Neighborhood.

Well, since I am from Milwaukee, I really do not know anything about Chicago's neighborhoods...I am still beginning to even learn some of their names!  But I have talked with Ralph and we are going to do his side of the town.  He said we can interview some people he knows from the neighborhood to add to the project.  (I currently do not know what neighborhood that is but we are going to talk about it after class.)  Synome's email was not on the list, so Ralph and I were unable to contact her.

One neighborhood I do know a little bit about would be Wicker Park.  I have been there many times and I am always fascinated by it.  I know that the neighborhood itself has existed for a while (or at least the buildings), because it does have very old buildings.  I also know that Wicker Park has an array of both upscale designer stores, and many thrift stores, making it take on a very unique vibe.  Two things I do not know about Wicker Park is its main source of attraction (whether its shops, restaurants, night clubs, etc.), and I have no idea how many people live in the neighborhood and its main age group, however when ever i have been there I have always seen younger people in their 20's or so.

Documentary questions.

1. How did Hugh O'Connor's daughter find peace with her father's death? Would
you have felt the same?

She felt that the kentucky community was trying to voice its opinion, and that the journalists did not understand their situation and their life.  The whole community rallied together when Harold shot Hugh, and his daughter saw and understood where they were coming from.

I would definitely have not felt the same way.  If someone shot my father who was doing absolutely nothing wrong, he was simply taking a picture of a man he had permission to do so, I would be enraged.  Harold shot Hugh because he was an outsider, a stranger.  I would never be able to forgive someone who took someone so close to me if there was no valid reason for the killing.  People can not go around shooting people they do not know just because they are stepping on their land.

2. Barret says that some filmmakers "wanted to show that contrast [between
those who prospered from coal mining and those who didn't] to bring about social
change. Others mined the images the way the companies had mined the coal."
What does that say about the power of the visual image? What (if any)
responsibility do filmmakers have toward their subjects?

Visual image can certainly speak for itself.   It is very powerful and it gets its point across by not using any words.  As someone said in the documentary, one cannot take a picture of something that's not there.  Filmmakers have to make sure that they high light both the good and bad aspects of their subjects to present them in a non-biased way.

3. Colin Low, director of the Canadian Film Board, said the camera is invasive,
exploitive and like a gun because it's threatening (42:23). What does he mean by
that statement? What are some specific steps you can take as a
photographer/filmmaker when photographing a sensitive subject or social issue
to make the camera less exploitive and invasive?

This statement reveals that people often fear cameras because they expose the truth-  there is no fabrication what-so-ever.  However, a camera can capture perhaps one bad moment of a person's life, and then that person's life will be forever marked and represented by that one bad moment.  Some steps that could be taken would be to photograph both the good and bad shots of a sensitive subject, such as a picture that conveys the raw truth, and then take another one with the people smiling (for example) to represent that even though they are in a hard time, they are still a fine human being content with their life.  Also the angles and positioning of the shots could be arranged so that the touchy subject is not the harsh vocal point, but rather just adds to the whole of the picture.

Documentation.

My digital documentation.

Artist Statement.

In today’s media and materialistic obsessed culture, many people face problems in how they perceive themselves.  Some can simply not keep up to the current fashion and media trends, which is unmistakably the vast majority of the population.  This in turn makes some people feel like they are “not good enough” and that their life is not as glamorous as those who “have it all”.  It is quite an unfortunate situation, and the majority of media, such as television and magazines, certainly do not help.

        I decided to write a short narrative story on the life of a woman who feels that she is not up to par with the rest of the “glamorous” women she sees on TV and in other places.  Since she is the typical average woman, she can not afford certain luxuries she wish she could, so she splurges on designer clothing as a way to make her life seem more fulfilled.  But in reality, the designer clothing is only a mask to hide her insecurities about the “average” life she lives.  She really should not feel that way what so ever since she does have three beautiful, healthy children and a loving husband, but she can not shake her emotions.  In the narrative, it describes the women’s situation, her thoughts and feelings, and her obsession with designer and why she splurges on it.  

            I wanted to create a very realistic scenario, in which the average woman is the person who must only wear designer goods.  Normally it would be the stuck-up trust fund woman who heaven-forbid would wear anything but designer, but in this case it is just an average woman.  At first I was going to create a play with the stereotypical characters such as the trust fund baby with everything and the woman from Africa with nothing who teaches a lesson, but that just seemed a little too cliché’.  It wasn’t very relatable and it most definitely does not happen too often.  So in turn, I decided to simply write a narrative on the life of a mother.  A narrative that is in ways most likely very relatable to everyone’s lives who feel they are not living up to the life they dreamed.

            Though the woman chose to wear her heart on her sleeve in a way to mask her true feelings, people most likely perceive her as a wealthy woman with a great taste in fashion.  They have no idea what her real life is like in any sort of fashion.  She simply wants to have an extremely positive and glamorous perception, which is what she receives.  Is it really worth that much trouble to only wear designer clothes just for the perception of others?  Well, the answer may seem obvious but in today’s world people dress to impress and form a “good” first-impression of others.  They want to make it seem like they have the totally package- accomplished and presentable.

            I wrote this creative work in the form of a narrative, to describe the life of one woman.  I do not have very much experience with story writing, so I thought this was a good opportunity to do what I love-write- in a form that I am a stranger to- a narrative.  This piece could in turn relate to my work that I have constructed as a journalist, factual pieces that describe people, places, events, etc.  I have written several articles on people who have either done something or who people just want to know more about, which could relate to the way I describe the woman’s life in this narrative.

            For the most part, my piece of work is pretty straightforward.  It is a piece that may be quite depressing for the audience, because it is a very real, unfortunate situation.  I think the audience might even have trouble understanding how a woman with it all can be so lost and desperate for attention, but some might also relate with it in comparison.  This I would consider one strength:  its relatable to the audience with its message that people do feel inadequate compared to others in certain situations.  Its weakness, on the other hand, could perhaps be its example of only one woman’s life.  I could have included other examples or else even further expanded on the message.

            People all have different ways of expressing their thoughts, feeling, actions, etc., and dressing to play the part is no different.  A worthy perception is something that most everyone seeks, though some go through extreme measures to receive it.

            

Iran.

One of the hardest things would be to change the views that people have previously established.  However, I believe that Satrapi does a very excellent job of changing many of the views her readers have already established towards Iran.  Perhaps it was through the actions and thoughts of her family who are extremely relatable in which she really changes the normal thought of Iran.  Satraip's family was like any other family most of us know--  fun, has set morals, lets their daughter be very creative, etc.  They are like any other family except for the fact that they live in Iran--  a place most of us do not know too much about and what we do know is often negative.  A major thing that surprised me was how out-going Satrapi's family was in the way they enjoyed social activities such as drinking and playing cards, and they did not believe that women should be completely covered.  I was even very surprised that Satrapi had things such as a rocker jacket and a Michael Jackson pin... things that are extremely normal.  Satrapi's story most definitely dispelled my views on Iran.  Not everyone in Iran believes in the same kind of conservative lifestyle and they would rather not fight, causing many to protest against it and other such things such as the disrespect of women.  In the situation of Iraq, I am still unsure about its current situation but I think it is definitely a good thing that people are opposing the government since they are oppressing the people.  Not everyone in Iraq is even close to a terrorist and their are indeed normal families in a country where so much negativity is stressed.  This book really enabled me to understand the countries of Iran and also Iraq much more in-depth.

Project 1.

For my very first project, I will be creating a play dealing with the topic of wearing your heart on your sleeve.  The main focus will be people's obsession for designer label clothes.  I am going to create a play in which there is a designer-only woman (who will not even wear a shirt her son bought for her simply because it's not designer) and there will also be a woman visiting from Africa for a medical study.  These two woman will somehow cross paths and they will both teach each other valuable lessons, however the African woman will instill the designer-only woman with a new outlook on what really matters.  Some questions that come into focus are, "Are designer clothes just a security blanket for those who are insecure?"  "Do clothes really define what people think of you?"  among others.  I want my audience to gain a perspective on how their choice of clothes define them and how society views them due to their clothing choice.

Persepolis.

Why did Marjane Satrapi choose to write negatively about the United States through the negative opinions the Iranians shared?

Why did the author choose to end the story in a very depressing, no-hope ending?  There was no resolution for the reader at all.

The book was written in a style following a young girl, yet that style also reflected extremely important political information on Iran internally and externally.  Was all the information exactly accurate and unbiased in the novel?  Or did it have a particular stance?