feel lost and out of options, all while being condemned by everyone around you. She guides Emma through the process and gives her room to take up space and to decide what she wants to do with her body. Although sometimes she may act more like her best friend than her mother, she does not judge her or pressure her. Billie provides support as someone her own age, as they find companionship and then love between bookshelves in the library and through passed notes in class. She sees Billie unapologetically take up space, with her heavy boots and short haircut as well as the way she speaks up for what she thinks is right. With Billie, she learns to take up the space she needs and be unapologetically herself.<\/p>\n<p>The idea of making space for oneself that I refer to in my video essay is the ability to act authentically yourself and act according to your own will, and not feel the need to submit yourself to others expectations and values. Women are constantly told they take up too much space, meant to be unheard and unseen. Before the past century or so, there was little place outside of the home for women and in some fields there is still a lack of a \u201cfemale space,\u201d from science and technology to literature and film. As for \u201cqueer spaces,\u201d queer stories and experiences have been buried and overlooked all throughout history. The film in itself is a subversion by showing the queer female experience. Historically both women\u2019s and queer stories have been underrepresented and overlooked, and in conjunction have faced even more disregard. The film decenters men entirely, with very little male characters, allowing the focus to fall on Emma\u2019s coming of age experience as it becomes clear that much of growing into womanhood is about the world trying to strip you of your personal agency. The film thus posits that queer female stories deserve to be told and are important, and shows young queer women that it is okay to take up space. The director, Samantha Lee opted to cast openly gay actresses in the film as well, saying, \u201cI\u2019ve always said that my films are the kinds of films my younger self needed to see, to make her feel less alone, to tell her everything will be okay. Growing up without seeing representations of myself in local media made me feel invisible, like I didn\u2019t really matter.\u201d (qtd. in \u201cBillie &amp; Emma\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>Many queer women did not grow up with stories that reflected who they are, such as the director herself. It is extremely important to see parts of yourself and your struggles in the media that you consume and that can\u2019t happen when the experiences of queer people and women are not told. In Philippine history particularly, female writers have been overlooked when writing about the female experience. Angela Manalang Gloria was a Filipina poet who wrote primarily in English, but who\u2019s voice has been muted by the dominant patriarchal culture she lived in. Critics have described her work as \u201ctotally inadequate and much-abused \u2018romantic\u2019\u201d and called her a \u201cthird-rater, a writer of merely pretty poetry, pleasant amateur verse\u201d (Manlapaz &amp; Pagsanghan 293). It should be noted that these criticisms came from men, and there is renewed interest in Gloria\u2019s work from modern scholars proposing a rereading of her work from the perspective of femenist criticism, which assumes that women\u2019s writing differs from men\u2019s writing with a different experience in \u201clife, love and other such verities.\u201d (Manlapaz &amp; Pagsanghan 390).<\/p>\n<p>In the poem \u201cMountain Pool,\u201d Angela Manalang Gloria writes of woman\u2019s sexual desires, challenging the idea that women are pure spirits free of worldly desires of the flesh:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><em>You who would hereafter <\/em><br \/>\n<em>Understand my name, <\/em><br \/>\n<em>Learn that mountain water <\/em><br \/>\n<em>Can ripple over flame.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><em>For though I love so purely, <\/em><br \/>\n<em>I know supreme desire \u2013 <\/em><br \/>\n<em>My heart, a pool demurely <\/em><br \/>\n<em>Holding heaven\u2019s fire.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><em>You woke in me a slumbering Delilah.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>You woke in me, O Samson, when you came <\/em><br \/>\n<em>This kin of fire that centuries had hidden <\/em><br \/>\n<em>Within the ancient caverns of my name.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Although women may be expected to be like mountain water, calm and pure, underneath that, in their hearts there exists a flame, their own passion and desire. In the film, Emma is expected to be the perfect star student she has always presented as, but she also holds her own passions and desires that may not fit in with their expectations. Just as new readings of past literature are emerging to provide new interpretations that were previously inaccessible, new films are beginning to tell stories that were also once inaccessible. Billie &amp; Emma is part of a new wave of Philippine cinema as well as cinema around the world that tells these previously overlooked stories for those who need it most.<\/p>\n<h2>Works Cited<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.oaff.jp\/2019\/en\/program\/n02.html\">Billie &amp; Emma<\/a>.\u201d <em>Osaka Asian Film Festival 2019 Official Site<\/em>, 2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.oaff.jp\/2019\/en\/program\/n02.html\">.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>MANLAPAZ, EDNA Z., and STELLA PAGSANGHAN. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/42633146\">A Feminist Reading of the Poetry of Angela Manalang Gloria<\/a>.\u201d <em>Philippine Studies<\/em>, vol. 37, no. 4, 1989, pp. 389\u2013411<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/42633146\">.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Queer Female Space by Hajar Gaznawi Please read the crafter statement before watching the video essay.\u00a0 Thank you. Billie &amp; Emma is a coming of age film, with many of the typical characteristics of one: a sweet love story, themes of growing up and the loss of childhood innocence and emphasis on inner turmoil &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/philippines-billie-emma-2018\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;PHILIPPINES: Billie &amp; Emma (2018)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2756,"featured_media":0,"parent":494,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-509","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/509\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":508,"date":"2022-12-05T04:55:32","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T04:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/?page_id=508"},"modified":"2022-12-07T03:45:04","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T03:45:04","slug":"new-zealand-hunt-for-the-wilderpeople-2016","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/new-zealand-hunt-for-the-wilderpeople-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW ZEALAND: Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Miramontes Masterpiece\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/778661703?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"525\" height=\"308\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1>Finding Family in New Zealand<\/h1>\n<p>by Michelle Miramontes<\/p>\n<p>A total of 655,000 individuals have passed through state-run institutions, including orphanages, homes for the disabled, mental health hospitals, and more. It was discovered in New Zealand\u2019s largest ever investigation into abuse within state care that at least 250,000 individuals held in government care suffered abuse, although the true number is thought to be higher. Thus far, 1,900 survivors of this abuse have spoken out although thousands more are expected to join them. A study done in 2015 by the Auckland University of Technology tracked the lives of 55,443 children born in 1998 until the end of 2015. Of those children, almost a quarter of them ended up being reported to child welfare agencies at some point in their lives. By 17 years old, 23.5% had at least one report made in concern to their welfare. 10% had been victims of sustained abuse and\/or neglect. 3% had been put into foster or alternative care. 3.2% of girls and 0.8% of boys had experienced sexual abuse. It was also reported that boys and those of Maori heritage were disproportionately affected.<\/p>\n<p>These are just the general facts. We can only imagine what the main character from Taika Waititi\u2019s <em>Hunt For The Wilderpeople<\/em>, Ricky Baker, endured in his time in the foster care system prior to his time on screen. We also know it didn\u2019t start with him. In the film, it is confirmed that his foster parents, Hec and Bella, also do not have family. Coupled with the foster system\u2019s known long history of mistreatment and abuse, it is safe to presume that they endured some of the same horrors as Ricky did.<\/p>\n<p>Yet loss, whether it be death or abandonment, brings us together. And in a country like New Zealand, where this loss is so common, this is all the more apparent.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, everybody is different. People grieve and cope in different ways. But even for those who may have developed a rough exterior as a consequence of their own loss-related trauma, there is a special soft spot within them. A special place in their hearts where they remember their own family struggles. A place where they sympathize with the countless adolescents who are going through the same thing they went through.<\/p>\n<p>Because of this special soft spot, there is a distinctly New Zealand culture centering around <em>found family<\/em>. It fosters and cultivates stronger family ties than any of the biological ones that have failed so many from the very beginning. It encourages loyalty and love for the family you do have, whoever that may be and however you may have wound up with them. It supports whoever you decide to make your family.<\/p>\n<p>No matter how their own trauma affects them\u2014 makes them caring and loving and wanting to help those like them, or hardens and calluses them, so they feel no one else deserves the family they themselves didn\u2019t get\u2014 no matter which way they go, the exceptionally awful treatment of children and the horrid welfare system for children in New Zealand has the same effect. It traverses all things, spans generations, and brings them together. Especially when there is such a terrible alternative, with what is relatively no other choice but further trauma, loss, and abuse. All in all, it results in New Zealand having a unique affinity for <em>found family<\/em>. A family they truly value and actively endeavor to keep.<\/p>\n<h2>Works Cited<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Roy, Eleanor A. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2020\/dec\/16\/at-least-250000-suffered-abuse-in-new-zealands-state-care-system-inquiry-finds\">At least 250000 suffered abuse in New Zealand&#8217;s state care system, inquiry finds<\/a>.\u201d <em>The Guardian<\/em>, 15 December 2020. Accessed 4 December 2022.<\/li>\n<li><u>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/u>. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2018\/mar\/08\/study-one-in-four-new-zealand-children-reported-welfare-agencies\">Study shows nearly one in four New Zealand children reported to welfare agencies<\/a>.\u201d <em>The Guardian<\/em>, 8 March 2018. Accessed 4 December 2022.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finding Family in New Zealand by Michelle Miramontes A total of 655,000 individuals have passed through state-run institutions, including orphanages, homes for the disabled, mental health hospitals, and more. It was discovered in New Zealand\u2019s largest ever investigation into abuse within state care that at least 250,000 individuals held in government care suffered abuse, although &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/new-zealand-hunt-for-the-wilderpeople-2016\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;NEW ZEALAND: Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2756,"featured_media":0,"parent":494,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-508","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/508\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":507,"date":"2022-12-05T04:42:04","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T04:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/?page_id=507"},"modified":"2022-12-12T05:15:14","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T05:15:14","slug":"germany-balloon-ballon-2018","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/germany-balloon-ballon-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"GERMANY: Balloon (Ballon, 2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"The Despair of the East and the Hope of Reunification\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/777953857?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1>The Despair of the East and the Hope of Reunification<\/h1>\n<p>by Tyler Daniels<\/p>\n<p>The film <em>Balloon<\/em> (2018) intentionally contrasts the emotions of hope, joy, and unity, which are associated with reunification, with despair, anxiety, and separation in Germany prior to 1989. Set in 1979, the characters yearn to leave East Germany\u2019s authoritarian grasp which ultimately results in a feeling of hope out of their despair. This contrast serves to make the feelings of hope more poignant. These themes culminate at the end of the movie. The family\u2019s hot air balloon landed in the woods and they were found by border guards. Two members of the family were found by border guards in the middle of the road while the others hid in the woods. The two were caught and had headlights beaming on them. The glare made it impossible to tell if the guards were wearing East or West German uniforms. This moment invoked a sense of fear and hope which perfectly depicted the feelings the movie was portraying. Furthermore, in the final scene, the father weeps as he realizes that the Soviet Union is falling and Germany will be unified which evokes the emotions of joy and hope.<\/p>\n<p>The song \u201cWind of Change,\u201d which could be heard in the last portion of my video essay, captivated the world. The song told the story of the fall of the Soviet Union through the lens of hope and unity which led to its adoption as an anthem of German reunification. The band pays homage to this in their music video by switching between footage of their performance and footage of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall (Songfacts). \u201cWind of Change\u201d fully illustrated the sense of hope, joy, and unity that permeated throughout Europe during the early 1990s. It serves as a time capsule for the feelings and emotions that defined the commencement of German reunification. Everyone was hopeful of what a united Germany could bring. One united German people under one flag and one government. However, three decades later this new, truly unified Germany has not come to fruition; stark divisions still exist between the East and West (\u201cWhy the Gap between Former East and West Germany Is Growing\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>The clearest example of divisions that persist today is stereotypes. Deanne Corbett points out that West Germans call East Germans whining easterners or \u201cJammer Ossis\u201d while East Germans call West Germans arrogant know-it-alls or \u201cBesser-Wessies.\u201d Furthermore, easterners are typically thought of as unambitious and lazy. These divisive stereotypes associated with easterners are generationally passed down by westerners. According to Klaus Schr\u00f6der, the East overestimates how economically prosperous the West is and the West is jealous of the economic aid being spent in the East (Corbett). A common theme among these stereotypes is that they are rooted in the economic rift that continues to separate the East and West today (Corbett).<\/p>\n<p>Following reunification, the west poured millions of dollars into East Germany to boost its struggling economy. While this did accomplish its intended goal, today, the East still lags behind the West. According to John Gramlich, the senior writer and editor at Pew Research, in 2018 the East had an unemployment rate of 6.9% compared to the West\u2019s 4.8%. Moreover, the average East German\u2019s income is 86% of their West German counterparts. Additionally, East Germany\u2019s productivity rate is 75% of West Germany&#8217;s. While these statistics, compared to previous numbers, point to a dramatic improvement in East Germany\u2019s economy since reunification, they also highlight a rift that still exists between the East and West.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, an ideological and political rift has emerged between the two regions. An astonishing 44% of East Germans identify as German compared to 71% of West Germans. 47% of East Germans only see themselves as East Germans (\u201cWhy the Gap between Former East and West Germany Is Growing\u201d). When analyzing views on democracy, the separation becomes even clearer. Only 31% of East Germans believe democracy is the best form of governance compared to 72% of West Germans (Buck). Life satisfaction is 5% lower in the East while westerners are 8% more likely to believe their children will be better off than them. The ideological differences still remain and create cultural rifts between the regions (Gramlich).<\/p>\n<p>The hope for change and unity that captured the world following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union has failed to completely materialize. Germany continues to be divided 31 years later. Steffen Mau, a renowned professor of sociology at Humboldt University, stated \u201cAfter the collapse of East Germany, we thought that we would become more and more alike. Today we see that many of these differences have taken root,\u201d (Buck). While these differences continue to undermine the promise of German unity, manifestations of this hope still are a prevalent part of German society. One such expression of hope is the celebration of German Unity Day and the accompanying annual festival held near the Brandenburg Gate. Celebrated on October 3rd, it marks the reunification of Germany and the end of the divisive Berlin Wall. While Germany remains divided, this festival is a manifestation of the hope that one day, Germans might be truly unified.<\/p>\n<h2>Works Cited<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Ballon<\/em>. Directed by Michael Herbig, StudioCanal, 2018.<\/li>\n<li>Buck, Tobias. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/a22d04b2-c4b0-11e9-a8e9-296ca66511c9\">Lingering Divide: Why East and West Germany Are Drifting Apart.<\/a>\u201d <em>Financial Times<\/em>, Financial Times, 29 Aug. 2019<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/a22d04b2-c4b0-11e9-a8e9-296ca66511c9\">.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Corbett, Deanne. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/breaking-down-the-wall-in-the-head\/a-1344803\">Breaking down the Wall in the Head | DW | 03.10.2004<\/a>.\u201d <em>DW.COM<\/em>, 2019<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/breaking-down-the-wall-in-the-head\/a-1344803\">.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.visitberlin.de\/en\/events-german-unity-day\">German Unity Day<\/a>.\u201d <em>Www.visitberlin.de<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.visitberlin.de\/en\/events-german-unity-day\">.<\/a> Accessed 3 Dec. 2022.<\/li>\n<li>Gramlich, John. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2019\/11\/06\/east-germany-has-narrowed-economic-gap-with-west-germany-since-fall-of-communism-but-still-lags\/\">East Germany Has Narrowed Economic Gap with West Germany since Fall of Communism, but Still Lags<\/a>.\u201d <em>Pew Research Center<\/em>, Pew Research Center, 6 Nov. 2019.<\/li>\n<li>&#8212;. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2019\/10\/18\/how-the-attitudes-of-west-and-east-germans-compare-30-years-after-fall-of-berlin-wall\/\">How the Attitudes of West and East Germans Compare, 30 Years after Fall of Berlin Wall<\/a>.\u201d <em>Pew Research Center<\/em>, Pew Research Center, 18 Oct. 2019.<\/li>\n<li>Oct 3, Indrani Bagchi \/ TNN \/, et al. \u201c\u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/india\/wind-of-change-heralded-a-new-chapter-in-world-history\/articleshow\/78456580.cms\">Wind of Change\u2019 Heralded a New Chapter in World History | India News &#8211; Times of India<\/a>.\u201d <em>The Times of India<\/em>, 3 Oct. 2020.<\/li>\n<li>Songfacts. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/facts\/scorpions\/wind-of-change#:~:text=The%20%22Wind%20of%20Change%22%20that\">Wind of Change by Scorpions &#8211; Songfacts<\/a>.\u201d <em>Www.songfacts.com<\/em>. Accessed 3 Dec. 2022.<\/li>\n<li>Tagat, Anurag. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/rollingstoneindia.com\/walter-lindner-germany-ambassador-wind-of-change-song\/#:~:text=Closer%20in%20Berlin%2C%20German%20rock\">Hippie-Turned-Diplomat and Musician Walter J. Lindner Performs \u2018Wind of Change\u2019 for German Unity Day<\/a>.\u201d <em>Rolling Stone India<\/em>, 3 Oct. 2020.<\/li>\n<li>\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.trtworld.com\/magazine\/why-the-gap-between-former-east-and-west-germany-is-growing-29409\">Why the Gap between Former East and West Germany Is Growing<\/a>.\u201d <em>Why the Gap between Former East and West Germany Is Growing<\/em>, 30 Aug. 2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Despair of the East and the Hope of Reunification by Tyler Daniels The film Balloon (2018) intentionally contrasts the emotions of hope, joy, and unity, which are associated with reunification, with despair, anxiety, and separation in Germany prior to 1989. Set in 1979, the characters yearn to leave East Germany\u2019s authoritarian grasp which ultimately &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/germany-balloon-ballon-2018\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;GERMANY: Balloon (Ballon, 2018)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2756,"featured_media":0,"parent":494,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-507","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/507\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":505,"date":"2022-12-05T02:38:33","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T02:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/?page_id=505"},"modified":"2022-12-06T21:31:53","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T21:31:53","slug":"namibia-katutura-2015","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/namibia-katutura-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"NAMIBIA: Katutura (2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"memoryandmovie\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/777946224?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"525\" height=\"232\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1>Memory and Movie<\/h1>\n<p>by Flynn Gray<\/p>\n<p><strong>Please watch the video before reading the crafter statement.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2018 I went to Namibia. I was only there for a few weeks, and I was there as a tourist.<\/p>\n<p>Before arriving, I hadn\u2019t known much about the country. I knew where it was located, and sometimes I could recall the name of the capital (Windhoek), but beyond that I had a lot of learning to do and experiences waiting to happen.<\/p>\n<p>Never before in my life have I had the privilege of experiencing so much radical love, community, and intersectionality. In many of the cities and townships we went to, we were invited into homes and intimate markets where people with all types of bodies and lived experiences were valued members of the community. I tried dozens of fruits, vegetables, and meats that don\u2019t grow and are hard to find in Minnesota and much of the rest of the US. I met members of the Himba and Herebo, two indigenous populations in Namibia, who talked to us about some of their cultural practices and shared their art with us.<\/p>\n<p>As someone coming in from a foreign country and only spending a brief time in Namibia, I was able to experience so much joy, and beautiful cultures more often than I did back in my home country. It was truly one of the most incredible places I\u2019ve been to, for every reason imaginable.<\/p>\n<p>Which is why, upon watching <em>Katutura, <\/em>a film by Obed Elmuva and Florian Schott, I was surprised at the violent and decrepit depictions of Namibia. The film takes place in Katutura, a city right outside Windhoek, and one I went to while I was there. However, instead of showing the radical love that I saw, it showed a drug and crime ridden life filled with little to no hope for much of the population.<\/p>\n<p>I was so confused, was everything I had experienced not accurate to Namibia? Was the movie correct in portraying violence as the norm in Namibia? Did my memories maybe alter how I viewed my time there? Was the movie exploiting the violence for entertainment value?<\/p>\n<p>What was more real? My memories or the movie?<\/p>\n<p>Through my own research I found an essay criticizing the film <em>Katutura<\/em>, called \u2018Embodiments of Love on the Margins of Windhoek\u2019s Cinematic Landscape\u2019 by Mushaandja Nashilongweshipwe. Nashilongweshipwe explains that there is a significant lack of radicalism in Katutura and that marginalized populations are further marginalized by the inaccuracies portrayed in the film.<\/p>\n<p>I employ text from Nashilongweshipwe\u2019s essay and audio files of myself describing my experiences to contrast with the violence portrayed in the film. German music in the background is a nod to the violent German occupation of Namibia in much of the 19th century.<\/p>\n<p>The final decision is left up to you: who is misrepresenting Katutura, me or the movie? Or can it be both?<\/p>\n<h2>Works Cited<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>AnyWayWell. \u201cRun It.\u201d 2019.<\/li>\n<li>Forester, Mark. \u201cKogong.\u201d 2017.<\/li>\n<li>GZUZ. \u201cWas Hast Du Gedacht.\u201d 2018.<\/li>\n<li>Mushaandja, Nashilongweshipwe. \u201cEmbodiments of Love on the Margins of Windhoek\u2019s Cinematic Landscape.\u201d <em>Social Dynamics<\/em>, vol. 47, no. 1, 2021.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Memory and Movie by Flynn Gray Please watch the video before reading the crafter statement.\u00a0 Thank you. In 2018 I went to Namibia. I was only there for a few weeks, and I was there as a tourist. Before arriving, I hadn\u2019t known much about the country. I knew where it was located, and sometimes &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/namibia-katutura-2015\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;NAMIBIA: Katutura (2015)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2756,"featured_media":0,"parent":494,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-505","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/505\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":504,"date":"2022-12-05T02:12:30","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T02:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/?page_id=504"},"modified":"2022-12-06T21:30:52","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T21:30:52","slug":"mexico-roma-2018","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/mexico-roma-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"MEXICO: Roma (2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"The Start of a Much-Needed Shift in Indigenous Representation\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/777942255?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1>The Start of a Much-Needed Shift in Indigenous Representation<\/h1>\n<p>by Jimmy Grebenstein<\/p>\n<p><strong>Please read the crafter statement before watching the video essay.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Since the Golden Age of Mexican cinema between the 1930s and 1950s, the representation of people of indigenous heritage has not been the most positive. Often painted as villains, criminals, thieves, or simply characters with inadequate qualities, actors of mixed and indigenous backgrounds struggled to find roles that allowed them to truly represent themselves. Watchers of similar backgrounds were left to deal with the stereotypes that would come from this constant portrayal.<\/p>\n<p>The famous character, \u201cLa India Mar\u00eda,\u201d portrayed by actress Mar\u00eda Elena Velasco Fragoso, appears in many different films and was a popular representation of indigenous women in Mexican Cinema. Appearing in sixteen different films and a television series, she appeared as a pop culture icon in her time. However, her portrayal of the character somewhat infantilized the indigenous women in the eyes of consumers. Indigenous people were seen as incompetent, ditzy, and clumsy, as La India Mar\u00eda was very so often portrayed (Mercer). Her repeated appearances strengthened this harmful stereotype, leaving indigenous folk with this negative image of themselves, not only in the eyes of others, but as an internal view as well.\u00a0 Around 28% of the population of Mexico is of predominantly indigenous origin. 62% of the population is classified as \u201cmestizo,\u201d which describes a person of mixed Indigenous and European descent (\u201cMexico Destination Guide\u201d). People of some indigenous descent make up the highest majority of any race in Mexico, so why is the portrayal of the majority constantly negative?<\/p>\n<p>In the film, <em>Roma<\/em>, watchers can see a different type of portrayal when looking at someone from indigenous heritage. Actress Yalitza Aparicio, who is of Mixtec and Triqui heritage, portrays a maid, who goes by the name of Cleo, that works for an upper middle class family in Mexico City. At first, it is clear to see that some members of the family see her simply as just hired help. As the movie progresses, Cleo proves to the family, and the audience, that she is more than that. She portrays herself in a caring, positive, loving, and almost heroic manner, which allows her to earn the love and trust of the family she takes care of. The children of the family are enamored by her sense of caretaking for them, and appreciate her very much. Therefore, clips in the video essay depict Cleo where she is either caring for the children, showing love for or being shown love by the family, or overall has a positive vibe and impact on the overall movie. This portrayal is remarkably different from past portrayals of indigenous people.<\/p>\n<p>The significance of Aparicio\u2019s role goes beyond the spectrum of this movie, but applies to representation of indigenous women in the cinema world overall. In presenting the character in this way, her actions that would be seen as small background options are brought to the forefront of the movie (Kogonada). Her genuine actions of love and care are seen as something more than the gesture of a hired maid, and as someone who deserves a part in the family. In Aparicio\u2019s methods, she indirectly shifts the perspective of indigenous women from what once was filled with purely negative thoughts to an improving modern perspective. She is seen as a hero after saving the family\u2019s children from rough ocean conditions, and simply providing care for the family beyond her hired duties in a time of need, such as when the parents were struggling with a bout of infidelity and marital issues. Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n\u2019s depiction of indigenous Mexican women allows cinephiles to ponder what the significance of this portrayal would be in the long run.<\/p>\n<p>While Aparicio\u2019s role does leave a positive note to ponder, racism still persists in the field of cinema. Due to Aparicio&#8217;s Oscar nomination for Best Actress, racist tweets and other derogatory messages were sent to her during the aftermath of the film (Mercer). The fact that she, as a darker-skinned indigenous woman, was portrayed in a positive light did not sit well among many in the Mexican population. The racism that resulted from this nomination proves that directors need to provide significantly more positive portrayals of indigenous people in cinema if there is talk of any change being made on the perspectives of many. Those who wish to see a shift in representation in Mexican cinema must actually work towards the change. This work is nowhere near close to being complete, and should not be treated as such. Improvements with portrayal, representation, and so much more will truly result in beneficial change.<\/p>\n<p>Positive representation allows for people to feel seen, respected, and treated better as a whole. It is something that is needed for a less racist future of Mexican cinema, and cinema on a worldwide scale.<\/p>\n<h2>Works Cited<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Kogonada. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/390608374\">Nothing at Stake<\/a>.\u201d Vimeo, Criterion Collection, 10 Feb. 2020. Accessed 27 Nov. 2022.<\/li>\n<li>Mercer, David. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/videos\/2019\/3\/19\/ridicule-of-indigenous-oscar-nod-highlights-racism-in-mexico\">Ridicule of Indigenous Oscar Nod Highlights Racism in Mexico<\/a>.\u201d Racism News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 19 Mar. 2019.<\/li>\n<li>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.diversityabroad.com\/articles\/travel-guide\/mexico\">Mexico Destination Guide<\/a>.\u201d <em>Diversity Abroad<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The Start of a Much-Needed Shift in Indigenous Representation by Jimmy Grebenstein Please read the crafter statement before watching the video essay.\u00a0 Thank you. Since the Golden Age of Mexican cinema between the 1930s and 1950s, the representation of people of indigenous heritage has not been the most positive. Often painted as villains, criminals, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/2022-collection\/mexico-roma-2018\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;MEXICO: Roma (2018)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2756,"featured_media":0,"parent":494,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-504","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/504\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/worldcinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}]