Maquilapolis is a film that utilizes a somber beauty and unforgiving honesty. When the starring women described their inhumane working conditions, the ways that their lives were affected long after their shifts were done, left me with a feeling of claustrophobic unrest.
One of the tactics used in this film that I found to be striking was the conversational tone used by the narrators and part, the following shots of severity. In many documentaries I've seen, there is a general script and the film is "casted" in a certain way to support the filmmakers thesis. In this case, I found myself listening in on what felt like unedited conversation, with visual support. While no conversation is truly unedited, the curation of this film was extremely well done.
One of the tactics used in this film that I found to be striking was the conversational tone used by the narrators and part, the following shots of severity. In many documentaries I've seen, there is a general script and the film is "casted" in a certain way to support the filmmakers thesis. In this case, I found myself listening in on what felt like unedited conversation, with visual support. While no conversation is truly unedited, the curation of this film was extremely well done.
Maquilapolis was an extremely eye-opening film. I have known about cheap labor being utilized in factories in Mexico for some time, but this documentary did I very good job of systematically presenting the struggles of living in such an environment.
ReplyDeleteI resonated with the living conditions of these families. To start, that there seems to be very little presence and support coming from males. That these women work so hard on their own, and are also raising a family is unfathomable to me.
The disarray of basic infrastructure is also astounding to me. More particularly that the threat of electrocution from power lines being run through mud and water is a daily concern.
I disliked some of the way that the women were presented. As if to add flair and watch ability to the piece the filmmakers added some shots of the women placed on lazy susans; rotating as if they were products. It was effective at evoking the feeling of what these women's plights and what caused them, but I think was over the top. The simple portrayal of their lives was interesting enough for me.
That is something I think the piece did very well. It was extremely crisp in its presentation of these women's day to day lives. It ordered the piece in such a way that the arc of their legal battles was easily and clearly portrayed. This had the effect of showing that these women were smart, resourceful, and persistent, which I think is the best message that can come from such a piece:
Change, no matter that adversary, can happen at a local level by a few hardworking passionate individuals.
This post and the next were posted by David Kirk. This is a late reply of Week 5's assignment.
DeleteBranding is one of the more misunderstood communication concepts, especially among anti-corporate activists, who can and should use branding to their advantage.
Branding is an extremely interesting phenomenon. On the one hand the the actual efficacy of a brands persistent nature in difficult to calculate; it is undeniably efficacious. It goes to say that activists should fight fire with fire in this case. Banksy is an incredible case of branded activism. There is an aesthetic consistency in his work that is incredibly compelling. This therefore makes his protests heard and seen.
There is nothing natural or inevitable about money, debt, property rights, or markets; they are symbolic systems that derive their efficacy from collective belief. Activists should inspire radical hope by exposing the mutability of these social relationships.
This is an interesting theory, and one I believe. I was told in a film class that there is a difference between a political film and a film made politically. The latter of those relating to this theory. A politically made film is a film made incorporating the political beliefs into the MAKING of the film. Not merely presenting those political beliefs as a statement to be recognized. This relates to the above theory in that that is how we mute money. By making compelling, interesting, and entertaining film in a scrappy way. Disregarding the corporate influence and make films that are creative BECAUSE we had to do them cheaply.
Memes (rhymes with “dreams”) are self-replicating units of cultural information that spread virally from mind to mind, network to network, generation to generation.
Memes are such a caustic yet exciting medium for spreading ideas. In a way the lifespand of a meme outlines a multi-individual cultural thought process. A way that we as a community have decided to comment on life, politics, entertainment, or anything else. I am extremely interested in adding meme into my own art, specifically film. Making a kind of internal meme that takes place within a piece is, I think, uncharted and exciting territory.