Problem
i. In "How the Story of 'Moana' Holds Up.....," Doug Herman both critiques over-simplistic or stereotyped views of Moana's environment and the demi-god Maui and praises the film's engagement with real Polynesian history when it references the so-called "Long Pause" theory (Moana's people, getting onto their boats, leave the island for the first time after many years or a "long pause"). Compare and contrast the two "Moana" clips posted in Module 2 in terms of their efforts to engage both with the mythological past and with twenty-first-century American audiences. What other references are there to myth, and to history, if any? And what do these clips suggest about power and/or about self-actualization for each character?
ii. Black Panther could be described as a story of a series of power struggles: between the Western view of Africa and the Wakandan view, between tribes within Wakanda, between T'Challah and his cousin, between different ideas of what it means to rule, between love and loyalty, etc. And each of the two articles we read on this film suggest various visions of power - Patrice Rankine identifies connections in the film to the stories of Cain, Romulus, the Amazons, President Obama, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ogun, among others, while the Post suggests that part of Wakanda's power is a kind of spiritual power of hiddenness and mystery (like the Native American god name its title comes from). Choose one scene from the film, describe briefly what takes place in it, and, using quotations from both articles to help make your point, explain what it suggests about the nature of power.