Lindsay Haraburda #MIT3832

Documentary Media

[studentlifenetwork]

Canada’s Luckiest Student 3 has officially launched. Since it’s the third time around, we’re starting with three awesome prizes that will have one Canadian student thanking their lucky stars.  Check them out: http://canadasluckieststudent.com . Prizes are coming fast and furious, so keep an eye on your inbox. As always, it’s the prize that just keeps getting better.

[fullmoonblooms]

[lh4mit]

Depersonalization disorder occurs when you persistently or repeatedly have a sense that things around you aren't real, or when you have the feeling that you're observing yourself from outside your body. Feelings of depersonalization can be very disturbing and may feel like you're losing your grip on reality or living in a dream.

[lh4mit]

In regard to our discussion on body image, there's been some mixed responses to this collegehumour video. The power of photoshop: models and pizza. Is this funny? Why do some people think so?

[lh4mit]

NEW GAME: What was your first exposure to educational media about eating disorders? Was it effective?

Mine was: Lizzie McGuire Season 2 Episode 8 "INNER BEAUTY" 

Aired 30,August,2002 Production Code 208 Miranda has a misconceived notion that she is fat and begins to skip meals to look slim for a music video directed by Gordo. Miranda begins to develop an eating disorder and Lizzie and Gordo are concerned about it. However, in the end Lizzie convinces Miranda to be comfortable with her body and persuades her to stop dieting.

I remember watching this episode on television and having something inside of me switch. I started dancing when I was 3, and grew up as a member of a professional dance company. I was 10 when I watched this episode and this was honestly my favourite show, so I felt like I knew Lizzie and Miranda. I resonated with Miranda's fear of how she looked in preparation for a performance, and this is where I got the idea to start skipping meals. In dance culture, I was constantly surrounded by eating disorders, but before watching this television show I had been ignorant to it. I'm not saying Lizzie McGuire was the reason I developed an eating disorder, there were many other aspects that fed into that and they came from many different vessels. But, I am saying looking back, this is the first medium of gaining information about eating disorders I could remember. And I think this is just one example of the seeds that are planted everyday in the least expected places. 

[lh4mit]

KAREN "anorexia" CARPENTER

So, I was trying to think about the most disturbing aspect of this film. The sequence that really stuck with me begins when Karen has just gotten home from rehab and is celebrating her new 'healthy' weight with her family. As her mother applauds her for finishing her entire meal, and cleaning off her plate, Karen has an interesting response: "Well, there are people starving in Africa you know," and the family laughs together.  

Following this conversation, Karen answers a phone call from her doctor. She tells him how fantastic she is doing. It then goes to fantastic camera work that makes the viewer feel like they are drinking a couple bottles of the syrup laxative. Immediately after there is a sequence of images, the two most memorable for me are a close up of a female vomiting and an image of what appears to be a black male, suffering from starvation, horizontally stretched, being carried by his hands and feet. 

All I could think about after seeing the brief image of the black man near death from starvation was how disgusting it is that this phrase "you know people in Africa are starving" is used to convict people in North America to eat. Not because it's a false statement, but because of how extreme this idea actually is and how it's actually necessary at points to get individuals to consume food. I know I grew up hearing this statement referenced around the dinner table, yet actually seeing an image of an actual person starving to death, not by choice, but out of circumstance, was personally an intense moment.

Another thing I got thinking about, was how is anorexia still so prevalent in our culture. After Karen's death, which sparked awareness on the eating disorder, people didn't stop willingly starving themselves. I looked up some current Canadian stats on anorexia and bulimia from CHealth: 

Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric condition in which people intentionally starve themselves because of a false belief that they are fat, or for fear of becoming obese. In reality, they are almost always underweight or of normal weight when the condition starts. It is estimated that more than 90% of all those diagnosed with anorexia nervosa are women, often from middle and upper socioeconomic backgrounds. This disorder usually starts in the years between adolescence and young adulthood, with the average age at onset of 14 years. Anorexia nervosa afflicts about 1 in 100,000 people in the population at large, but the rate is believed to be higher among Caucasian adolescent girls, about 1 in 200.

The above images were taken off of Pinterest, but majority come from Tumblr posts. I thought considering were using Tumblr to get our thoughts across, it would be appropriate to see what other messages are being tossed around. I don't know how or why, but it seems awareness of eating disorders has actually increased the presence of them. More and more celebrities appear in the media looking skinnier and skinnier. Young girls and women look at these images and attempt to mimic them. We all know this. We all talk about media representation and disseminating ideologies, but I'm wondering if providing awareness on anorexia and bulimia from the perspective of celebrity sufferers is actually helpful. 

"You can't put a face on an eating disorder - but you can face them"

I think this is dead wrong. We have put faces on eating disorders, and Karen Carpenter was just the beginning. We talked about in class her proficiency with drumming, and her absolutely pure and stunning voice, yet what has Karen been remembered for? Well, let's ask Google. 

Karen Carpenter has become a face for anorexia, and many other celebrities have begun to carry the torch for her. Below, we see Nicole Richie, being compared to the slim size of Karen. We've also seen recent tabloids on Kesha's eating disorder, with references to Karen's death and deadly potentials of anorexia and bulimia. I mean, I know we look at Richie, and ask why is she famous anyway, what is her talent, but regardless these are women who have gotten front page news spreads BECAUSE of their eating disorders. This is what they will be remembered for, and I'm just asking: Is this a good thing?

Celebrities are already considered to be godly idols, they are role-models: the average-joe consumes celebs life, worships the glitz and glam, and attempts to achieve an increased reverence of self from the other mortals. We know this is true, and with the rise of narcissism, self-entitlement, and many platforms for this potential fame, young people everywhere are finding their how-to's of fame from celebrity news outlets. In the last years, it has become almost mandatory for celeb life to at some point be in rehab with some sort of substance abuse or disorder, and eating disorders have been at the top of the list for women. BUT, WHY AREN'T WE TALKING ABOUT MEN'S EATING DISORDERS?

All I'm trying to put out there is that I think Karen deserves to be remembered as more than just a face of anorexia and bulimia. I think Superstar: The Story of Karen Carpenter got to that a bit, specifically in the interview section of less than famous experts who discussed her life, but ultimately the film still focused a lot on her eating disorder. Karen's death started a discussion on the impact of pressures to be skinny, but I can't help to wonder what the motivation for providing this media and educational resources about anorexia was. People made money off of it, a lot of money off of it. And people continue to make a lot of money off of it. Even the image above, I haven't been able to stop looking at it, comparing their appearances, how Richie used to look, and contemplating if she looks better smaller, or what could be her ideal. We look at celebrities to feel better about ourselves. This is twisted, it makes me feel twisted, and all too aware of the voyeuristic pleasures associated with looking at these women. You can see the text providing warnings, yet the image becomes idol, and you ignore the caution.

Considering the aftermath with the film, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, I can imagine Todd Haynes had a motivation greater than money, but I'm still caught up thinking about the benefits of having anorexia and bulimia in the media with a celebrity endorsement, regardless if they're alive or dead. I think there is something dangerous here for our society with the grouping of fame, eating disorders and beauty, which has only increased since the death of Carpenter. 

[lh4mit]

TARNATION

Hands down, this is my favourite film we have viewed so far. There are so many angles and layers to it, it literally makes you rethink everything we know as truth and I think that is why I love it. Let's be real here, Jonathan has been dealt a fucked up life, and so had his mother, Renee, and probably so had his grandparents, Rosemary and Adolph. Renee did say at one point "Sick parents raise sick children," potentially alluding to the generational trauma of this family. 

We can all agree that it took some serious courage, vulnerability and honesty for Jonathan to release this film. But I actually think that the extent of these qualities is much more than we can imagine. Just to put things into perspective, having knowledge that this family has some Jewish background to them literally alters how some would receive this film. I was considering what it would be like to view Tarnation at a Jewish film festival, and then almost pissed my pants. Even if this film were to be shown at a Christian film festival, or religious one in general, I would pay good money to watch the reaction of a crowd.

To start, the word Tarnation is actually a euphemism for damnation (if you knew that, cool, I didn't - thanks google). The film begins with Renee singing about her faith in Jesus, confusing the lyrics to the song, yet still singing about a false-Messiah in the minds of practising Jews. Immediately following, the audience is pulled through over-stimuli of images, extremely dark and chaotic clips paired with distorted audio tracks, that all effectively give you a mere glimpse at the hell this family has experienced. It's all evil, fucked up shit that makes you question if there is anything good left on this planet. It makes you question why things happen to some people. You see the struggles of Jonathan being forced to silence his queer sexuality, and the forced years of shock treatment that has destroyed his mother, Renee. And, you see the role of oppressor given to Jon's grandfather, and Renee's father, Adolph. Who told Jonathan to stay quiet? Who signed off on the papers for Renee? 

And so the film presents Adolph as being a God loving man. He shares the story of the touch of an angel on the divot of our upper lips, a touch that makes it so we can't remember life in our mother's womb. His response to questions about allowing shock treatment for his daughter was something like: "We're a happy family, and a loving family, and we love God". 

We see Jonathan's boyfriend, Michael, create a beautiful snow angel and Jonathan describe it as a nuclear angel. We see Renee endlessly discussing a pumpkin, in a childlike effort to gain attention, all with an angel on her shirt, and another angel model in the background. After proclaiming how fucked up it is that he loves his mother, Jonathan puts her to sleep and touches the divot in her upper lip. We are given an ending audio that contains "Therefore be at peace with God, in all brokenness - still be at peace in the world." 

So, let's think about this. All of the stereotypes that exist surrounding what religious folk think and do, and now this film has been aired at festivals. We see real human pain, suffering, oppression by a man who self-defines as a lover of God, drug abuse, injustice in government care systems, injustice in the medical system, mental disorder, queer living, divorce, father abandonment, and the layers go on. And honestly, I think it is absolutely beautiful. What is captured in this film is life - truth and pure life. It captures the crap - yet perseverance regardless. It captures the lack of 'fairness' in the cards we are dealt in life - but the ability to live with love first and putting care of someone else before our own needs. 

I didn't almost piss my pants when I thought about this film being shown at a religious film festival because of all the things that could be called 'sins' (sin defines anything that pulls you to stray from God) but because I think Tarnation actually expresses what the bible, or God's word, or what God really wants us to know and how to live. In the midst of the chaos and misfortunes of life, Jonathan is taking care of his mother and putting her life before his own. He is giving her the love that she was always worth, yet never received. By taking in his grandfather, Adolph, he's loving the very person who could be blamed for the damnation his family has experienced. He does not respond in hate, but contrarily responds in the same love he gives his mother. And his boyfriend is like an angel for Jonathan - could you imagine CHOOSING to live with your boyfriend and his broken family.

Tarnation for me was the expression that in the midst of having a life that appears to be damned, there is an ability to experience love. And not the romantic love that is hyper publicized as the love to work and fight for, yet only features warm fuzzy feelings that bring comfort for a moment and sizzle out fast. Instead, I'm talking about the love that never runs dry, that gives without expecting anything in return, that puts the needs of the other person first, that chooses long suffering, and talking about the hard things, and doing this not to gain power but out of a genuine humility that seeks for someone to know their full destiny. A genuine humility that can say someone else's life has just as much, if not more, meaning than their own. 

Tarnation accomplishes displaying that kind of love. It presents the reality of shit of this world. Really broken and decaying shit. Yet, in the midst of the mess, it presents a family who hasn't given up. A family that still attempts to love each other, not in spite of their situations, but because of them. They do not ignore the hard parts, they face these full on, and do it together. For me, that's the epitome of the good news in the gospel and just one way Tarnation offers a revitalized perspective on life. 

[lh4mit]

“Most perpetrators either deny what they’ve done or apologize for it.” says Oppenheimer "The reason for that is that by the time we get to them and identify them as perpetrators, they’ve lost.

"And here we have what appears to be the exception to the rule, which is that these men haven’t been overthrown. They won and they’ve built a whole society based on what they’ve done. Based on the elimination of any progressive left and based on mythologizing it as something heroic.

“Only gradually did I come to understand that [Anwar’s] relentless honesty was in fact his way of trying to deal with his pain. The boasting may not betray a lack of remorse or lack of conscience at all, but may be a desperate effort to convince himself that what he did was right. Let’s say I had killed, or you had killed and still had the opportunity to justify what you had done to the world. You would, because the other choice is that you wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and see a murderer.”

This film was as John said 'a mind fuck' for me. I still want to desperately believe that Anwar's progression over the film did reflect a change in him. Anwar appears a man filled with pride over these killings, but I think Joshua shows in this film that his pride serves as a covering for deep pain over what he has committed and a fear for dealing with the consequences of knowing the truth of his actions. In the scene where Anwar is watching himself be brutally tortured, and even brings his grandsons in to watch, there appears to be a moment of revelation for Anwar. I noticed Anwar calls the director, Joshua Oppenheimer, simply 'Josh,' and it appeared to be a real moment for me. It made me think about how a director seeking to capture a documentary to bring truth to a political matter could simultaneously have a huge impact on the participants. It seemed that Joshua grew a relationship with these gangsters, and they slowly opened up to him, and became more vulnerable. I think that scene was a vulnerable moment of friendship captured between Anwar and Joshua. And, although it may not have been a full revelation for Anwar of the pain and long suffering he had induced for people within Indonesia, I do believe there was maybe just one brick removed from the walls of protection he has built. As they say, ignorance is bliss, and the work Joshua did of asking questions and encouraging these gangsters to relive the past, may have worked to bring insight not just to people of Indonesia, but also to the gangsters. I know the easy thing to do after watching this film is to hate these gangsters for what they have done, but I think Joshua has shown light on many layers of genocide, and positions of oppressor and oppressed. He shows the motivation of the gangsters, and the deep coping mechanisms that emerge once the acts have been committed. Many of these gangsters responded differently to their individual act of killing, and I think in a seriously fucked up way, it presents how fragile, yet complex, the human psyche is. 

Full Article: 

The Act of Killing: How The Film Everybody's Talking About Might Change Indonesia Forever

[lh4mit]

Let's begin by correcting a myth: the film is not banned in Indonesia. Director Joshua Oppenheimer deliberately avoided censorship by not submitting the film for approval, predicting it would be rejected. Since the film is not banned, private screenings are not technically illegal, and are thereby protected by law from the possibility of a violent response by those who disagree with its message.

A group of 60 Indonesian crew members have opted not to list their names in the film's credits, including an anonymous Jakarta-based co-director, reflecting the sensitivity of the topic in Indonesia. Progress has been made to address the killings in the 16 years since the end of the New Order, though mostly from the side of the persecuted left. The report by Komnas HAM has been rejected by the Attorney General and national leaders have refused to front reconciliation efforts. 

The Act of Killing is not a perfect representation of Indonesia's history in the 1960s and it should not be uncritically accepted by Western audiences as a portrait of Indonesia today. At the same time, the power of the film's narrative should not be underestimated. Through its relatively free circulation among young Indonesians and its rise to global attention at the Oscars, the film serves as a starting point for addressing an otherwise forgotten period of Indonesia's history.

[lh4mit]

The way Terkel brought to life the 'war at home' has really been on my mind. More specifically, through the life of Jesusita Novarro. 

Jesusita says: 

"Some men work eight hours a day. There are mothers that work eleven, twelve hours a day. We get up at night, a baby vomits, you have to be calling the doctor, you have to be changing the baby. When do you get a break, really? You don't. This is an all-around job, day and night. Why do they say it's charity? We're working for our money. I am working for this check. It is not charity. We are giving some kind of home to these children.

I'm so busy all day I don't have time to daydream. I pray a lot. I pray to God to give me strength. If He should take a child away from me, to have the strength to accept it. It's His Kid. He just borrowed him to me." 

Jesusita is a woman who struggles to work a "man's job," while also taking care of the children at home. Terkel adds: 

"At one time, during her second marriage, she had worked as an assembler at a television factory. 'I didn't care for it. It was too automatic. It was just work, work, work, and I wasn't giving myself. Just hurry it up and get it done. Even if you get a job that pays you, if you don't enjoy it, what are you getting? You're not growing up. (Taps temple.) Up here.'

So I came across this new singer, Valerie June - who by the way is amazing, seriously, you all should listen to this woman sing, she's incredible - but her lyrics really made me stop. Is this workin' woman's blues of the present day much different from the life of Jesusita in the 70s?

Take a peak at the lyrics: 

Valerie June - Workin' Woman's Blues 

I ain't fit to be no mother I ain't fit to be no wife yet I been workin' like a man, y'all I been workin' all my life yeah There ain't no dinner on the table Ain't no food in the 'fridgerator I'll go to work and I'll be back later I go to work said I'd be back later Lord you know I'm a good looking woman Lord you know I'm a good looking girl If you want to give me something Anything in this great big world yeah Lord you know that I am ready for my sugar my sugar daddy

Working hard to get food on the table, the woman questioning her ability to raise and provide for her children, wondering if a man will be the solution, and praying to God to give her the thing she needs at that moment to get by.

Have we really progressed evolved changed grown at all? 

Will it always be a "man's world"? 

Or - while the scenery alters, does this inner human struggle persist? 

And all I want to know is WHY!? 

[lh4mit]

TERKEL: Revealing THE WAR AT HOME

"There will always be war. There always has been. The way the world is run, yes, there will always be war. Why? I really don't know. Nobody has ever told me. I was so busy handling my own affairs and taking care of my children and trying to make my own money and calling up welfare when my checks are late or something has been stolen. All I know is what's going on here. I'm an intelligent woman up to a certain point, and after that... I wish I knew. I guess the big shots decided the war. I don't question it, because I've been busy fighting my own little war for so long."

- Jesusita Novarro, Just a Housewife in Terkel's Working (403)

[lh4mit]

Dan is quite the man: Collage graduate vs. Rock star 

“In art, and maybe just in general, the idea is to be able to be really comfortable with contradictory ideas. In other words, wisdom might be, seem to be, two contradictory ideas both expressed at their highest level and just let to sit in the same cage sort of, vibrating. So, I think as a writer, I'm really never sure of what I really believe.”  ― George Saunders

[lindzmull]

To simply summarize Gates of Heaven… #mit3832 

[lh4mit]

HOT OFF THE PRESS...

"MIT Class Get Matching Gates of Heaven Wrist Tattoo"                                                             

[lh4mit]

Can a photograph still change the world?

http://www.salon.com/2011/08/02/somalia_famine_times/