4- Editing: Juxtaposition and Storytelling

Editing: Juxtaposition and Storytelling

By Alyana, Christopher and Victoria

Baraka (Ron Fricke, USA, 1992, 96 min.)

Introduction

Baraka and Microcosmos: The Grass People are both documentaries that lack verbal dialogue however, they make up for this missing factor with an incredible visual experience. They present new perspectives on worlds that unfold around us, ones that remain unseen. Both films have striking images that last in our memories and a musical score to accompany the rhythm of the environment being shot. They attempt to draw our attention to things most people ignore. In Microcosmos: The Grass People we are shown a world that lives beneath our feet. The magnitude of amplification allows us to see things that are naked to the human eye. Baraka uncovers how we have been living and critiques the modern world. It propels us to reconnect and rediscover the nature that surrounds us. Both films use dimensions of film editing to amplify their message, and adopt juxtaposition to show contrast and difference

“Baraka Speaks”

Everyone has their own perception of the world. The way we see it, hear it, smell it, and feel it all vary depending on how we perceive life. These senses are what make us human. Our beliefs, ethics, preferences and dislikes are the things that differentiate us from one another. However, we are all linked by the good or evil of humanity based on what experiences we are faced with. We are able to deal with obstacles and find what it is that makes us feel human. A method of capturing what life is by documentary film.

The film assigned for this week’s discussion was “Baraka” directed by H. Ron Fricke. It explores the realities that our society may sometimes overlook by presenting social, spiritual and cultural occurrences throughout history. These ideas are captured through a series of clever visual and audio imagery of the juxtapositions of life as we know it. The disturbance of our peace and the harmony of our destruction are projected on screen. From this, we can self-reflect and ultimately question the nature of our actions.

Initially, you may think this “sounds” like any standard documentary, but there’s a catch. The director enhances the viewer’s experience by omitting the use of words entirely in the film. By removing the element of spoken or written words, it allows the film to speak for itself. Without narration, there is no language barrier. Everyone can experience the same cinematic journey while the film is able to translate itself through its powerful images and music.

Generally, everything from books to movies is built the same way. Although visual and auditory elements are what make a film great, there is another crucial element. In class, we studied the importance of storytelling in film. Like a firm foundation, a plot is essential to generating a sequence of images that make sense and still convey the message of the film. We saw that there are two parts to analysing a storyline. Firstly, there is the paradigmatic axis which conveys the meaning of a scene or event during a story. Then there is a syntagmatic axis which correlates these ideas all together. The relationship between the director’s concepts and ideas throughout the movie are all linked through this method of storytelling.

A way this storytelling is merged into film is by a series of heavy editing. Editing is a tool that is also vital to a film in smoothly and effectively delivering the director’s message by cutting and placing scenes into something pleasant to watch. This is a strategy used in their films which are classified as the “Four Dimensions of Filming”. What are these dimensions you may ask? It is the graphic, rhythmic, spatial and temporal relations of film editing. Basically, these are the properties of visual transitions (color,shape) scene duration (fast,slow), developmental contrasts (same,different), and sense of time (present,past) in a movie.

From “Baraka”, we can see how these dimensions are applied to film. The sense of rhythm was used quite a lot during factory or industrial scenes to express the fast lifestyle of first world countries. Or the slow motioned images of the tribes and their tranquility.  Many contrasts of either the beauty or horror of our world represented through the techniques Fricke successfully utilizes. The landscape overviews of canyons, the scenes of the sun rises and sun sets and all the shots of nature depict how fruitful and lively our world is. Then it proceeds with the bombing and destruction of the mountains, the images of artillery and missiles, and the scene of the house overflowing with the remains of tortured refugees. These examples present the contrasts of the elements of the dead and the living used in Baraka.

This film allows us to peak into a window of reality and question the things that make us human. Baraka means “the breath of life” and through a meditation of colours and sound, we are able to not only see and listen to life, but to feel it. 

Microcosmos (Claude Nuridsany & Marie Pérennou, France, 1996)

Microscosmos: The Grass People is a poetic documentary that sprung to life in 1996 at the hands of Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou. These two talented directors exposed a realm of life that is hidden from the naked eye with their critically acclaimed film. It is a French documentary that was first screened at the Cannes Film Festival before its release in Switzerland. It has many awards to its name. 

With this eighty-minute documentary, we become aware of an entire world buzzing and beating beneath our feet. The film is screaming with life and color. The cameras are zoomed and narrow in on the everyday lives of microscopic organisms. As you watch the bugs and insects mill about, you forget how far up and away you are from them. They climb in search of food and they work to build a home. The insects are a community of individuals that coexist much like the human race. However, the cadence of our lives is far from that of the species observed in this documentary. It doesn’t seem as if anything they do has an ulterior motive. These small beings live in the moment without too much thought to the future, because they don’t have time to live for tomorrow. The slight narration in the beginning of the film shares the startling truth of their shortened life span. For these tiny creatures, an hour in our lives represents a whole day in theirs. A day for us is a season for them. They live an entire life in the time it takes our season to turn. Life is measured differently. The juxtaposition of two different life forms is brought up to create a bridge. The viewer is given the information that he or she needs in order to understand the very small creatures that most deem insignificant. We understand how short their lives are, and we can show compassion for a life so fleeting.

We are given an entirely new perspective. From where we stand, their world does not exist. Minute details that we overlook are monuments for the tiny folk that roam our earth. Everything is amplified for them. There is rainfall in the film and every drop lands with a thud and shakes the ground they travel. From our point of view it is a weak pitter pat. For them, the water splashes and dances around their tiny frames. The scene was edited and the drops fell slowly before crashing to the ground. A rhythmic relation was used to lengthen the actual motion of a steady rainfall. The film editor wanted us to visualize what things look like from down below. He wanted to amplify the impact.  

We rarely pay attention to their world because we ignore detail. It’s easy to become absorbed in your life, sometimes we forget to look around. The insects and the bugs move with such purpose that we must stop and contemplate this undeniable force. They carry out their lives remaining, for the most part, hidden from the human race. As the film unfolds, you can’t help but wonder about everything else you’ve been blind to.

To emphasize the beauty of a budding earth, the film fast tracks the opening of flowers as they bloom. The editors used a temporal relation to give us the full story in a much shorter period of time. We witness them come to life in a mere few seconds, but the real blooming of a flower can take weeks. The film directors wanted to share the experience while still conserving the length of the film. It is a very important dimension of filmmaking as it allows a greater amount of content to be covered in a shorter amount of time.

The narration at the beginning of the movie sets the scene, but the music is our guide throughout. The murmurs of nature can be heard as the music lulls in the background. The viewing is enriched by the strong symphonic melody. The music mirrors the movement of the bugs under the lens and the environment they inhabit. The sound is light when everything is peaceful and calm, but when the two beetles begin their battle the music picks up. The hard beat is dramatic and builds suspense. It compels us to watch, waiting to see who will come out the victor. Bruno Coulais musical score propels the movie forward. The music pulses and sings in tune with the beautiful French meadow where the documentary was filmed.

Microcosmos: The Grass People forces our perspective to hit the ground and we must look from the bottom up. We usually stand at the opposite end and things look a lot different. The film forces us to notice small details as we zoom into a peaceful environment. This documentary is wonderfully simple.

 Our thoughts

The documentaries Baraka and Microscosmos allow us to think about ourselves. Throughout those films, we discover how tiny we are in comparison with the entire world. Also, we discover that we live in a modern and urban jungle and that the only difference with the natural jungle is the technology. Our mentality says that we assure the survival of the planet but actually, we do the opposite, we destroy it and it can assure her survival by herself. The other discovery is that, as a consumer society, we need to produce an industrial quantity of things to meet our needs. Basically those two films act like a wake-up call because we discover that we are in an emergency situation. We over consume to meet our needs, we do things quick to be more productive and the major thing is that we shut our eyes on the rest of the world. We do not take the time to learn about the other tribes or the wildlife that lives with us and also we don’t want to know where the products came from or who did them and in which circumstances, we just want the products (food, clothes, technology, etc.). Finally the most striking picture is that we seem to be in pursuit of happiness. That is really incredible because we have everything and we still are not happy but the tribes have nothing and they seem to be happy.

Those documentaries teach us, about the world, that where ever you are located in the food chain (animals, plants, bugs and humans) you are still tiny on the planet. We (humans) are not the center of the world as we think because actually, we use only 1% out of 29% of living territory. Also, those documentaries make us discover different cultures of different tribes and we discover the lifestyle of certain type of wildlife and bugs. This is really interesting because these scenes open our eyes on different aspects of the world that we are not familiar with. This video shows a tribe that was not discovered until today also, it is illustrates that we are not the center of the universe.

We believe that to transform our vision of the world, the producers of Baraka and Microscosmos, use captivating pictures of nature and wildlife that are present all around us and that we do not get to see every day. For the “world” of our society, the producers use dramatic and shocking pictures that reveal the weaknesses of our society. These scenes are accompanied by music that captivates our feelings and emotions.

In conclusion, we can relate those films to our life and to the society because of two reasons. The first one is that we think we are not interested in the world around us. We are only focusing on ourselves, like the quote me, myself and I. For examples, we know that we share our territory with bugs, plants and animals but we are not searching to know what their lifestyle is and how we can share the space with them. Also, we are more afraid of humans who are different from us then our desire to learn about their culture. The second reason is that society including our-self consumes too much then what our real needs are. For example, material things, food, clothes, etc.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the viewing and the analyse of the movie Baraka and Microcosmos really shown what is the impact of the editing on the documentary films. Also, the juxtaposition of the images transport us to a kind of secret world because, in the case of the two movies that we analyse, we did not have the chance to explore this side of the world really often. Finally, those documentaries make us think about the world where we live and also about our negative habits that we have.  

3 - Rhetoric: The Art of Convincing

Bowling for Columbine & Capitalism: A Love Story & Class Notes
By: Lital, Katherine, and Evan

The documentary “Bowling for Columbine”, filmed in 2002, is a documentary which touches on a sensitive topic in the United States; the possession of guns. It is based on a shooting in Columbine High School on April 20^th, 1999, which affected many family and children of the USA. Michael Moore, the director of this documentary, also surfaces many issues related to guns and how American feel about this topic.

In this two hour documentary, Michael Moore goes out and searches for different answers on this controversial topic. He explores more of this topic through the shooting of 12 children from Columbine High School, in which he bases the majority of this film on. He starts off the film with his experience with guns because that is a tradition in his hometown of Michigan. Moore uses comedy, tragedy and anger to get his point across of fear and violence that most Americans experience because of the gun ownership. He interviews people from the media like Matt Stone, Marilyn Manson, James Nichols and Charlton Heston. Between all the varieties of people interviewed, the ideas of guns change from how guns promote evil to how it is protection of the poor. Moore brings us through a roller coaster of emotions by the footage of the Columbine shooting, the scene with kids that have targets attached to them, the scenes of all the recent violence that occurred in the USA and many more. Through this documentary, Michael Moore shows us how having a gun doesn’t always mean protection, guns are not safe to possess out of fear, we are not fully educated on guns and that living out of fear is corrupt.

The topic of the art of convincing, discussed in class, relates to the Michael Moore’s rhetoric views on the topic of guns in America. Rhetoric is when there is an organization of events to express oneself, convince and persuade people. We discussed forms of address used in rhetorical, which are logos, pathos and ethos. Logos is the reasoning to construct an argument, pathos is the appeal to emotions to alter feelings and judgement and ethos is the belief in someone based on their credibly because of their social position.  We learnt that rhetorical development can be reach through examples, definitions, cause and effect, circumstances and quotations. We also discussed propaganda which is a claim relating to reality and to truth. They use it to expose a point of view, to convince and to covert. Some of the techniques that are used by name calling, glittering generalities, transfer, false analogy, testimonial, plain folks, card stacking, bandwagon, either/or fallacies and faulty cause and effect. Lastly, we discussed the critical eye. The critical eye is an understanding that there is more than one to side to every story that we must be alert to uncover the techniques used to shape our understanding of a situation and to be able to make enlightened well informed choices.

In the documentary “Bowling for Columbine”, Moore uses a rhetorical image throughout the film; he persuades us by going back and forth with people pro guns and then the devastation involving guns. He makes the people who are for guns look extremely foolish by showing clips of the tragedy of guns soon after. Moore uses logos by the number of people who have died by guns in different countries per year and the last being the USA with 11,127 deaths; this also appeals to pathos. There is a use of ethos by Moore interviewing James Nichols and Matt Stone based on their credibly, ideas and rationality. He uses pathos by footage of dates and footage of events involving war and violence which the USA is included in, over the past 50 years and the song “what a wonderful world in the background”; this plays with our emotions. Michael Moore develops his arguments by using comparison, he shows two events that happened on April 20^th, first the bombing in Serbia by the USA and how they bombed elementary schools and hospitals and compared that to Columbine shooting; he proves that America is violent. He uses cause and effect by taking the causes of bowling, poverty, broken homes or violent pasts to trigger a school shooting by teenagers. He uses a quote by Marilyn Manson to emphasize one of his points in this documentary, he states “fear created in the media results in consumption.” Moore uses propaganda and uses a lot of ordinary people from his home town, people who work at the bank, ex-convicts of Michigan to expose his point of view on guns. He also uses faulty cause and effect going through the list of effects that cause violence from teenagers such as violence in the media, metal music, Satan, Marilyn Mason etc. By the end of the film, the one-sidedness becomes more relieved and it leaves the audience with knowledge of this side of the arguments on gun control in the USA.  

Introduction to Capitalism: A Love Story

A documentary film very similar to “Bowling for Columbine” is “Capitalism: A Love Story”. It was written, directed and produced by Michael Moore in 2009. The movie is about two hours long and was filmed in the United States. Moore brings us into a history class and explains to us how the Roman Empire had its own greedy flaws, just like today. As time progresses, Moore brings us to the post WWII era. The era where the US’s rivals, Japan and Germany, were busy cleaning up their destroyed cities. While Japan’s and Germany’s economy was in the toilet, Americans were thriving with heaps of money. The President, Franklin D. Roosevelt was going to introduce the Second Bill of Rights, which would ensure that everyone in the United-States would be happy. So why aren’t Americans happy right now? Well Moore thinks it’s because Roosevelt died before introducing the Rights, politicians made alliances with billion-dollar corporations and that Wall Street was abolishing millions of jobs and health-care for their own benefit. Moore explains how President Ronald Reagan was controlled by Wall Street, which enabled them to do anything they wanted, even steal money from the poor. Moore shows all sorts of examples of how everyday people are getting robbed of their wealth and homes. For example he shows a clip of an evicted family refusing to leave their home. With the support of their neighbors, the authorities didn’t intervene. Moore also showed a take-over by employees of a company. They wouldn’t leave the factory grounds until the company owners gave them what they wanted. With the event making the news, the employees were given support by thousands of people. According to Moore, ‘support’ seems to be a huge problem for Wall Street. In fact Moore explains that the poor have one advantage over the rich: the number of individuals. Moore explains that if the poor get together and vote for a politician that seeks to destroy Wall Street’s dream, then the billionaires we know today won’t be as rich as they were yesterday.

If you don’t quite know a lot about Wall Street, this article might inform you about it:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-wall-street.htm

The two main concepts that were covered in class were rhetoric and propaganda. This film displays a lot of techniques associated with both concepts. The first rhetoric form is logos, which is when someone uses reasoning to construct arguments (using facts, numbers etc…) “Bowling for Columbine” showed many facts and numbers to get a point across. In fact “Capitalism: A love Story” did the exact same thing. Michael Moore send out a bunch or pretty looking numbers that made some popular and rich people look bad. Although the audience has no clue where Moore is getting his numbers from, they could be made up just so Moore can make a point. For example Moore tells his audience that personal bankruptcies increased by 610% since the 1980s. Yet these numbers aren’t referenced, so how is the audience supposed to know Moore isn’t exaggerating a bit?

The second rhetoric form is ethos. The documentary didn’t necessarily interview anybody because of their credibility or of their social position, but it did show video clips of different presidents talking to the American people. The third rhetoric is pathos. In “Bowling for Columbine”, pathos was used quite often to get Moore’s audience to agree with his points and it is exactly the same in “Capitalism: A Love Story”. Moore shows video clips of the terrible conditions the lower class have to live in. Families of twelve would be living in a truck, thousands of families were evicted from their homes and it also showed how organizations bet on their own employee’s deaths:

Or even how pilots only get paid 19 000$ a year:

Many propaganda techniques were used throughout the film. The most common technique was Name Calling and Card Stacking. Throughout the whole film, the rich and powerful were portrayed as greedy and evil. That it was their fault for what has happened to the United-States economically and politically, and Moore did a great job at pointing his finger. If the movie wasn’t showing the audience clips of the lower class, it was bashing the rich for what they’ve done.  Plain Folks was used throughout the film. For example there were two farmers who were getting their house evicted. The farmers explained their side of the story which made the scene very biased because Moore didn’t interview why the bank evicted the farm. Maybe the farmers weren’t paying their bills, or owed the bank a large amount of money, the audience just doesn’t know. The propaganda technique Testimonial was used to make Ronald Reagan the 40th president of the United-States. Before his presidency, Reagan was originally a Hollywood star and corporate spokesman before convincing Americans he was right for the White House. Which, as Moore tells his audience, was the beginning of the end of capitalism.

Personal Response to Bowling for Columbine

Bowling for Columbine is a documentary that is all about showing Moore’s opinion about guns and their relation to violence. We can learn a lot about society and ourselves in general, as the documentary reflects the easy accessibility to weapons and munitions. This accessibility shows that different outlets, such as the news, violence in movies, television, video games, and the media influence us and instill fear within us. The emphasis on fear is central in Moore's film, showing the psychological effects these outlets have on our minds, and the impact of such an acute phenomenon that is a plague to our well being. These means of expression, become our means of expression, teaching us to mimic what it is we see; creating paranoia and enabling people to make irrational decisions. It is important to see how such tragic events such as the Columbine high school shooting, create a globally controlling hold on many individuals. Some become a part of the violence, while others seek protection from it by purchasing a gun. Even for those that do buy weapons for their own protection, this action creates a dualistic approach to the situation. On one hand, it is strictly for the means of feeling more sheltered and in control of any possible violent interaction, and on the other, it reflects a sad reality of what this world has succumbed to, agony and terror, rather than peace and unison. What this world needs is to validate the human race and accept that we are all human born under one God.  We must learn to open our eyes and learn that in the end, the ones we hurt are each other. This influence depicts the disparity between those that are weak and controlled by the influence of the media, and those that choose not to become victimized by it.

Personal Response to Capitalism: A Love Story

 This documentary explores capitalism as a corporate authority on the everyday lives of individuals. We learn that people pay the price with their homes, savings and current employment opportunities. Moore examines the homes of other people, and the devastation that their infatuation with capitalism has created, destruction that has accompanied and burned their lives in the name of love. Our world is filled with greed where in relation to youth today, there is more interest in finance than in science. This documentary portrays the evil in capitalism, which Moore concludes should be replaced by democracy and ruled by the people, rather than by the money. In reference to control, the money controls the lives of individuals and creates the robbery of their innocent and fragile lives. Goods and services are only provided for those who are capable of paying for them, leaving out the sick, the old, the young, and those that are incapable of working. Ironically, the documentary begins with footage of armed robberies, which in my perception is a representation of capitalism in society today; where money controls and oppresses the lives of its victims. After seeing the documentary and examining the title: “A Love Story,” capitalism cannot be lived with or without. The vicious money hungry cycle that perpetuates our global economy is indeed a love story, even when it may not necessarily be right or beneficial.

 Links Between Bowing for Columbine and Capitalism: A Love Story

When examining both films, Moore depicts gun violence and those that fall prey to its plague as a means of attention and expression. Meanwhile, to those that choose not to succumb to the violence, there is still a great sense of fear that is instilled within us due to the platform such outlets create for us. Whether it instills fear or is a gateway to acquiring attention, violence is an emotion and a ploy for attention. Moore explores capitalism as a weapon itself, leading to the destruction of our own well beings, by perpetuating greed and following a vicious cycle that is dominated by finance and the idea of money as what makes the world go around. Money does make this world function and revolve, however it centers around the idea of dominance and power over individuals. The liaison between both articles is the concept of dominance, whether it is fear or attention when it comes to violence in general, or how we choose to invest our money. The central brain of this operation is the dominance of the media and its other mediums, social outlets that have a big role in instigating and influencing our thoughts, perceptions and beliefs, which are replaced by their expressions that soon become ultimately ours. In relation to both articles, infatuation of anything leads to its ultimate control and supremacy, where balance is no longer a priority.

In conclusion, both films were incredible and are recommended to all those who seek to explore the global phenomenon of gun violence and capitalism. There are lessons to be learned from these films, and anybody could benefit by watching them and developing their own thoughts and perception on them. The main themes make us all re-evaluate the world we live in today, and the fear that is being instilled within us through the media and its outlets. Things have changed and will continue to change as time goes on, and we all have to adapt to these new changes. The concept of gun violence and capitalism as two factors that contribute to an investment of falsity and negativity, the issues, thoughts and concerns surrounding them we essential in the development and understanding of the two films.  

                                                    Capitalism: A Love Story(Trailer)

2 - Realism

Realism

by Lucila, Amelia & Arshar

We all have memories, some good and others bad, but how reliable can they be? Our minds work in mysterious ways; they can block things out, sharpen precise memories and even create new ones. In the last week, we talked about realism and how not necessarily everything we remember is true. This blog will not only present this topic, but will also discuss the film Waltz with Bashir and introduce a second film named Persepolis.

Waltz With Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008, Israel, 90min)
Last week in our Documenting Myths class we watched Waltz with Bashir, a movie by Ari Folman about his life as a soldier during the Lebanon War. Ari Folman, the main character, visits many of his past friends from the army to try and find out what happened to him during the war, because he cannot remember anything from that time. He interviews friends, other soldiers and a psychologist as well as the Israeli TV reporter RonBen-Yishai who covered Beirut at the time of the massacre. Every friend he interviews tells him something different about the war, most of which he still has no memory of. Throughout the film, Ari has the same recurring dream of him and his comrades getting out of the water by Beirut and walking to the shore while flares fill the night’s sky and people come towards him-women and children screaming but he could not hear their cries. Later in the film, he finds out that he was in the second or third ring and had been firing flares to light up the sky during the time of the Sabra and Shatila massacre. This makes him feel responsible, because although he did not do the killings himself, he helped and this affects him deeply because of his personal past.


 

The documentary is all animated except for the last minute or two of the film at which point the director switched it to real, raw footage that is made to shock the public. This film is done mostly in animation to represent how reality is rarely as it seems, it all depends on the perception of reality we have. The director chose to make the film as he did to represent how during the war, the events that happened seems to be like a movie to the soldiers. Someone in the film mentions how a soldier sees the events as though they are on a screen and are apart from him, until he sees one scene-in his case the horse massacre seen- that awakes him to start to see reality as it truly is. A camera cannot adapt the way our eyes do to modify perspective, for example perception of depth. These are things that can easily be reproduced through animation, which explains why the director chose to tell his story in an animated creation. Reality in this film plays a big role because they are basing real facts on memory, even though memory isn’t always equal to reality. Just as Zahava Solomon, psychologist interviewed in the film, explains how memory can often be wrong because your memory can make things up to fill in missing information. Memory can also modify actual events to make up for what you cannot remember; an example of this is the soldier dancing in the street scene. All the soldier explain how they saw one of their fellow comrades dancing in the street as snipers shot at him and he killed their opponents on his own. We have no proof that it is what really happened, yet it is how everyone remembers it. The director wants us to remember that memory does not equal to reality. The director chooses to make the last thing we see a real footage to make sure we as spectators understand that it is not all made up facts, or modified facts. Ari wants to make sure we understand and remember our violent past-for example the Holocaust, the burning times, Sabra and Shatila, etc.









Pertinent links on related massacres:
The Holocaust
The Burning Times

Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Parronaud, 2007, France, 95min)

Persepolis is a French animated film documenting an Iranian woman’s journey through self-discovery amidst a countrywide revolution. Originally an autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, who, alongside Vincent Parronaud, directed the film, it explores both the struggles of growing up and the difficulties of deciding where you belong. We begin by following a young Marjane as she and her idealist family face the overthrowing of the hated shah by the people of Iran in the violent revolution of 1979. As Marji grows up, she begins to understand how the new Islamic fundamentalist ruled government has become a repressive tyranny of its own; she is forced to wear a veil and conform to the intolerant rules, and must even live every day with the fear of bombs dropping on her head as the Iran-Iraq war breaks out. Inspired by her uncle Anoosh who was imprisoned for his activism and communistic views, Marjane develops her own political and social opinions. Treacherously refusing to keep silent she is sent to Vienna by her parents, through fear of her arrest for being so outspoken, in order to remain safe and to study for a better, more civilized life. In her new home, she meets people of multiple cultures and with vast views, who are shocked to hear the horrors she’s witnessed in Iran. Though she makes friends, Marjane feels more alone and isolated than ever, as superficial, snobby people who take their freedom for granted surround her. Quickly, her behavior changes and she begins to lose herself through her terrible life choices and ultimately hits rock bottom, only to realize that she drastically needs to find who she is, what she wants, and where she needs to be. As an adult, she returns to Iran, where she settles into a severe depression and has lost any will to live; Marjane attempts to commit suicide, and on the brink of death encounters God and Karl Marx, who convince her to remain true to herself and her beliefs. She returns to university, has fun with friends, marries and eventually also divorces. She realizes the wonderful country she once knew in her childhood was not coming back anytime soon, and once again she leaves for France, only this time, never to return again.



A truly beautifully written and animated film, Persepolis opens your eyes to the hardship that the Iranian people had to endure and continue to this day, to carry on their shoulders. The revolution in Iran is a very heavy subject, yet is powerfully portrayed in the film. Similar to the concept of illusionism that we saw in class and the idea of our emotions being affected through sight, the directors carefully chose scenes that grasp your attention yet equally shock and disturb you, notably all the war scenes (e.g. a hand sticking out of the rubble of a bomb site (see below)). Nevertheless, what mostly makes this movie a “realistic” documentary is that we are being told a story through the memories of our narrator and central character, both as an adult and as a child, which is quite rare and also fully allows us to see her point of view and analyze our thoughts on it. There equally exists the dynamic pairing of spectacle and knowledge, as we are brought to learn about the reality of the Iranian revolution, all while having the chance to admire the remarkable black and white animations, which uniquely look like a shadow puppet show. Evidently, we are only presented one side of the story, or one opinion, which could bring us to question the directors’ desire to mold and shape our perspective on this reality, but that is beside the point and only further proves that Persepolis does in fact match the realism type of documentaries which we were shown in class. It is a brilliant movie, and a must see for documentary lovers.





Countries at War
“Waltz with Bashir” and “Persepolis” are great examples of films that use animation to depict horrific wars. In both films, we learn a great deal about war and the toll it takes on many soldiers and families.

“Waltz with Bashir” painfully demonstrates how today’s glorious victories can become nightmares that haunt individuals and nations for decades. For example, Ari Folman who doesn’t remember the Sabra and Shatila massacre tries to retrace his footsteps with a series of interviews. This process was very terrifying at times for Ari. For instance, the moment of discovery haunted him sometimes during his dreams. This leads us to memory which is the central theme that is focused in this documentary film.“Waltz with Bashir” reveals to our world why atrocities are committed in the first place. It teaches us how can “normal” human beings can be induced to commit terrible acts (or to allow them to happen, as in the case of the Israeli soldiers who stood by while their Christian allies in Lebanon did the "dirty work") despite being "nice people" in their otherwise-routine lives. Ari Folman presents a very personal story and the message of his story relates to how, as a society, we forget about devastating massacres and continue on with our daily lives. It questions us to think, how one can forget about a war that huge. All the dead bodies and screams usually would be engraved in a soldier for the rest of their lives.

Sabra and Shatila Survivors Remembering the Massacre (article)

On the other hand, Persepolis shows us the difficulties and how hard it can be for a teenager to live in Iran, a country with very strict laws and regulations. The animated film illustrates the history of Iran during the Iranian Revolution and the manner it affected the citizens of Iran. For instance, her parents had to send her out of Iran for her well-being being because she did not follow the rules and her parents were worried she would be executed. Once she returns, we learn that Marjane and Iran can never coexist because she has changed during her time in Europe.

Persepolis teach us that governments often abuse their power and oppress their own people. Therefore, the people must rise up against their corrupt leaders and governments to bring them down, in order to establish honest and good ones and attain equal rights and freedom. This film gives us a better understanding of how a “different” girl experiences fear, loss, prejudice and depression. The significance of adapting to different cultures is very important in this movie. It is very hard to adapt to certain cultures, especially, if you are raised in the Western/American society. There is more freedom. For instance, if you were to move to Dubai today, females are considered a property to their husband. There are certain clothes you are not allowed to wear. In order to get a driver’s license the husband would have to be present. Most of us have it easy and in other parts of the world there are young children fighting for freedom everyday of their lives.

Waltz with Bashir and Persepolis are two brilliant animation films. One is about a horrific Sabra and Shatila massacre that occurred in 1982, whereas the other is about how a young girl copes with the coming of age in a severe country. Both are remarkably portrayed and the usages of intricate animation techniques were breath taking. These films capture major events in our history through the eyes of a single individual, the filmmakers. Waltz with Bashir is Folman’s perspective of the massacre. Persepolis is not an educational film on life under the Shah. Rather, it is Marji’s, a normal girl in a different world. Remembering these life struggles with the filmakers truly allows for a deep, raw, and intimate viewing experience, which we can sincerely appreciate. It was a fantastic way to begin the semester, as the films will be difficult to forget.