Today we have watched a film that with no doubt had a message to convey and hopefully made us stop for a moment and think. The film indeed sparked a discussion with many opinions and points of views. Unfortunately I feel that many people got upset about an unexpected twist in the movie and ignored the message altogether. I didn't comment much during the class, because movies usually make a big impression to me, and I need to ponder them properly, sort my thoughts and make some sense of the emotions I get from those experiences. And usually, when the film works it leaves me stunned for several hours or even day. And this one worked.
I believe the form of the movie and the point went hand to hand with each other and the director's choice to include the autobiographical story made perfect sense. It is important to remember it did never claim to be documentary, it titled itself in rather jovial way - "An Autoblogography" and as such it had the deepest rights to be subjective, idealist and bold. And it also perfectly explains the heavy use of personal "family" material. Secondly, besides all the carefully researched and portrayed facts a great part of the story was based on books written by one man and therefore opinions and views. It would be rather ignorant to expect anything else but personality and individuality.
Those strong negative impressions based on the form and storyline of the movie may have darkened minds of some of us, and so I suggest, let's forget about it and focus on the message. And to the person who jokingly said "And what if he died in the end? Then it would be a film only about him." I suggest you to watch the whole movie again, because the old man did die and the last five minutes were about his funeral and its consequences.
And to all those who felt mislead by the trailer, I suggest watching it again:
"And then I had this year that turned my world upside down,... and forced me to rethink everything I thought I understood about the ways we are connected. We as humans have accumulated so much knowledge, why only do we have such a hard time seeing the bigger picture?"
PS: I wrote this blogpost because there is no space to discuss today lesson online. So discuss it here! :)
PSS: It was nice to see Maria joining us! Cheers! (:
I am glad that there's this post here to sparks threads of comments (hopefully). After months of attending 'Introduction to Media' course, I tend to think about the interactivity among professors in the class. Cai mentioned few times the importance about learning from each other in the class and this course definitely planned in that way so that each group of professors are sharing knowledges and incubate ideas and discussion among other professors. I feel the lack of that in this class and sometimes I feel like it is just a Friday class which most of the professors are either not at presence, or simply show up to the class and waiting to see some kind of 'show' from the presenting group. It will continue to be a bad cycle if professors are avoiding discussion and are not prepared for constructive feedbacks. Although this course is soon heading towards short winter hiatus, I look forward to the coming sessions, if we could utilise more of our time to this best Friday class to CONNECT better among us for better input and outputs of our knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThis is what I felt after watching the film. And I agree with the attitude of being positive/optimistic, pick only the message that touched and inspired you, and not hate the part that didn't. I felt warmth from this film, and sooner or later we will go through the phase, when we have to deal with death of loved ones. Also the message of setting priorities right, and think from bigger picture. Cheers.
Thanks Josef for posting on the course blog. Entries like this are most welcome. And thanks Joanne for trying to keep up (or wake up) discussion.
ReplyDeleteThe only way of really (yes - really -) learn something is to confront your thoughts and ideas with the real world and test them in practice. If you are alert and open minded you are a more learned and better educated person after every debate.
Only a fool is afraid that his world view would change in an open discussion. It is most desirable that our understanding of different phenomena change and mature.
This class has discussed more than the previous - but there is still a long way to go.
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I find it very sad I couldn't see the film together with you and participate in your discussion.
I found the film very wise and suggesting that we give ourselves time to reflect our priorities.
To me one of the (many) big threats we face today is that we surrender to the hectic media stream and deny ourselves time to think. (I mean think!) That leads - according to my humble opinion i welcome you all to challenge - a slow and in the end a painful mental suicide.
ReplyDeleteIt is not only about thinking, Cai, I would say that the hectic media stream doesn't allow us to 'feel'. And that will lead to a slow and painful mental suicide. I personally find myself thinking way too much. And in the past year I realized that I should embrace completely different things.
I used to have problems with being called an artist. Because I used to hate everything irrational. Nowadays, I call myself an artist, and embrace what I used to disagree with. Maybe that's why I liked the movie too. Because this was partly the message. Connection is not only 'the connection'.
Dear Josef
ReplyDeleteYou are so right, I chose the wrong term. Instead of thinking I should maybe have used the word reflecting, but I'm kind of getting fed up with that term because of the general inappropriate use of it.
But the question is about conquering a free space for ourselves to let ourselves think and process everything that happens inside and outside.
No, there is no human life without feelings. Love and passion improve the quality.