Blog 6: An Inconvenient Truth

The message trying to be argued in Davis Guggenheim’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, is that global warming is occurring and that the general populous needs to change their consumption and conservation habits.

Al Gore traveled the world giving a power point presentation reflecting this message and the movie shows his presentation, follows some of his travels while he narrates the whole thing. Most laypeople would have been extremely bored had they just chosen to record his presentation. Instead, the moviemakers decided to put Al Gore’s personal (and sometimes only vaguely relevant) anecdotes in amongst the footage of the presentation. Another key tactic they use to keep viewers engaged is making references to popular culture or at least by using metaphors. For example, toward the beginning of the film, they show a short, dumbed-down version of global warming presented by an newscaster in Simpson’s style cartooning. They also relate the Earth and its atmosphere to a globe with a coat of varnish. I think it’s also critical when analyzing how the stance is developed to notice that most of the “current” pictures shown of the environment all have red, smoky backgrounds. The color red also has the connotation of having to do with violence, blood, and forbidden or negative things, which affects subconscious readings of the pictures.

Mr. Gore and Mr. Guggenheim are trying to portray their film as presenting the truth by referencing “scientists” all the time. They also seem to want to show Mr. Gore as a scholarly, reliable common-man type. They paint his childhood as atypical, but he still supposedly kept his roots by living 4 months of the year on a farm. When Mr. Gore isn’t shown giving a presentation in the movie, he is on his laptop. It seems impossible that he would be making changes to the presentation every spare moment he had; even while other people on the plane are sleeping, he is vigilantly working on his laptop. An Inconvenient Truth seems to have a personal aspect to it, like Brzeski’s film, but it seems more scientific and factual, like Faden’s film (despite the fact that Faden’s film ends up being a fake old movie). Both Brzeski’s film and Guggenheim’s employ the use of metaphors, though in different manners, in order to give more substance to their argument.

Gore and Guggenheim want the audience to realize that global warming is occurring at a rate that must be slowed down as soon as possible. In the movie, Gore asks questions that seem to prompt action, “Future generations may well have occasion to ask themselves, "What were our parents thinking? Why didn't they wake up when they had a chance?" We have to hear that question from them, now.”



As a side note:
I have to admit, I am slightly biased against this movie due to previous articles I have read:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/28/film.usa2
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=64734
http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/sendler.asp
http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=Q4prVr4z

Those are a few. I also had heard about his “carbon credits” and found these articles on that:

http://riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2007/03/al_gores_inconv.html
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54528
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-08-09-gore-green_x.htm

The last paragraph of the last article asks a question that I find pertinent to the matter:
“The issue here is not simply Gore's hypocrisy; it's a question of credibility. If he genuinely believes the apocalyptic vision he has put forth and calls for radical changes in the way other people live, why hasn't he made any radical change in his life?”

Blog 5: Brzeski & Faden

“Certain subjects… may be termed ‘cinematic’ because they seem to exert a peculiar attraction on the medium. It is as if the medium were predestined (and eager) to exhibit them.” – Sigfried Kracauer, Theory of Film

This quote prefaces Tracking Theory: The Synthetic Philosophy of The Glance, By Eric S. Faden. In both his movie and Eva Ilona Brzeski’s film, This Unfamiliar Place, they introduce their main plot by using a story or an anecdote to capture the readers’ attention. Brzeski’s story of being “intrigued by disaster” as a little girl seems to flow easier into the main story about her father. Faden’s whole film covers a much broader topic; he sets up his film by showing the three movies that inspired him, Wong Kar Wai's 2046, Lars Von Trier's Europa, and Gustavo Mosquera's Moebius, describing their themes, and his interpretation of them.

Brzeski’s film seems to be a personal exploration of her family. The narrator seems to be speaking from Brzeski’s point of view and the whole film has a dreamlike quality about it. The footage is mostly smooth and slow with audio playing on top of the images. Usually during an interview or the narration, there is music or whistling or nature sounds. Even the happy clip of her parents dancing at the end is slowed down. The visual imagery of that clip, though, is contrasted with the father’s words being spoken over it: “some of those things I don’t even think about. You know, I don’t even want to remember.” His life now seems to be a dream after the nightmare of Nazi occupation. There are a few clips of “destruction” – literal interpretations of the narrator’s words at the beginning—but even these seem to be slowed down and have music or narration over them, making them not seem quite as scary. They seem more to be a memory than an actual event taking place.

In my micro-seminar I took during Welcome Week with Michael Renov, we read two chapters of the book Collecting Visible Evidence. (I just found out that he was a co-editor of this book.) One of the strategies we discussed was that of “coimplication,” which was defined as “a kind of supplementary autobiographical practice; it functions as a vehicle of self-examination, a means through which to construct self-knowledge through recourse to the familial other.” This idea is visible in Brzeski’s film; she learns more about herself through exploring her father’s past. At one point in the film, you can tell that he is speaking directly to his daughter who is filming him. He says, “I would like to talk about other things if I have a choice, do I?” This part refers to Renov’s theory of “textual authority,” in which the “filial obligation outpaces directorial control.” She probably wasn’t expecting her father to turn around the interview and ask her questions. This exchange wouldn’t be possible if he was someone she didn’t know very well, but because he is her father, that usurpation of power is possible.

Faden begins his story with a different sort of personal anecdote. It definitely doesn’t feel as intimate as the story from Brzeski’s childhood, but his film isn’t as personal as hers seems to be. The whole introduction seemed a collage of words, video and audio clips. While the narrator was speaking, you could also hear other clips of audio as well as see words float across the screen. This modern compilation of media segued into an old time looking movie. At first, I was convinced I was looking at an authentic old piece of film, especially because the narrator had said, “By coincidence, when doing archival research last year, I stumbled upon the very movie that I had dreamed.” But after I heard one of the people in the film speak, I was pretty sure it wasn’t; I don’t think they had the technology to produce sound with the visuals when that type of filming was being done. I thought it was interesting how the narration preceding the old movie exactly described it.

“I thought about a long ago time when movies did more than just tell stories. A time when exhibitors edited fragments together and lecturers supplemented the visual spectacle with details and knowledge.”

I also really liked the ending, where it jolts the viewer back to the present with a SUV driving across the screen and going from black and white, grainy film to colored, smooth-looking, modern film.

Both movies had references to trains, although Faden’s examples of them were much more direct. In Brzeski’s film, a train is shown when she is talking about her trip as a twelve year old to the alps while her father wrote his memoirs. Both movies use film clips as metaphors to further the meaning of their words. In Faden’s film, he uses abstract images along with the narration. They don’t necessarily seem to be metaphors as much of the time as literal representation of what he is saying. He shows people working with the footage while discussing finding the archival footage and clips of old movies while talking about them. One instance where it does seem to be a metaphor is when he says he “stumbled upon the very movie” and the clip being shown is of two trains crashing into each other. It makes it seem like he has “crashed” head-on to the conclusion he is making about film. Brzeski uses clips of rain and the sound of rain, which seems to be a sign of renewal. Her father’s life is new and the old parts are washed away; he has forgotten about his old life because he’s so involved with his life now. There is also a clip of empty carnival rides that has the audio over it saying she was “anticipating a reaction that never came.” I think using the visual clips in addition to the narration is an extremely effective way to saturate the viewer with the desired meaning.

Blog 4: Appropriation/Reappropriation

The artist, Banksy has used his art as a commentary about several topical issues including war, poverty, government and capitalism. It could almost be said that he is a sort of political cartoonist, except instead of being published in magazines, his images are displayed on public property. He not only paints graffiti, he also sneaks altered pictures into museums and paints/draws pictures that he puts on his website, www.banksy.co.uk/. One of his key techniques is altering known images to give them a different meaning. He does this much along the same lines as Barbara Kruger, except he doesn’t always use an ambiguous phrase; often he just adds an extra detail to the picture. Like Andy Warhol, he took famous works of art (like Monet’s water lilies) and altered them to produce different interpretations of the original work of art. Here are a few examples: (The original work is on the left and Banksy's work is on the right.)Banksy’s artwork, which originally started as a rebellious act, is becoming reappropriated. Though his personal identity is still unknown, his popularity as an artist has grown immensely. “His refusal to be interviewed in person or even to reveal his real name has added to his mystique over the years.” (http://weburbanist.com/2008/07/15/who-is-banksy-about-banksy/) I recently recognized Banksy art in Children of Men, a movie by Alfonso Cuarón. The movie is set in 2027 on Earth, where humans have somehow lost the ability to procreate. The whole world seems to be coming to an end, and while the majority of the population is desperate and poor, there are a few who are disgustingly rich. One of the wealthy people has taken to collecting the great works of art to stop them from being destroyed during this chaotic time. Cuarón decided that Banksy’s work was among those valuable pieces. This piece of work is shown on part of a wall in the movie: Another example of the growing popularity of his work is evident by the number of websites selling shirts with his art on them, like shop.com, ebay, http://www.vandaldesigns.co.uk, and various other t-shirt selling websites. The fact that his work is popping up in pop culture and growing in demand as a product means it that it is only a matter of time before the rest of the world knows who he is, if only the pseudonym.

Robert Frank: Visual Interpretation Strategies

For my Studium/Punctum piece, I ended up using two of Robert Frank’s photos and combining them. In the picture of the couple on the motorcycle, the couple seemed to be distinctly looking down and I expanded on that by placing another picture “underneath” them. I was thinking of it metaphorically as them not only visually looking down upon the people in the bottom picture, but as them disliking them and finding them not as worthy as themselves. In the bottom picture, the people are predominantly Caucasians and the couple on the motorcycle are African American, as are most of the people in the background of their picture. The story that I created in my mind was that the black couple was either resentful for segregation and racism or they felt some pity on the ignorant white people who force themselves above blacks. I think with the hard looks on their faces, though, that the former seems more fitting.

Another detail I added was a sense of more depth by changing the darkness/brightness of the different pictures. I see that as metaphorical in a sense, also, because it’s showing that racism isn’t a simply one-dimensional issue. There are many layers of truths and different reasons for people acting the way they do (not that I’m justifying prejudice in any way, shape or form). The overall idea is that the picture invokes thoughts about racism and its meaning.

Dead Media Project: Phonograph Doll and Beyond

The phonograph had its first origins in 1877 when Thomas Edison was “experimenting with a machine that could reproduce the message given by a voice on the telephone.” Not long after (1878), Edison patented the phonograph doll in an attempt to make childrens’ toys seem more realistic. Edison’s first dolls recited nursery rhymes through a little needle tracing grooves on a wax covered disc. French took the phonograph doll a step further by allowing a wider variety of phrases to be said by one doll by creating multiple cylinders. They even made them in three different languages: French, Spanish and English. Companies in America and in Europe stole ideas from each other, especially around the time of the first World War.

As a little girl, I remember having a teddy bear with a music box inside of it as well as several dolls that had several phrases they could say when their hand was squeezed or a button was pushed. While the music box bear was an older technology (available in the late 18th century), the speaking dolls that I owned as a little girl were much more advanced than the originals from the early 1900s. My dolls ran on battery power and had a microchip that recorded what they were supposed to say.

It seems that the goal of toy manufacturers is to make children’s toys increasingly more realistic; when I was about 8, I remember the Furby toy was released. I never owned one, but I heard from my friends that when you first buy a Furby, they speak only their language, “Furbish.” But as you have them their knowledge of English grows and they speak less Furbish and more English. “The more English they learn, the more they "grow", thus placing them under the autonomous robot category.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furby) After reading http://www.kidsturncentral.com/topics/toys/tn080205.htm, I learned that the Furby was re-released in 2005. “The new FURBY now has an off switch so the chatterbox toy won’t break into song or story-telling mode during the middle of the night!” (http://www.kidsturncentral.com/topics/toys/tn080205.htm) This was one of the main complaints I had from my friends; they would be awakened in the middle of the night to a creepy voice saying “Fuuuuurby looooooooove yooouuu.” I would have been frightened too. During a UN Plaza event, Furbies were used to allow children who spoken different language to communicate using Furbish. The technology of Furby indicates the possibilities for its expansion, like new ways to teach children to acquire languages or even simply as educational electronic playmates. Especially because so many cultures value the education of their children, interactive playtime technology will only expand from Edison’s phonograph doll to become more advanced as time goes on.

Einstein in California: 3 Winters in the Sun

The way the content is represented in Einstein in California: Three Winters in the Sun more realistically portrays Einstein’s life than a regular biography. Because there isn’t a specific flow to exploring the particle streams of the interactive video, there isn’t a directed way to learn about his life. Multiple categories of his life were happening at once (political activism while hobnobbing with celebrities while conducting scientific research) this interactive method allowed a better understanding to be established about his multifaceted life. At first, the strange sounds in the background made me feel as if I were in an alternate reality while learning about his life, but as I got used to it, I started likening it to more of a reflective world. I also began paying attention to the fact that a lot of the strange sounds were coming from string instruments, which reminded me of Einstein’s love of playing the violin in his free time.

Personally, I agree with Einstein’s actions concerning the atomic bomb. He knew that the Germans were pursuing the technology of the atomic bomb and felt it was pressing that the US have the technology before the “bad guys” did. I never realized how much guilt he must have felt concerning the use of such a destructive technology. I liked this quote that summed up his feelings on the subject:

“We scientists, whose tragic destiny it has been to help make the methods of annihilation ever more gruesome and more effective, must consider it our solemn and transcendent duty to do all in our power to prevent those weapons from being used for the brutal purpose for which they were invented.”
-Albert Einstein, 1948

Though it must have been hard living with the knowledge of the possibilities of the atomic bomb, I think he made the correct decision in encouraging Roosevelt to develop the bomb. With the catastrophic events that were happening during the holocaust, the idea of the Nazis having such a devastating power in their arsenal gives me chills. As we discussed in our last class, I think that new inventions will always be created if there is the knowledge of how to do so. The scary part about it all is wondering what kind of people will be the holders of that technology. Cloning, for example, can be used to clone and entire being, which brings up ethical questions like whether or not that cloned person should have the same rights as the original being and if it’s even right for humans to be playing the part of God. On the other hand, though, cloning body parts might allow thousands to live when no other organs are available for an emergency transplant. So although the atomic bomb had devastating effects on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, I think the possibility of allowing the Nazis to have that technology would have been far worse.

Response to "The Five Obstructions"

In the film, Five Obstructions, Lars von Trier poses a series of obstacles to fellow filmmaker Jørgen Leth. His obstructions drive him crazy at first; he even refers to them as diabolical. Though it seems like these obstructions would be an inhibitor for Leth, he instead uses them as a way to think outside of the box. They prevent him from continuing to film in the same way. After the film made in Cuba, von Trier begins to realize that “The trouble is (Leth is) so clever that whatever I say inspires (him).” Von Trier also claims several times throughout the film that he doesn’t care if Leth’s film (with von Trier’s obstructions) is “crap,” but he seems to realize that no matter what he says, Leth will be able to do so successfully.

Von Trier wanted to remove Leth from his comfort zone. The ideal man and woman in his original movie were shot in a pristine environment without distractions. One of the original obstructions of “no set” was probably one of the hardest for Leth due to the fact that it meant that many elements were beyond his control. His movie filmed in Bombay didn’t have the obstruction of not using a set, but there was a whole crowd of people in the background who could have hindered the making of the film. It also seemed ironic for von Trier to send Leth to a “miserable place” when he was trying to portray the “perfect man.” One would think in order to have a perfect man, it’d be necessary to have him living in the ideal location.

“When I have something to work against, it liberates my imagination”
– Jørgen Leth, from an interview with indiewire.com.

From the movie, it seemed like von Trier was a huge fan of Leth’s. Because I didn’t know his background, I also assumed that Leth was the more accomplished and more famous filmmaker of the two. Perhaps that was merely because of the age difference. In many cultures, the younger generation is taught to revere their elders, though this is more the case in East Asian cultures than in Western cultures. I’m not sure why I was thinking that, especially when von Trier was in the position of authority – designating the obstructions posed for Leth. Despite this, there seems to be a mutual respect between the two. Von Trier isn’t obligated to be creating the impediments for Leth just as Leth does not need to be listening to von Trier’s suggestions.




One creative obstruction that comes to mind is when artists are challenged in a contest to create something using only recycled materials. The ingenuity that springs from that limitation is sure to spur other ideas as well. For example, I recently purchased a bag online that was made from recycled shipping materials. Another invention that might have been produced from the idea of only using recycled materials is Patagonia’s recycling clothes program. They break down used Patagonia clothes in order to make new ones.

Lars von Trier has written, acted, produced, or directed over one hundred films. He suffers from aerophobia, fear of flying, so most all his films’ locations are in Denmark or Sweden, even though they might be set in the U.S. or other foreign countries. While he was a student at the Danish Film School, he made two films, Nocture (1980) and Image of Liberation (1982). Both movies won Best Film awards at the Munich film Festival. In his post film school years, he began a series of post-apocalyptic films: the Europe trilogy. Key creative aspects of the movies included sticking to a certain color scheme (as he did in “Element of Crime” when he stuck to sepia tone and used occasional streaks of light blue)and changing film types (between 16mm and 35mm in “Epidemic”). Quite a few of his earlier pieces contain both horror and comedy within the same movie. He demonstrates his breadth of involvement in the industry with his musical, “Dancer in the Dark” (2000), as well as with his production company, “Zentropa, that he co-founded in 1992.