Group Film ~ America the Beautiful

A few days ago my group and I watched the  documentary called "America the Beautiful" a film by Daryl Roberts.

Here is a review of the documentary: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080508/REVIEWS/277581949/-1/REVIEWS01

Ebert summarizes the documentary, "It's about a culture "saturated with the perfect."I agree with this statement after watching the film. I don't have the best self- esteem, but after watching the film, I feel a lot better about myself than some of the skinny models interviewed. Gerren, the twelve year old model Roberts follows through her 1 year of success as a child in the major fashion industry. Gerren became wanted because of her age. But soon after she became thirteen, she learned her hips were too big for Milan. She no longer models and instead plays volleyball. It seems to me that the fashion industry is changing so much that they need different models every time a new show is getting ready to launch. The casting directors that once offered Gerren jobs, now say that they need someone smaller. Gerren strives for the best, but in the fashion industry good is never enough. Ebert emphasizes the small interviews with models and the statistic as the part of the documentary that really unsettles the viewers. I agree to that because every time a statistic came on the screen , the girls and I cringed and usually had comments about whatever the stat was.

I don't have the best self-esteem when it comes to my body but don't most people? Before watching the documentary, I thought I would be bombarded with images of happy self confident models, but instead they were all talk about losing more weight to get into certain shows. I now have a deeper appreciation of myself and the way God made me. I know I should be happy that He gave me a good life and need to thank God more often. I now want to pray for those in my community or around the world with the same self- esteem issues as me and the models in the film.

Woodland Mall Visit

This afternoon a group of my friends and I headed to Woodland Mall. We entered from the food court and right away I could see people buying and people selling. The bright signs of each vender were high above the glass cases full of food and cooks making orders. As we entered the part of the mall with the stores, we began to look around. The first thing I noticed was how bright it was inside. Pahl mentions in his chapter that the Mall of America did not have any windows and that was true of Woodland as well.  Like someone said in The Persuaders, there were a lot of green plants and vegetation in the middle of the all four of the oversized halls of the mall. Even thought there wasn't a fountain it still felt as if you were outside or under a canopy. The ceilings were high and open. Of the many stores in the mall the one that was the busiest was the Apple Store. Every time we went past I noticed a bunch of people in the store either playing with the samples or talking to a worker. It hit me that even though our world is getting older and older, the need for newer and newer technology or consumption grows stronger. The mall creates a place for people to belong and have meaning. They buy things to feel better, stick with the status quo or even just to buy something at a place where the whole idea is to buy something. Not to say that is wrong, but for some people they only buy something that they actually have use for or need. In fact, I needed some new shoes because I was getting rid of some of my older pairs that I don't where anymore. I needed shoes but I was able to control why I bought them. We went into other stores but there was not anything else that I really needed. Sure I wanted some other things and the stores did a good job enticing me but it wasn't worth it to me to buy something that I would use as much as a pair of shoes. The mall is like a church in the way that the different stores use tactics that they think will entice you into buying their product, like a church showing love, having community and being welcoming can give off a good impression of  Christianity or other religions. The mecca of consumerism is the mall, while the mecca of religion is the church. The similarities are interesting to think of as variables in an experiment. The church or the mall (consumerism)? "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money". Luke 16:13

Welcome to Woodland

From my observations, Woodland Mall fits many of the descriptions that Jon Pahl made in his chapter “The Shopping Mall as ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ Leading Nowhere.” The outside of the building was indeed windowless and a drab, boring beige-ish color. In the inside, there were lots of fake trees and skylights in the high ceilings to let in natural light, just like Pahl said. Overall, it created a very welcoming, comfortable, open, airy, clean, bright, natural ambiance. 

Almost all of the stores had large windows in the front and their products displayed right there in front in a very appealing way in order to entice and persuade shoppers to step inside and buy something. The other form of persuasion that was incredibly ubiquitous and apparent was sale signs. Nearly every store had at least one in their front windows or just inside the store. People love to shop and buy things, but they love low prices even more. There were also advertisements in the middle of the walkways, on the walls, and in other places. Like the “clutter” discussed in The Persuaders, Woodland Mall was also littered with such persuasive advertisements.

Before this class and this trip to the mall, I had never thought about or realized how shopping and consumerism truly are like a religion and how malls are like a “church.” Walking around the mall, it was incredibly apparent that the products that are sold there to consumers are meant to be worshipped by them. The displays, the windows, the colors, the advertisements; all of it is portrayed in such a happy and appealing way, it’s hard not to worship and feel like you not only should, but have to buy something. The shoes set on pedestals and the clothes worn by mannequins make it easy for the consumers to idolize the products, like it was a religion. Though I’m into shopping a whole lot, I’ve been to malls before and I’ve experienced this feeling, this need to buy something. So this time I resolved before I even set foot inside that I wasn’t going to buy something. I was determined not to give into the temptation. It wasn’t easy.  Multiple times I glanced into a store and thought something along the lines of: “Oh look! That dress/those boots/insert product here is super cute and it’s even on sale! I should go look if they have it in my size…” But I was able to refrain.

A mall truly is like a church. People go to the mall to buy things and worship shoes and clothes. People go to church to worship God. Families often go shopping together at malls (as I observed) and families usually go to church together. To further realize the similarities between the mall and a church, one only has to look at the map: the building itself is shaped like a cross, like many church sanctuaries. 

Other observations:

•  There were multiple nice, luxurious cars in the middle of the walkways

•  Kiosks selling a myriad of products were also in the middle of the walkways
• Two young women asked our ages and whether we’d be interested in doing any modeling
• A woman at a kiosk asked if we wanted a free hair demo
• Most stores cater to a certain demographic
• There was a children’s play area in which the play structures were shaped like food (banana, bacon, sausage, etc.)

• Malls allow people to be lazy: so many stores in one place; very convenient, easy; makes you want to buy more things because there are so many stores.
• It truly is disorienting. Because the mall is shaped like a cross, each hallway looks similar and you don’t remember where anything is and whether you’ve already been down that hall. It makes you keep walking around and around.
• The big department stores, which many people go to, are located at the ends of the halls, which means you have to walk by all the other stores to get there, and chances are you’ll walk in a few and buy something there, too.
• The mall was open from 10 am to 9 pm, just like Pahl said most malls are open.

Other pictures:

What is this advertising???

                         Fine art???

What store it this??? Oh wait, everyone knows what Hollister looks like so it doesn't even need a sign…

                   Some great t-shirts…


                     What an exceptional mall!!!

Group Film | Real Injun

On Sunday, January 13, we will be watching Real Injun at 221 Boer Hall at 7pm. Real Injun is a documentary tracing how the appearance of images of First Nations people in cinema affected how we understand or misunderstand their culture and history.

This is a link to a review from Mike Hale for the New York Times. He focuses more on how the different featured directors, actors and writers reminisce on their sins of old. Here on the other hand is a review by Joe Leydon for Variety Online focusing on the seriousness of the film and comments on the omission of the more violent scenes of those old movies.

Finally, here's a trailer to the documentary:

Black Gold Film Host

Where: 303 VanReken

When: 1 pm Saturday the 12


Black Gold: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

Black Gold is a documentary film that follows the production and trade of coffee in order to explain the impact of the coffee industry on both the farmers and the companies that employ them. The stories focus on raising awareness of the oppression inside this trade that, to the western world, is widely unknown.

Here are some links to reviews of this film.

Both Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic have fairly good reviews for this film.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10006485-black_gold/ 

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/black-gold/critic-reviews

The San Francisco Chronicle, however, gave the film a fairly poor review.


http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/FILM-CLIPS-Also-opening-today-2466613.php#flick&type=movies

Before seeing the film here is a trailer to give you a better understanding of what to expect.

America the Beautiful?

America the Beautiful, a film by Darryl Roberts, was clearly not a super high-budget or professionally made movie, but I think it was able to accomplish a lot and cover a lot of important material. One not-so-positive review of this movie was written by Nick Pinkerton in The Village Voice. He opens his critical review with a pretty harsh statement: “The scattershot America the Beautiful recapitulates vintage Beauty Myth trumpery: Beauty standards make us average frumps miserable and are the conspiratorial invention of a cabal of Madison Avenue execs working in concert with Patriarchal Hegemony.” While I agree that the film was slightly scattered and definitely could improve in certain areas, I believe that it provided an insightful view into America’s fashion industry, following the sad story of Gerren Taylor who started as a supermodel at age 12 and after only a few years was forgotten. The film also gave some terrible and surprising footage and information about plastic surgery, the ingredients of cosmetics and their effects, and other aspects of the beauty industry.

This film was very thought-provoking. It definitely made me think more about what life is like as a model and changed my opinion of the fashion industry. While I still am not a fan of the fashion industry, this film made me realize just how much work being a model is and how hard it is, especially on a young girl like Gerren. Though it may not change my physical actions in any way, this film will definitely change the way I think and what I think about America’s beauty/fashion industry and its effects on girls and women. And as cheesy as it may sound, this film reminded me that everyone is beautiful in their own way.

Good Hair

http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/movies/09hair.html?_r=0

This New York Times review of Good Hair pretty accurately describes my reaction to the film. I thought Chris Rock brought up many interesting facts and showed a good look into the industry of hair. However I was slightly let down by the film, because Rock brought light to many problematic practices but offered no solutions. The entire feel of the film seemed too light and humorous for the severity of the problem it was addressing. Some of the problematic things Chris Rock brought up but offered no solution to was the practice of applying “creamy crack” or relaxing to the scalps of young black girls and adults and the expensive, high maintenance hair product weaves. Another issue Rock raised was the fact that African Americans make up 20% of the population but make up 80% of the hair market consumers. Yet they do not own many of the hair companies. Mostly Asians and Caucasians own these companies and manufactures. So black people spend the most money on hair products but Asians and white people profit from hair products. I would have enjoyed the film more if it would have offered some solutions to the audience instead of just leaving us with a big issue and no proper way to respond to it. As far as how this film has prompted me to make changes in my life, I think as a white person my only response can be trying to change the false idea that white is right and acknowledge the extent that white privilege affects my life. Having white-looking hair should not influence whether or not someone gets an interview or a job.  

Good Hair by Courtney Showell

When Chris Rock's daughter asks him why doesn't she have good hair, he goes on a journey to get close-up and personal with black hair. From weaves to relaxers, Rock learns plenty of information about black hair and the extents women go through to maintain it. This hour and a half of adventure will leave you wanting more information about your "Good Hair."

Good Review
http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/87911/good-hair.html

Bad Review
http://www.nycmovieguru.com/oct9th09.html#goodhair

With only 5 "rotten tomatoes" on rottentomatoe.com, this movie is a good view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m-4qxz08So

Group Film- America the Beautiful

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009914-america_the_beautiful/

The Rotten Tomatoes assessment of the documentary America the Beautiful is fairly accurate in terms of synopsis and rating. However, I do not agree with the statement listed on the top of the page saying, “This doc doesn't expose any new territory about our unattainable standards of beauty, but does manage to entertain with an effective and accessible tone by filmmaker/subject Darryl Roberts.” I thought that the documentary exposed a lot of things within the fashion industry that I was uneducated about, which could be considered new territory for me and the others in my film group. The 68% fresh rating is fair, in my opinion, because the documentary was very interesting and informative, but left a bitter aftertaste because of all of the negative, but true, information that was learned throughout the film.

                After watching America the Beautiful I realized that the fashion industry is not about making clothes to help people feel confident but only to turn a profit. As one man said in the film, “we could change, but if we do then we won’t make any money.”  The fashion industry was portrayed as being a self-obsessed monster which, after further investigating, does not seem to be too far off the mark. This film prompted me to look at people in a way that finds their positive qualities instead of their negative ones. An analogy given in the movie that struck me was from an African woman who compared people to trees. She talked about we think every tree is beautiful, so why should  we not be think that every human is beautiful? It’s an interesting concept that I have never bothered to think about before. 

Equilibrium (2002)

January 9, 2013

          Equilibrium is an action movie that is in a futuristic world after the Third World War. After the war, the world was governed by a totalitarian ruler 'The Father.' All the citizens were forced to take a pill called 'Prozium' everyday that numbed their emotions to create a world of utopia. John Preston, the head of a group or a high ranking general responsible of destroying the resistance. One day, he doesn't take the pill realizing the beauty of emotion.

          The movie portrays human being as nothing, but a mindless robot repeating their daily lives over and over again. Since nobody in the movie had emotions, everybody wore the same type of clothes and walked around with an apathetic face, almost as if everybody was a machine in a car factory. This showed the nature of evil empire where one man had control over everything. Which also portrayed how selfish a human being can be. A human without emotion is improbable because as the speaker Lee Hardy said on Monday that “humans are pleasure driven.” Another aspect about humans that showed in the movie was that people accept the rules they are given by their authorities, which led the citizens to forget how much emotions affected their lives. In the other hand the resistance, who were the people who rebelled against the government not taking the daily pills kept hope and fought back.

          Another thing that shows from the movie is that a kingdom is not a place but it's an on going process how, the kingdom of the movie, Equilibrium there were still many changes happening and how there were full of surprises in it. You would have never expected that the head of a group or a high ranking general of destroying the resistance would ever be the one to go against what he lived most of his life for.

          It is crucial that we live in a world of liberty and it is also important that we realize how much of a blessing and privilege we have to live in such a place. There are still countries around the world that are suffering in a one governed society just like how the movie showed.

Discussion Questions

1. Are we brave enough to go against what our world believes and stand up for what we think is right?
   
   
2. Can we ever reach a world of utopia?