Prison Terminal

The other week, in class, Dr. Butters brought in a friend of his. This friend was a documentary filmmaker. He talked to the class for a very short amount of time, and then he showed us a film he is in the process of making. The film is called Prison Terminal, and it follows a terminally ill prisoner that has a life sentence. The prisoner, Jack, seems like an angry old coot, but his story made me feel sympathetic. Jack is an inmate that is sentenced to life in prison for killing a drug dealer. The real reason Jack killed the drug dealer is because his son was addicted to drugs, and he ended up committing suicide.
Now more about the actual film and its style. The director used cinema verite to record the happenings at the prison's hospice. Cinema verite is the "fly on the wall" style of documentary film making. The way it works is the cameraman/director is given a portable camera. The cameraman follows his subject(s) around without any interference or side commentary. There is no voice of God narration. The only input the director had was the title screens between segments, and he also controlled what scenes the audience would be viewing.

Sans Soleil

We viewed the awkward documentary Sans Soleil in class the other week. This film was very strange, to put it lightly. It was almost telling a story in a way. The narrator was a woman. This is different on most accounts and caught my attention immediately because almost every single documentary I have watched before this used a male narrator to do the Voice of God. Why did the male director chose a female narrator when the film was also through a male cameraman? The only thing I can say is that the film was already strange enough, so why not add a female narration? The film was formed as a letter to someone dear of the filmmaker. The reader of the letter was the narrator, and the cameraman caught what the letter was saying through his camera lens. I honestly did not think he was capturing half of what the narrator was saying, but that is why film making is an art form.
Another thing I found interesting was the directors interests with the strange ways of the Japanese people. Well it is strange to us Americans because it is so foreign to us, but to them it is an everyday thing. One scene that interested me was the multiple cat temples and shrines. It seems to me that the Japanese have a sacred belief towards cats.


Another interesting thing about this film was the way the woman narrator was speaking the man's thoughts. One scene where I noticed this was when the cameraman was trying to gain eye contact with a random African woman. The narrator was talking of how the woman would look up, and then she would look away. All of this that she was saying was what the cameraman was portraying, but it was what the writer's (a.k.a. the director) letter that she was reading.
When all is said and done Sans Soleil is one of the most strange and awkward films that I have viewed and will always stay at the top of that list for me.

The World at War and Harvey Milk

The World at War was a 24 part documentary series that looked over World War II. It also covered many things from strategies, to key battles, and the struggles of the Jewish people. The one we viewed in class was something I have never seen before. The episode took the side of the German Army and showed them over throw a Russian stronghold. This was unique to me because every WWII documentary or film that I have watched in my life has been on the Allies.
This documentary was extremely controlled and showed the viewer strictly what the filmmaker wanted us to see. The narration was the typical Voice of God style that we have seen countless times. The way this film worked was very simple. It would show clips of soldiers marching and fighting, and after a key battle it would cut to a battle map where the only thing the viewer could see is a pointer and symbols that represent the German and Russian Armies.
In this entire series the narrator is viewed only once between the 24 episodes, and the one time he is seen is to warn the viewers of the dark and terrible images they would be viewing in the up coming episode. This episode was about the Jews and their mass execution/prosecution.
The other film we viewed on that day in class was The Times of Harvey Milk. The way this film was constructed interested me. It opened the exact way it ended. This made it seem like the film was coming back around full circle. The opening/ending scene was of a woman at a press conference announcing the assassination of both Harvey Milk and the mayor of California. Why was Harvey targeted? Well he was gay, and this was before the gay activist movements. Some say Harvey was the father of the movement since he was the first openly gay person to hold a political seat. Harvey knew he could be the target of an assassination attempt so he wrote his will. This was read after his cold blooded murder. In the will it's stated that he is one of the leaders of the gay movement for all of his brothers and sisters.
The narrator of this film was Harvey Fierstein. The reason this is important is because Mr. Fierstein is gay himself. Why would the director choose a gay person to narrate a film of a gay man? It is left to speculation, but the relation is clearly apparent.

Millhouse: The Nixon Killer

Our last day in class we watched the film Millhouse: A White Comedy, or as i titled "The Nixon Killer." I say this because it is the first flaming of Richard Nixon on film. This is made by none other than Emile de Antonio. This film follows Emile's usual filming style of no narration. I find it to be more real when I watch a documentary in the style of Emile. The way he edits his films still gets his point across, but he does it by letting the one he is filming destroy his/herself, as he did in this film with Nixon. Emile also seems to be ahead of societies curve. This flaming of Nixon was before his treacherous Watergate Scandal that destroyed himself.
The opening scene of this film was very interesting. He opened with a segment where a man is assembling a wax model of Nixon. It is very organized, neat, and creepy. This ties in towards Richard Nixon himself as he was obsessed with his own personal image. Being good looking must have been a big help to get him into office because what i saw did not impress nor get him my "vote" and why didn't the American citizens realize he wouldn't be good when California didn't elect him mayor.
Onto the actual effects Emile employed. He used his masterful skill of editing once again to portray someone the way he wants without using the "voice of God" tactic most documentaries use nowadays. This also allows for the viewer to use his imagination as to what his scenes/messaging is actually trying to say.

The Nam Scare

In the mid sixties, before the anti-war movement, one daring film maker, Emile de Antonio, made an somewhat anti-war film about the issues over seas in Vietnam. There were many strong clips throughout the film making both sides of the war seem good and bad. One scene he makes the wife of Vietnams leader look absolutely pig-like. In the scene Antonio shows the wife in a luxurious outfit and immediately cuts to a scene of the poverty right outside of her dream world. Emile does a phenomenal job of sending messages to his audiences without using a voice of God. Simply using subliminal messaging through his editing is enough to send a mind wandering about what de Antonio is really trying to say.
Another powerful scene is of the monk that burns himself alive. This was used as a measure of protest against the Vietnamese regime in 1963. Many of the bystanders sprinted towards his burning body and bowed in praise of his unflinching death. Emile used this as a form of his anti-war effort. The editing would cut to a clip of carrosine being poored and then a politician speaking of it. Then it would follow with the ignition, followed by more speaking, and lastly, the rotting corpse and a quick cut to another speaking American.
Emile always seemed to be ahead of his time. He made this film before the American protest and tried to rat out Nixon before he reached office. Sadly people simply took his films for granted without truly analyzing what he was saying.

The Male's Eye

In class last week we had a discussion of how the male's eye can be viewed through the lens of the camera. So we were set out with a mission to find a clip or a video that displays the eye of the male sex. If you would just sit and watch a typical movie, you may see clips or segments of it focused on the female body. One example of this could be the show The Girls Next Door. This show is strictly of the Playboy bunnies and how they go through their days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IH8tNQAzSs In this clip is a rap video of Lil Wayne's popular song Lollipop. The video portrays women with scantily clad outfits and big busts. Many rap videos nowadays follow this theme of showing the woman's body off while the rapper continues with his song. Is it a disrespect towards the opposite sex or is man showing more respect? It is left up to debate.