Cinema Assihgnment: Introduction to World Cinema
Final Comparative Essay: Ideology and the difficult path to a dignified Life
Our idea of a dignified life is informed by personal, familial, communal and national ideology. The characters in the two films you will analyze are trying to live or achieve what they believe is a dignified life, but the decisions they make on their journey to achieving this goal may not always agree with our ideological frameworks.
In your final comparative essay you will write about the idea of a dignified life and its relationship to ideology, genre, realism, and interpellation in two films we watched this semester.
As we discussed in class, you bring your ideological frameworks to the reading of every film you watch and, in turn, every film communicates ideological positions that might speak to or question your political, religious, or cultural (gender, sexuality, religious, and other) points of view.
For example, we cheer for a King T'Challa and not Eric Killmongerbecause we share in the King's idea of justice and fairness in the world. Killmonger's ideology is not as appealing to us because it reminds us of death, evil and everything that is wrong with the humanity. At times, we find ourselves identifying with a character likeSaid in Paradise Now, because we believe a child who has endured trauma and violence deserves a chance to redeem himself and find a path to a dignified. There are many ways our ideological (national, cultural, gender, sexual, religious) frameworks are validated or unsettled in the films we have watched in class.
In your essay you can write about the film Paradise Now or Moonlight as one of your essays. You can also choose one of the films below as your second film in you essay.
Water
Once Where Warriors
Whale Rider
Hunger
You must do the following in your essay:
1) Identify and discuss the ideological position or positions that frame the story in two films we will discuss in class.
2) Identify and discuss the type of realism used in these two films. Why might the director use this type of realism and not some of other type?
3) Identify genre for each film and discuss why this genre works for the type of story being told. Could some other genre worked better?
4) Discuss what interpellation tells us about our investment in the ideological positions discuss in each film.
Keep in mind that color, filters, sound, lighting, and camera position if often used to hide ideology. In fact, editing and cinematography has often been used to hide the ideological position of the filmmaker.
You must write 3 pages, 12-point font and you need to cite the pages from the text. Highlight the terminology or I will not read your essay. If you do not cite the pages from your text I will deduct points. If you reference any other film, book, or article cite it. I will check all your sources.