Category Archives: film

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

Redefining Romeo and Juliet: Reclaiming the “Ghetto”

Teaching ninth graders, the past month has been one centered around themes of conflict as my class analyzes Romeo and Juliet. Over this and a couple of future posts, I wanted to share some of the work my students and I have been engaging in. Essentially, the role of the seminal, ninth grade text, has shifted. No longer can students simply read and analyze Romeo and Juliet. Instead, it is not an option to include materials that exist outside of the original text; it is an imperative part of understanding the text. I’ll return to this idea after sharing some examples.

Utilizing the Flip Cams that Peter and I used for our What Son Productions course, the students will be recreating their own versions of scenes from the play. This is not an original or a very creative idea (more about that in a minute). What is interesting, though, is the process of reading Romeo and Juliet across different interpretations. As we read a scene, we may screen a scene from the 1996 Lurhmann interpretation as well as the 1968 Zeffirelli interpretation. We are then utilizing a 4×4 graphic organizer to note key differences between the original source, two films, and our own ideas of how the scene could be produced. These products are becoming the basis for a production log the students are creating as they note where one version may fall short – Tybalt being too aggressive to Romeo in the 1996 version before Mercutio becomes a “grave man,” for instance.

As I mentioned, the concept of asking students to recreate their own versions of scenes isn’t a very new one. In fact, as more and more students have easy access to tools of production – as these tools have become ubiquitous – it’s easy to see student work samples online. However, the vast, vast majority of these samples appear to be from overwhelmingly white communities. And these versions are taking significant liberties in their portrayal of urban reenactments of Romeo and Juliet.

Over the course of a week, I began each class by screening a 3-7 minute YouTube clip. I simply searched “Gangster Romeo and Juliet” and a deluge of student-created videos showed up showing “ghetto” versions of the play. [This was inspired by a conversation about developing this unit with my colleague Peter Carlson.]

This ghetto, however, is technically the community my students live and go to school in. This ghetto is stereotyped by white students in ways that at first issued guffaws. My students found the videos funny at first. However, after a couple of days, students said they felt “mocked.” They said that the videos didn’t show things correctly, were making fun of the community, and actually lacked textual understanding of Shakespeare’s words (several of the films, for instance, abbreviated Abraham’s name the same way that Luhrmann’s did).

Often times, these videos are posing these ghetto versions in lush, rural or suburban communities:

I want to underscore that I am not using these examples to criticize the students that have made them. However, when discussing them with students, we have noticed that there are not similar “ghetto” versions made by people of color. And if they are not creating them, essentially, an incorrect truth about what the ghetto is and how people act within it is being reified. My students shifted uncomfortably in their seats as they began thinking about the messages that a critical mass of lighthearted “ghetto” student clips are sending; these paired with YouTube clips of student fights are furthering stereotypes of student behavior and expectations.

As educators, our role is changing; the power of student production is a necessary tool for critical analysis. How can these tools break down existing assumptions?

As a class, my students are thinking about how they can create videos that respond critically to the samples they’ve seen, accurately reflect a nuanced understanding of their neighborhoods & worldviews, and express thematic interpretation of the canonical text. It is the necessary hard work I am excited about seeing develop in the next two weeks.

Again, as I said in the opening paragraph, the role of Romeo and Juliet is much more inclusive than simply the 92 pages of the Dover edition that my students have each been asked to purchase. The culture and understanding of the text is inclusive of a rich body of knowledge, assumptions, and continuing dialogue with the work through writing, acting, and recording. Social networking, new media, and a changing access to technology means that simply summarizing plot and theme is disregarding the other critical skills students need to learn in an English class.

Support Lwa and Create Dangerously

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First of all my good friend and filmmaker Dehanza Rogers is currently trying to raise funding for her magical-realist, Haitian short film, Lwa. Please take a look at her Kickstarter page. Really, even a small contribution will go a long way to helping support a filmmaker I believe in.

Over the next couple of weeks, Daye and I are reading through Edwidge Danticat’s latest collection of essays, Create Dangerously, and have agreed to post a few comments back and forth. We did this once before a while ago and it’s not too late for you to grab a copy and join us as we read at the accommodating, glacial pace of two chapters a week. [Though I know Daye’s familiar with Danticat’s work, this collection got my attention via this post.]

For me, I am reading this book largely oblivious to the Haitian culture from which Danticat is writing and I’m hoping to use this dialogue as a space to understand better both the space of art from which both Danticat and Daye are producing from and within.

I’m struck by the fact that the titles of the first two chapters of the book serve as gentle and opposing commands: “Create Dangerously” and “Walk Straight.” As if the role of the “Immigrant Artist at Work” traverses the careful balance of producing with criticality and toeing an existing conceit. An interesting balancing act; I know how this tension is played out in the public eye for Danticat based on her reflections in “Walk Straight.” Daye, I’m curious how you are working between both of these.

As for the content, I like the way Danticat’s own perspectives as a creator are steeped in a history –familial, national, cultural, universal. The Haitian political figures that begin the book, the subterfugre, assassinations, and secret police reminded me Graham Greene’s lesser work, The Comedians and I was pleased to see Danticat reference it directly (as well as Greene’s exile from Hatia as a result of his choice of dangerously creating the accurate portrayl of the dictatoriship within the novel). [As a brief aside, I want to point out that I purchased The Comedians as a used bookstore solely because of a blind faith in Greene’s writing and the incredible cover art.] I am struck by the idea that, “there is probably no such thing as an immigrant artist in this globalized age.” While I don’t necessarily agree with Danticat’s claim here, I am curious about what authorial advantages are gained by vantage of the “immigrant” in the flattened world so many are pointing to.

I don’t want to make this too long as Daye and I will be checking in over the course of the book, so I’ll end by examining a quote from the second chapter: “Anguished by my own sense of guilt, I often reply feebly that in writing what I do, I exploit no one more than myself.” I’ve find myself empathizing with Danticat’s claim here and wonder how you, Daye, see this quote in relation to your own work and in particular to Lwa.

Waiting for Dialogue

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There’s a lot of talk about Waiting for Superman: what it gets wrong, what it portrays incorrectly, what needs to be done. Having finally seen it, I actually can’t say I’m all that disappointed with the film. If anything, I see it as a tremendous opportunity.

Sure, I take issue with the ways that charters are lionized, unions are vilified, and lottery-losing parents are victimized in Waiting for Superman. However, as an educator, I can say I’m still genuinely glad this film is making headlines. I realize this idea may upset many of my colleagues, but I hope more people will see it. I hope they’ll walk out of the theater angry.

Scanning the credits, I noted that Waiting for Superman utilized a data set and resources I am not only familiar with but know and trust the researchers that created it. As such, it’s not that the film is menacing propaganda but more a gripping reminder of the ways that data can be framed to tell specific narratives. Of course, when such tales deal with the opportunities and lived experiences of young people across the country, the stories matter much much less than actual results.

I appreciate efforts like Not Waiting for Superman and I hope more people will be able to look at some of the more level headed responses coming out of the film. And frankly, the amount of funding that can go directly into classrooms as a result of the Donors Choose promotion with the film is fantastic. If anything, I feel like a lot of individuals are going to walk out of the theater and many will be compelled to visit the film’s web site, maybe click the Take Action tab, maybe even buy the more problematic companion text. And critical educators are going to stomp their feet and make this a debate when it should be a dialogue.

Here is a film that is helping create vitriol for the atrocities that are happening – historically – within classrooms. This is an opportunity to build coalitions around anger – not see the film as an attack but as an entry point for more dialogue and for action regardless of if you are pro-Waiting or pro-Not Waiting. Frankly, it would be great if a site like Waiting for Superman and a site like Not Waiting for Superman simply linked individuals to the exact same forum – everyone will be going to these sites for the same purposes: students.

Manual Arts School of Communication and Global Awareness Student Film Festival

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[If you would like a PDF of the above info to distribute, it is available here.]

“The Ending Wasn’t Really Fair”: The 400 Blows, The Wizard of Oz, and Envisioning Social Equity through Film

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Over the past two weeks, approximately forty students from Manual Art have participated in a film intersession course I am co-teaching with Peter Carlson. These students have watched a handful of universally lauded films, critiqued them, and created & produced their own films. And although Peter and I will be writing in more detail about the pedagogy and instructional experiences of our current intersession film class, I wanted share a few snippets of what makes this such a fun class to be a part of.

Location Location Location: While our first class met in a large room at Manual Arts High School, the rest of the classes have met at UCLA the past two weeks. Though students were initially concerned about the nearly two hour public-bus commute to the other side of the city, the experience of holding the class at the university has a powerful effect on the students. Utilizing UCLA’s classrooms, labs, and film school has helped expose students to the opportunities of four-year universities and has made this period much more an experience than simply an elective class. Further, though Peter has taken the bus with many of the students in the morning, many students are getting to campus early and exploring. It’s been fun walking through the sculpture garden in the morning and encountering kids wandering and relaxing.

Production: Each week, student groups are required to create a short film. These films are based on the themes and techniques studied in class that week. Last Thursday as our guest instructor Daye Rogers worked with students editing their films, Peter and I walked across the campus. It was thrilling to see the school sprinkled with our students collaborating, planning, and shooting their films. The breakneck pace of the class has student’s working creatively, thinking technically, and getting a pretty solid foundation in digital editing thanks to Daye’s help. (There will be a student film festival at Manual Arts on April 3^rd and the films will likely be available online soon – details will follow.)

Problem-Posing & Social Analysis through Film: Of course, the experiences of discussing and critiquing the films in this class have been powerful for all of us. Though the history of cinema is generally one told and produced by an overwhelmingly white and male demographic, we started our class by screening Children of Men to help frame the more diverse, global community working in film today. A hefty number of guests continue to visit the class discussing their work in film and academia. However, the conversations that arise as a result of the films are what most engage the students. Today, for instance, students analyzed how the ending of 400 Blows may yield the kind of ambiguity that is absent from the definitive door slam that concludes The Godfather. Further, students looked at the sexual objectification of women in Truffaut & Coppola’s films, and contrasted it with aspects of The Wizard of Oz. Questions of freedom, liberation, and responsibility were discussed in looking at the treatment of children in 400 Blows and robots in Blade Runner. Through these small and large group discussions, students are naturally guiding themselves towards critical analysis of their communities. These films are helping students reveal universal commonalities of their lived experiences.

Again, I will be posting an update about the upcoming film festival, Peter and I will be drafting a more comprehensive description of the work, and I am hoping to rope in a few students to author posts about their experiences as well. Stay Tuned.

Game Play/Real Play & We Live In Public

Movie Check In: More Like Ava-Jar-Jar, Amirite people?

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As problematic as Avatar was, it was still a fun flick. The incredibly clunky script didn’t bother me nearly as much as the score and the font used for the subtitles.

In any case, when James Cameron wasn’t busy hitting you over the head with the environmental and colonial no-no themes, there were occasional moments of subtlety.

I like the notion of the film as a testament of experiential knowledge over book knowledge. Reading about and learning the language of one culture does not make you the kind of authentic participant than actually, y’know, participating does.

Not too shabby a blockbuster for the winter season, and I always hoped they’d remake Dances With Wolves, so there you go. Would fit nicely into a unit with Ishmael, Thoreau, or even Siddhartha.

Baby Steps

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I’ve been trying for some time to track down the new Babies documentary trailer, after first seeing it before Where the Wild Things Are. I remembered feeling troubled by the way the film other-izes and makes cute foreign lifestyles and traditions.

I’m not trying to be curmudgeonly and express distaste for everything, but it feels odd when everyone in the theater is laughing at African and Asian babies (“Ha ha, they’re fighting” and “Ha ha, they have a goat that’s drinking the bath water”) while the whiter babies are simply seen as adorable, as normal.

It doesn’t look like this was the intention of the film or the trailer, but – when we’re filming & editing from a westernized position (I believe the film is French) – these biases arise unintentionally.

I think the trailer will have to be online soon. In the meantime, I snapped a bunch of pics in the theater as I watched Fantastic Mr. Fox as if I were some bootlegger trying to peddle wares in the LA Santee market.

Check out the contrast in depiction of lifestyles (yes, perhaps this is partly the point of the film, but doesn’t it make it even more problematic?). Enjoy.