Final Project Yay

For my final project I decided to do an audio "man on the street" and pose questions to passer bys in Union square. The Theme of the project was inspired by the documentary called Mansome which is about  male grooming and how the idea of a man has changed throughout the years. The questions i asked were;

-Define the word Metro sexual?
-What is your opinion on male Grooming?
-Does homosexuality and metrosexuality correspond?
-Do you think that does media has an affect on men today?

There were many people who thought I was either asking for money or just crazy but I did encounter a few people who were more than willing to give me their opinion :). I used the Youtube channel I am other as inspiration for my format and I must say I am happy with the end result. I hope you enjoy.

Final project

Oprah Winfrey and Beloved

Best known for her daytime talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, which ran for 25 years, Oprah Winfrey has created a media empire with her company Harpo. But I would like to focus on her production and acting in the film adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel, Beloved directed by Johnathan Demme. While the film was a box office failure (it grossed less than half of what it cost to to make according to thenumbers.com), it received good critical reviews and was clearly a labor of love for Ms. Winfrey, who, based on her acting work prefers the historical fiction genre. Ms. Winfrey has an  affinity to feature and play strong post-slavery women from literature . Her acting role was Sofia in the 1985 film The Color Purple based on the novel by Alice Walker. The character was a woman who refused to accept her husband's abuse.  Later she would produce a Broadway musical also based on the novel The Color Purple. 

Beloved is about a woman, Sethe and her daughter, Denver (played by Kimberly Elise) who live in a house that this haunted by the ghost of the baby Sethe murdered. The ghost takes a physical form and comes to the house.  Through flashbacks we learn that Sethe  murdered the baby and attempted to kill her other children to keep them from being taken back into slavery.

This film is an interesting example of intersectionality that is not lost on Ms. Winfrey. In an interview with Roger Ebert she said:

"It is important to understand why a woman would be so driven by the slave experience that she could kill her own children. Toni spoke to me of `that iron-willed, arrogant Sethe.' And I had trouble with the term `arrogant.' And Toni said, `When I tell you she's arrogant, believe it. She's arrogant.' Arrogant, in her unwavering confidence, without one moment of doubt, that the decision that she made to take the life of her children was the right decision."

In that same interview she speaks of the challenges of playing Sethe and the passion with which she plays this character is clear. She discusses how she used bill of sales from real slave auctions to prepare and inspire her performance and how lines like "Look like when I got here I love my children more because as long as I knew we were in Kentucky they really weren't mine to love" were difficult to deliver.

 The film Beloved as well as Ms. Morrison's novel tackles the question that Maggie Humm poses for readings of women's films "How do women authors manage the difficult task of achieving true female literary authority by simultaneously conforming to and subverting patriarchal literary standards". Both Ms. Morrison and Ms. Winfrey subvert the Madwoman in the Attic trope by taking us inside the experience of Sethe. We watch her actions without judging nor condoning them but rather with understanding.

This movie being considered a failure troubles me. Tommy Lott touches upon bad black films and successful ones in his essay A No-Theory Theory of Contemporary Black Cinema.

"Although audience reactions may vary from film to film, black people have a deep-seated concern with their history of being stereotyped in Hollywood films, a concern which provides an important reason to be skeptical of any concept of black cinema that would include works which demean blacks. Some would seek to abate this concern by specifying a set of wholly aesthetic criteria by which to criticize bad films about black people by both black and white filmmakers. Unfortunately, this approach contains undesirable implications for black filmmaking practices. We need only consider the fact that low-budget productions (e.g., Bush Mama, Bless Their Little Hearts, and Killer of Sheep) frequently suffer in the marketplace, as well as in the eyes of critics, when they fail to be aesthetically pleasing, or the fact that a film's success will sometimes be due largely to its aesthetic appeal, despite its problematic political orientation (e.g., Roots or Shaka Zulu)" (222, Lott).

With this in mind a beautiful, complex film like Beloved produced and written by black women should be the best of both worlds in terms of political orientation and aesthetics.

However, the topic of discussion of the movie's failure has become an anecdote about her gaining 30 pounds, and binging on macaroni and cheese which she confessed in a Piers Morgan interview. 

  Works Cited
A No-Theory Theory of Contemporary Black Cinema 
Author(s): Tommy L. Lott Source: Black American Literature Forum, Vol. 25, No. 2,
 Black Film Issue (Summer, 1991), pp. 221-236

Humm, Author/Auteur: Feminist Literary Theory and Feminist Film,


Links 
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001856/ http://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/winfrey-confronts-the-strength-and-the-spirits-of-beloved
http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1998/BELOV.php

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, A Role Model For All Women

For the last post I chose to study more in depth the life of Jennifer Siebel Newsom, filmmaker, speaker, actress and activist. An extremely active and intelligent woman, having graduated from Standford University with a Bachelor's degree and a Masters of Business Administration.

She first started working with young women when she worked with Conservation International. There she worked with women in third world country helping them develop micro-enterprise opportunities. After returning to the United States she founded the "Girls Club Entertainment , LLC." She created this film production company to create films that will educate and active women and push them to transform culture.

One of her major films is "Miss Representation", which we watched in class. She made the film to give light to the misrepresentation of women and the under-representation of women in position of power in the media. Following the release of the film Siebel founded MissRepresentation.org, a non-profit social action campaign and media organization established to "shift people's consciousness, inspire individual and community action and ultimate transform culture."

One of her most recent film project is "The Invisible War" a documentary film about sexual assaults in the U.S Military. The film premiered in the Sundance Film Festival in 2012 and received the U.S. Documentary Audience Award. Apart from being a film which exposes those military sex crimes, displaying the women's struggles to rebuild their lives and fight justice, but the production team is equipped with a team that consist of eight women and six men. 

With producing films like these and creating the company and organization she has created it is safe to say that Jennifer Siebel Newsom fits the theory of auteur as well as Maggie Humm belief of "a fresh and sophisticated span of feminist literary thought."(pg. 92)

Work Cited:

1. http://www.jennifersiebel.com/biography.html

2. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-siebel-newsom/

3. http://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/jennifer-siebel-newsom

4. http://www.notinvisible.org/the_movie

5. http://invisiblewarmovie.com/filmmakers.php

6. http://youtu.be/1qxoqTO4Pic

Sue Naegle - President of HBO Entertainment

The person I have chosen to focus this post on is Sue Naegle, President of HBO Entertainment. Although the assignment was to focus on a female artist/director, I wanted to take the assignment a step further.  Naegle started out as an agent working with United Talent Agency, where she later became partner.  As an agent she worked with her client, Alan Ball to sell what would be hit shows for HBO, Six Feet Under and True Blood.  These shows produced major numbers for the network and brought attention to Naegle's work as President. The network would also go on to have hits such as, Boardwalk Empire and Girls all under the hands of Sue Naegle.  She received a lot of recognition for building the network back up, here is the: Newsweek article  that talks about Naegle's work at HBO. 

 

The clip above is of adorable Madison Moellers interviewing Sue Naegle, as one of the most influential women in Hollywood.  Sue Naegle in essence would be considered an auteur because she is the one who decides what shows get airtime on the network.  The decisions that Naegle has made thus far has landed her on Forbes, Most Powerful Women's List: Forbes List and erned the network and its programs countless awards.

In doing my research trying to find someone to focus on, I came across many influential women that don't get the recognition they deserve.  Whether you are a feminist or not, to have a woman in the "game" that is media is an accomplishment.  I think woman have come a long way and yes, there is much more to be done, but having such women like Sue Naegle we are getting there.

Resources:

Hollywood Reporter

Forbes List

Newsweek

Clip on how Sue Naegle balances life, work and family

Post #5: Magda Sayeg

The artist that I chose to focus on is Magda Sayeg, a street artist and the founder of the street art group, Knitta, Please. Knitta is a group that focuses on yarn graffiti, a type of graffiti that employs knitted or crocheted yarn instead of spray-paint, markers, or stencils. Yarn graffiti is also referred to as yarn bombing or guerrilla knitting.

Sayeg has taken knitting, something that is “traditionally supposed to be on bodies, [on children], and on people you love,”¹ and has taken it outside to decorate urban architecture.

 

 

One of the most popular works that Sayeg has created is the yarn graffiti on a bus in Mexico City. It took four days and about six people working on the project to complete the masterpiece.

My personal favorite piece of art by Sayeg is a piece that reads “PLAN AHEAD.”² This is a banner-style piece that is hung from one end of a bridge to another. The reason that I like it so much is because it encompasses irony and cleverness and creates street art that is not only thought provoking and inspirational, but also funny.

Sayeg explains her work as a form of fuzzy rebellion against the dreariness of grey neighborhoods. She recognizes that her form of graffiti isn’t “as tough as others”¹ and also recognizes the importance that yarn bombing has on the street art community. Yarn bombing creates an outlet for people who are interested in creating public displays of art to be able to create something that doesn’t deface property and that can easily be taken off.  Yarn bombing brings knitting, something that has been considered dainty and nurturing, into a world that is anything but.

Magda Sayeg has been hailed and praised by almost anyone that has seen her work. Mostly all of her early work was illegal and she could have easily gotten in trouble for it. She says since it was so “sweet and cute,” no one thought that she deserved to be arrested. Sayeg claims that if she received mostly negative comments, she wouldn’t do what she does.³

Sayeg has taken her world and literally, reshaped it to reflect a world that she’d want to live in. She has taken the role of director and has been able to present her emotions and her desire for fun without compromising her initial mission for her work: “to make street art a little more warm and fuzzy.”⁴  As Maggie Humm would say, Magda Sayeg has become an auteur of sorts. Humm describes an “auteur” as a director that is able to have her ideas shine through, despite the interference of patriarchy⁵. Sayeg and her knitting needle clad girl gangs invaded the male dominated world of street art, one cozie at a time. If that isn’t auteurism at it’s coolest, then I don’t know what is.

Sources

1.  YouTube video by Sarah Gonzalez
2. Magdasayeg.com
3. YouTube video by Longlake Lugano
4. 'Houston, Texas Cries Out 'Knitta Please'' by Flash News
5. “Author/Auteur: Feminist Literary Theory and Feminist Film” by Maggie Humm

Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow may not be considered an artist or film director yet her position as an openly gay female talkshow host has been critical to changing preconceptions about women and lesbians in the media sphere.  Maddow was an AIDS activist and the first openly gay Rhodes Scholar from the United States.  She is fiercely intelligent, witty, and has a poise all her own when tackling a range of topics from the US economy to foreign and domestic catastrophes.  These talents all add to her unmistakable charm which has won over millions across the country.  She appeals to people of all genders identities and sexual orientations leading many to claim they are "gay for Rachel."  As Jonanna Widner stated in "The Rachel Papers"for Bitch Magazine:

Maddow's affable goofy-geek persona, her ability to skewer other pundits' arguments without coming off like an asshole, and her genius flair for translating policy arguments into interesting, digestible bites charmed the pants off a lefty populace that had been lusting for a cable-news rock star all its own since ... well, since the invention of cable news.   
(Widner)

She began on the radio in 1999 as co-host on WRNX Radio's The Dave in the Morning Show. Eventually after serving as a co-host on liberal radio network Air America from 2004 to 2005 the network offered Maddow her very own liberal political talk show, The Rachel Maddow Show. The show became one of Air America's highly rated programs, holding on to loyal listeners despite changing time slots more than once.

In 2006 Maddow began making regular appearances on television talkshows such as the MSNBC show The Situation with Tucker Carlson and CNN's Paula Zahn Now show.  Despite the popularly held belief that her rise was "accidental" and that Maddow was just another woman who was a "passive player in her own fate" she in fact worked strategically to move forward in her career.  In a 2008 Newsweek profile of Rachel Maddow it was stated,

The greatest media-created cliché about Maddow has been that her 'meteoric rise' has been almost accidental, that the truck-driving, yard- clearing, erstwhile activist became an 'unlikely' star once the MSNBC heads recognized her potential. That's clearly a fiction.
(Newsweek Magazine)

In reality Maddow ardently pushed for a show of her own, even going so far as to hire the same agent as Keith Olbermann of MSNBC fame.  In January 2008 Maddow signed an exclusive contract with MSNBC as the broadcasting station's political analyst and by September she launched The Rachel Maddow Show.  The show's debut was MSNBC's most successful program launch to date.  In "The Rachel Papers" Widner notes, "She more than doubled MSNBC's viewership for her time slot, from 800,000 to about 1.7 million. She almost single-handedly made MSNBC -- for years the loser third wheel of the cable-news party -- a player." Not only has the show boosted MSNBC's ratings and popularity but garnered multiple awards and critical acclaim.

Rachel has become an icon in many ways.  A "Hey Girl Rachel Maddow" meme emerged in response to "Hey Girl Ryan Gosling" and "Feminist Ryan Gosling" because, as the Tumblr states, "Ryan Gosling isn't for everyone" offering an alternative idol to fond over.  Some people also herald her as a sign that American society is shifting and becoming "postgay."  Widner takes issue with this claim, stating,

As Maddow's star has risen, so has the number of editorial inches dedicated to her story. While they don't exactly gloss over her sexuality, most treat it as a sort of incidental factoid, akin to, say, her love of classic cocktails. It's as if we've skipped straight to postgay, without the benefit of the attendant political and social gains, which doesn't make any sense. How can we be postgay, for instance, in a society where Prop 8 passes? How can we be postgay when Rick Warren gives the invocation to an inauguration that's supposed to be about "change"? How can we be postgay in a world where Ann Coulter even exists? But there's a subtler bit to explore. If we're so very post- gay, why does delving into some of the gayer aspects of Maddow's life seem, on the part of mainstream media, verboten?

How Maddow is portrayed as a woman is also problematic.  Rachel Maddow is capable, possessing a self ease and confidence about her, and two of her most noted traits are her niceness and politeness.  As Widner eloquently notes, "When it comes to dismantling her opponents, Maddow uses a scalpel, not a sledgehammer."

These slights have not affected her momentum.  Rachel continues to gain followers over time

Sources: 

"The Rachel Papers" by Jonanna Widner for Bitch Magazine

Rachel Maddow Biography

"When Left is Right" Newsweek Magazine Profile

Hey Girl it's Rachel Maddow

Mira Nair Indian female director

Indian born director and producer Mira Nair is a well respected and accomplished film maker based in New York. Although she started out wanting to be an actress, Nair says that she “fell into” directing, first working on documentaries and then moving on to feature films.  On Friday, April 26^th, her most recent project, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” was released in theatres nationwide. Based on a novel written by a Pakistani author, the film tells the life story of a successful Pakistani man in New York who had graduated from Princeton, got a great job, and was in love with his beautiful girlfriend when September 11, 2001 completely changed his life. He was looked at as a suspect, strip searched and interrogated because of his Pakistani origin. Storylines of prejudice, cultural displacement, and foreigners adjusting to a new country are prominent themes in Nair’s films.

Often times when the American public thinks of Indian made films, they think of Bollywood, loud songs, dance numbers, and bright colors. Mira Nair is part of a growing genre of Indian directors who are creating Indian films incorporating serious issues and social complexities into entertaining stories without the song and dance (for the most part excluding Monsoon Wedding). In contrast with the typical Bollywood films, Nair’s projects are rich with emotion. In the past, this passionate filmmaker has turned down opportunities to work on movies that are anticipated box office hits, such as Harry Potter, which use special effects and do often become commercially successful.  Nair explained, “I am better suited to emotions and less interested in special effects”.  In her article, ‘Women Make Movies’, Debra Zimmerman writes “The style these women are working in, the fact that the content is more important than using special effects – it’s real male and female kind of stuff – the fact that they’re political through personal kinds of things…”

Some of Mira Nair’s most successful works include Salaam Bombay! (1988), Mississippi Masala (1993), Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996), Monsoon Wedding (2001), Vanity Fair (2004), and The Namesake (2006). She has been recognized for her accomplishments with award nominations and wins, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Monsoon Wedding, an Independent Spirit Award for best feature, the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFTA Awards, and Filmfare Award. Considering how few women are directors or producers in the film industry, to have worked on so many productions is rather impressive.

 

 

Mira Nair’s thought provoking films and work as an auteur often tell the story of the ‘other’, usually a woman, or the outsider. “Gynocriticism is a way of assessing works of art specifically in relation to the interests and desires of women. As Donovan points out, it involves a separate female way of thinking and a recognition that women's experience has been effectively silenced by a masculine culture. This response to that silencing is a new epistemology which creates or uncovers a newly visible world of female culture’ opening up and sharing this world with women readers/viewers." (Humm, 95)  Nair ‘s films typically deliver social messages that challenge the norm and push boundaries with the goal of bringing public awareness to social situations which are all too often swept under the rug. Taboo issues such as child marriage, social inequality, female sexuality, finding a home, discrimination against poorer classes of society, incest, abuse, infidelity, and the struggles of Indian families adapting to Western culture in America are just some of the subjects incorporated into the stories she is able to tell/direct so brilliantly.

Nair has a way of weaving social situations and historical events into her films in such a way that the entertainment value is not lost and audiences are challenged to think about how they can make a difference in the world we live in. Mira Nair’s forte is that she does not present one point of view as better than another. In an unbiased fashion Nair portrays situations as they are, not as how she would like them to be. They are not always happy stories and there are not always happy endings. Nair leaves it up to the viewers in the audience to examine and become aware of the situations depicted and then decide which aspect of those situations they want to follow. Bell Hooks further explains precisely what Mira Nair aims to do through her work, “Movies not only provide a narrative for specific discourses of race, sex, and class, they provide a shared experience, a common starting point from which diverse audiences can dialogue about these charged issues.”

As a first generation American whose parents are from India, I have often struggled with my cultural identity. While growing up my parents and grandparents have always said and encouraged me to “marry a nice Indian boy”. They usually go on to suggest that he should be a doctor who comes from a good family. Over the years they have explained to me that the reason for this sort of encouragement to marry within the community is that they want to see their daughter in a long lasting successful and monogamous marriage with someone who grew up with the same values as I have. In America, divorce is so common it’s almost normal by today’s standards. Divorcing in India is a rarity. But my family was the only Indian family in my hometown, so how was I ever going to find that ‘nice Indian boy’? Nair’s film ‘Mississippi Masala’ explores interracial love between a young Indian woman and a black man and the chaos that erupted when their families discovered that they were in a relationship. In the Indian culture family structure, tradition and customs are very important. I found Nair’s depiction of the struggles between Americanized children and their traditional families to be accurate and relatable.

Mira Nair's ability to address traditional, cultural, and sociological issues in the films is not only done well but also done fearlessly. “This kind of gynocritcism can provide ‘a validating social witness that will enable women today and in the future, to see, to express, to name their own truths’ (Humm, 110).

Works Cited:

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/mira-nair-talks-about-the-reluctant-fundamentalist/

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,692957,00.html

http://movies.nytimes.com/person/103995/Mira-Nair

Edwidge Danticat: An Artist Creating Dangerously

Edwidge Danticat is one of the most entertaining and profound writers of our time. She is often referred to as the "Voice of Haiti" and her works have been known to revolve around Haitian folklore and values. Her writings always seem to feature a strong-willed young girl who grows up within a culture where women are made to feel inferior to men; sexual objects to be used and discarded at will. However, the young girl always finds a way to break out of her cultural prison. She is an astoundingly clever writer and deserving of all of the praise she has earned. Her works often examine issues of migration, language, skin color, racism, and relationships; between mother and daughters, men and women, and young and old.

http://youtu.be/Hz79YxAfBVA

Her first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, is a beautifully written, award-winning novel that features a young Haitian girl named Sophie, who is taken from her home in Haiti, where she is cared for by her beloved Aunt Atie, and sent halfway across the globe to New York City to live with her mother, whom she barely knows anything about. The novel revolves around Sophie’s migration and the relationships she has with people around her. In her migration, language becomes a key component of the novel and is one that Daniticat plays with constantly. Danticat uses Sophie’s language as a metaphor for Sophie’s belonging within her surroundings, whether it be Haiti, or America.

The novel begins with Sophie coming from school to meet with her Tante Atie and immediately complains that Tante Atie never attends Sophie’s reading classes, which means that Sophie gets paired off with an old woman who “wants to learn her letters but does not have children at school” (Danticat 4). To this, Tante Atie responds, “I do not want a pack of young children teaching me how to read. The young should learn from the old, not the other way” (4). The fact that her Tante Atie’s response is preceded by the image of Sophie teaching an older woman demonstrates that Atie simply does not want to learn the written language. Later on the reader realizes that Tante Atie never leaves the island of Haiti, but Sophie does. This lends to the notion that the language becomes a metaphor for belonging. Atie never learns her letters and therefore becomes tied to the island. However, Sophie continually learns her letters, which allows her to be mobile- or at least more mobile than Tante Atie, and primed for migration.

Tante Atie believes this as well; at one point in the novel, Atie tells Sophie “Your bonjou, your greeting, is your passport” (18). She says this to Sophie to let her know that her language will let others know where she comes from, and where she has been- like a passport. Indeed, when she first arrives in the new world she has to learn the language of English extremely quickly, or else the other children will tease her mercilessly. The fact that the novel is written in English even though it is told through Sophie’s perspective, demonstrates that she adapted well and at some point became an English speaker. However, she never truly neglected her native language of French Creole, which grants her access to Haiti. In fact, when she arrives in Haiti as she visits with her daughter, the cab driver commends her on her Creole; he says “I find your Creole flawless”. She can fit in perfectly.

Throughout the novel, Danticat writes using a language within a language; that is, she writes in English, because it demonstrates Sophies migration and acceptance of the English language. However, she often speaks in Creole phrases, or paraphrases in English to clarify for the reader. This demonstrates that her language is a mixture of cultures that she cannot sway one way or the other. It is her passport, which tells the reader where she has been and where she is from. Language becomes a metaphor for belonging in Breath, Eyes, Memory. As clever as her writings are, her works do not become Academic writing- and though you are being taught something of culture, language, or even history, the artfulness she applies to her writing style and craftsmanship behind her sentences, paragraphs, and chapters, make her an artist rather than an author. Breath, Eyes, Memory was her first novel, which was born out of her Masters thesis from Brown University, and as good as it is, it cannot compete with her other novel, The Farming of Bones.

The Farming of Bones, is one that serves as an artistic commentary on the effects of racial tensions that are often the hallmark of colonialism. The novel is a work of historical fiction that serves as a memorial to the many Haitians that were slaughtered under the reign of General Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. The General begins an effort to “cleanse” the country of all those who do not belong, meaning the Haitians that had migrated to the Dominican Republic in search of work. The novel’s main character, Amabelle, is an interesting character because she represents both the Dominican and Haitian heritages that are in conflict with one another from the novel’s inception. In a scene where Amabelle helps a woman give birth to two twins, Danticat continuously intensifies and explores the inner conflict that plagues Amabelle as she shows the reader her repression of Haiti and ignorance of her inferiority to her masters, while foreshadowing of the slaughter of the Haitian community in the Dominican Republic.

              
From the novel’s inception, Amabelle is portrayed as a young woman who holds conflicting identities, constantly repressing her Haitian heritage and instead acting as her surrogate “family” would like her to act. Amabelle sees the Dominican family as one that had saved her from homelessness and starvation after they took her in as a slave when her Haitian parents drowned.  Therefore, she is incredibly grateful to them. When the reader first witnesses her interactions with them, she is helping to birth two twins for Senora Valencia, a woman whom she had grown up with, yet still treats Amabelle as a servant. Essentially she is bringing two people into the world that will oppress her in the future since they would inherit her as a slave, but is oblivious to this fact, which demonstrates her ignorance of her own inferiority in the family’s eyes.

It is also clear that the twins are a foreshadowing of events to come for a number of reasons: one is dark and the other is of a lighter complexion which is perhaps a representation of the differences between the Haitian and Dominican people, and Danticat makes sure to have the doctor explain to Amabelle that “many of us start out as twins in the belly and do away with the other” (Danticat 19).The fact that Danticat makes them different in complexion and has the doctor explain the constant battle for survival between twins while living off of the same mother demonstrates to the reader that she is clearly foreshadowing events to come later on in the novel. Haitians and Dominicans are made to seem as if they are of different complexions within the novel and they are both fighting for survival while living on the same motherland. After the children are born, Senora Valencia expresses her concern to Amabelle and asks: “do you think my daughter will always be the color she is now? My poor love, what if she’s mistaken for one of your people?” (12). The exchange between Senor Valencia and Amabelle furthers the idea of Amabelle’s ignorance of her inferiority; she is insulted by Senora Valencia but it does not even seem to register.  

Amabelle is the bridge between Haiti and the Dominican Republic in many ways within the novel, and the author exploits this idea within her character in intriguing fashion. She is a character that lives between two worlds and is ignorant of her role within each of them. She sees a family that exploits her as a slave to be her saviors. The birthing of the twins is a rich and brilliant scene that effectively demonstrates Amabelle’s ignorance, and foreshadows events to come later on in the novel.

It is a special thing to be excited about an author who is still living. Danticat's writings are often profound pieces of work that speak on the value of women, engross the reader in rich histories and folklore, and provide food-for-thought on a variety of different subjects. Her sentences are artfully written and crafted and offer a voice of hope to women as she urges them to change the world around and create dangerously; women have all the power they will ever need within themselves. 

Works Cited:

http://www.amazon.com/Breath-Eyes-Memory-Oprahs-Book/dp/037570504X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367081918&sr=1-1&keywords=breath+eyes+memory

http://www.amazon.com/Farming-Bones-Edwidge-Danticat/dp/0140280499/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367081942&sr=1-1&keywords=farming+of+bones

Post #5: Lauren Greenfield

Lauren Greenfield is an American documentary filmmaker, documentary photography, and artist.  Her work revolves around the influence of pop culture on society and the problems that it creates.  She has explored topics such as youth culture, identity, body image, and eating disorders. Her documentation of these issues has established her worldwide and brought her much success with critical acclaim.

 
Since she earned her B.A. in Visual and Environmental studies from Harvard University in 1987, Greenfield had been producing large and ambitious bodies of work.  As an intern for National Geographic Magazine, she created her first monograph titled “Fast Forward: Growing Up In The Shadow of Hollywood,” which documents the “experience of growing up” in Los Angeles, and how these children are influenced and plagued by the values of Hollywood. The collection captured the life of the wealthy, the pressures of body image, life of gang members, and fame during adolescence.  The monograph debuted at the International Center of Photography in 1997.  Due to high praise, the show was displayed all over the world including France, Italy and Russia.  

She experienced even more success with her second monograph, “Girl Culture,” and established herself as documentary photographer. With “Girl Culture,” Greenfield documented the “relationship between girl’s inner lives and emotional development, and the material world and popular culture.”  She explored issues including eating disorders, plastic surgery, and how women are portrayed in the media.  

At first, Greenfield was not sure which direction to take her career.  In a recent interview, she stated, “I wasn’t sure if it would be sociology, film, photography, or anthropology, but looking at culture was my calling.”  Instead of choosing theory as her medium of choice, she settled with photography and filmmaking.

Greenfield’s first documentary, THIN, was for HBO, and had published a book along with it, which shares the same title. The subject of the documentary is The Renfrew Center, which is a treatment facility for women with eating disorders.  Greenfield lived at the center for six months, and had unrestricted access to the facility, where she filmed mealtimes, therapies, and patients.  Speaking about the film, Greenfield said, “I am intrigued by the way to female body has become a tablet on which our culture’s conflicting messages about femininity are written and rewritten.”  With THIN, Greenfield sheds light on something that was a growing epidemic at the time, and brings it to the attention of the public in a unique way.  THIN was selected for the Sundance Film Festival competition in 2006.  THIN garnered much praise and acclaim, winning Greenfield the John Grierson Award for director of the best feature-length documentary at the London Film Festival 2006 and an Emmy nomination in 2007 for best director of non-fiction programming. 

THIN (HBO) [Full Doc via Youtube]

As a filmmaker, Greenfield, rather than to just entertain, she creates films to shed light on issues that matter to her. As bell hooks said, “and even though most folks will say that they go to the movies to be entertained, if the truth be told lots of us, myself included, go to the movies to learn stuff” (2 bell hooks).  Greenfield uses the medium of motion pictures to not only explore and learn about the issues that matter to her, but to bring awareness to her viewers.  Greenfield’s work makes us aware of how much we, as a society, let pop culture influence us, and how we allow it to take control of our image, personalities, and daily routines.  Without filmmakers and thinkers, like Lauren Greenfield, to create an alternative narrative to challenge the accepted, pop culture, laced with stereotypes, propaganda of body image, and consumerism, would have a greater hold on society than it does now. 

Bibliography

Hooks, Bell. "Making Movie Magic." Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies. New York, NY: Routledge, 1996. 1-9. Print.
 
Links
Lauren Greenfield: Director Statement on THIN

Fast Forward: Growing Up In the Shadow of Hollywood

Girl Culture Slideshow

Interview with Harvardwood

THIN (HBO) via Youtube