#mit3832

[melissaeshaghbeigi]

"The best films of any kind, narrative or documentary, provoke questions." - Ed Norton 

[melissaeshaghbeigi]

Life In A Day: Filmed By You. Really cool documentary produced by Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald featuring footage from 80,000 submissions. The film depicts what happened on July 24, 2010 from 192 countries in the world. Full film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaFVr_cJJIY

[melissaeshaghbeigi]

"I make projects that explore the relationship between humans and technology, incorporating computer science, statistics, storytelling, visual art, and other techniques. I see our species evolving into a single meta-organism, brought to life by the Internet, even as we live our individual lives, searching for meaning and beauty. My projects straddle these scales of existence—from the planetary to the personal."

- Jonathan Harris

[melissaeshaghbeigi]

Hey Harris, I Love Your Work

This isn't your typical documentary. While I agree that the format had a tendency of taking away from the subject matter, I was thoroughly enthralled by its presentation.

I absolutely loved the construction and conceptualization of this film. I found Jonathan Harris' presentation fascinating and thought provoking in our discussion of documentary media and even in a larger discussion of changing media consumption patterns.

Is this documentary more objective in its presentation of short ten second clips? Can viewers gain a better understanding of a subject through this strategy? Harris presents these women in settings at work, off work and in between. The ten second clips felt like sound bytes into these women lives. Are these presentations more authentic or even further constructed? Can identity be properly conveyed and performed in such short frames?The film felt hyperreal and voyeuristic - I felt like I was toying around, peaking into these women's lives but I kind of enjoyed being granted the opportunity to explore footage on my own terms. This choppy format made me feel slightly more connected to the material and the women.

I absolutely love the interactive component of the documentary. The audience is forced out of a passive viewing and given the opportunity to become a director of sorts. The entire project was filled with novel documentary media strategies which I just found so creative. I also found this strategy a modern day interpretation of Studs Terkel's work in some way. These women are providing are their oral history yet its being reconstructed and rearranged by a number of people.

After four years in MIT, I am always curious about the ever changing media landscape and I really appreciate what Harris has done in light of this. By charging and limiting the number of views per day on an online forum, I think Harris was able to elevate a discussion of new media consumption online. This film has challenged my preconceived notions of not just what a documentary can be but how media can be released in this new age of media consumption. Can this be a viable means of releasing movies online in general? I wonder...

  Honestly, I just really like it when people play around with media conventions.

[lindzmull]

" A Brother Remembers"

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20198418,00.html 

[docudeb]

Maybe I'm out in left field with this, but I do feel like O'Rourke is dehumanizing the (white) subjects of his film as a means of drawing a clear parallel to how his subjects dehumanize the locals.  Am I okay with this?  I don't know.  I definitely think a lot of the subjects in this film are jerks and I would like to think that I'm "different" or "better" than them, but then here I am, sitting here from my own throne of self-righteousness. 

Can I pass judgment on these people when I, too, come from a place of privilege?  More specifically I'm referring the privilege of my education that has enlightened me on topics of which I used to be ignorant.

Either way, the film made me uncomfortable, and that's something I can say for certain.  Which I'm sure was the intention.

[docudeb]

So many documentary films, despite other political and cultural pretensions, primarily serve to make the audience feel good - feel part of an enlightened elite - as though they have achieved some cachet or absolution for themselves by the simple act of watching a film. And it follows that the audience identifies with their omniscient hero, the film maker.

Dennis O'Rourke

[j-martin-jr]

Cannibal Habits of the Common Tourist -

Dennis O’Rourke’s ‘Cannibal Tours,’ 25 year later