In her film 13th, Ava DuVernay details the injustice of mass incarcerations and violence perpetuated by the Criminal Justice system of the United States. In her documentary, she sets the tone with a staggering statistic: a country with five percent of the world’s population hold twenty-five percent of all of the world’s prisoners. DuVernay creates a timeline to show the linear progression of African American’s movement into mass incarceration. DuVernay does this by starting at the end of slavery when black men and women were supposed to be made free. According to Khalil Muhammad, this left 4 million who were formerly slaves and an integral part of the southern economy free. In order to maintain the southern economy, the United…
visual impact is the keystone feature of the film and a complex range of cinematic techniques achieve this.…
Regarding the lack of relevant background information and assumptions, the jurors give in to rationalization. Ignoring any valid argument that is put forth, they justify their way around it to maintain a guilty verdict. This could also be called denial in that the jurors are ignoring good reasoning.…
The film 13th explores race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States. The film mainly focuses on the history of how racial inequality came to be in the United States. Also the film mentions that in the United States’ prisons there are inordinate amount of African-Americans. Additionally a variety of different political activists and public figures from different backgrounds gave their view from Angela Davis, Bryan Stevenson, Van Jones, Newt Gingrich, Cory Booker, and many others.…
Over a period of time, specific audiences construct expectations of different types of media, related to either what they have been told, or perhaps what the media have exposed them to in the past. Indeed, it could be argued that the success of a film to a large degree, rests on whether or not such expectations are met, surpassed, else the audience successfully surprised. Certainly, such expectations have to be addressed by the film, if it is to be considered satisfying for the audience, and in this way, elements within the film, such as character representations, the narrative and cinematography are all important components which allow this to be achieved. Additionally, the social and political context in which the film is being viewed must be considered, as it is against this background that their expectations will have been formed.…
A mass hysteria causes a major uproar in the human population. As it was situated in 2012 when it was proclaimed, due to the Mayan calendar, that the world was going to finalize for the the living people. As it was expected, many people panicked and the whole society transformed into a riotous society. It lead to people attempting sucide, creating the 2012 film, and lastly the resolution, the Mayan calendar.…
2. A. Consider how the director uses special effects, distance from the subject, camera angles and point of view to persuade his audience of his message. B. Do the special effects, camera angles, the director’s point of view etc. contribute to emotional or ethical appeals in this documentary?…
This essay will compare & contrast the protagonist/antagonist's relationship with each other and the other jurors in the play and in the movie versions of Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men. There aren't any changes made to the key part of the story but yet the minor changes made in making the movie adaptation produce a different picture than what one imagines when reading the drama in the form of a play.…
When I watched the film “Wit” at first, I became curious to the reason why it was entitled “Wit”. The overall plot of the story seems so simple but there are a lot of twists which become clear as the story unfolds. In the latter part of the film, I realized that it has been given the title wit because in the end, Vivian recognized that what is more important than intellectual learning is the human compassion that she gets just when she needs it the most.…
The development of film can be a process that is extensive and complex. Film analysis helps the viewer to understand what the director is trying to convey to the audience. To analyze a film successfully, it is important to understand how collaborative filmmaking really works. There are a number of elements that must work together not only to have a successful production but also to guide the audience through the story. Some such elements are the film’s narrative structure, colorization, director’s style, camera shot, and actor selection. While the actor is the most visible of the elements on screen; there are many craftsmen that perform behind the scene functions in order to get the finished product in front of a viewing audience. To really have a handle on how movies work, it is helpful to watch a number of films in different genres to understand the conventions of each. Knowing and understanding all of the technical elements of film can help the viewer to analyze the film more carefully. Furthermore, they may gain an emotional attachment to the film, and find some level of truth as they become more aware of what has taken place in order to bring it to life.…
I had intended on going to the vigil Wednesday night (2/8) but much to my dismay, there was no vigil (or I missed it). So instead of attending a diversity event for this paper, I watched a documentary on Netflix called 13th. This film discusses the issue of racism in the United States criminal justice system; specifically relating to how the 13th amendment transformed the view of African Americans from slaves to criminals.…
People flock to horror movies each year. Usually to be scared. Another is to solve the question of Who done it? Unfortunately, a lot of these horror movies fail to scare people or make the killer so obvious the audience gets bored. Occasionally, there are a few horror movies that stick out. Scream, directed by Wes Craven, is one of them. Wes Craven is always toying with the viewer's fears. Always finding ways to scare the audience at every turn. He also plays with the viewer's head, and has them second guessing themselves. How does he do it? Well, as one of the characters in the movie exclaims, "There's a formula to it. A very simple formula. Everybody's a suspect!" This paper will discuss how Craven uses sound, camera shots, and mise en scene…
When you go to a movie theater you see all kinds of different people. Whether or not it females or males, young or old, American or non-American. There are different perspectives in which the movie will be seen. I think a good example would be the movie 2012. It is a science fiction disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich and distributed by Columbia Pictures. 2012 was a global film that all people were interested to see. This movie came out in 2009 and when it was in the making in 2008, all of my friends were already talking about the movie but what really surprised me were the reasons that they were going to see the movie for. Benjamin Trujillo’s, a family friend, reason to go see the movie was so that his wife and kids can see the way the world is going to end if they don’t behave according to the bible. Benjamin grew up as a very potent Christian and his wife was not that very religious so therefore he…
In the early 1900’s silent films amazed audiences with images, later talkies impressed with sound, today we have 3D. As technology continues to evolve so too will film genres. Genres, while having some shared characteristics, also differ in terms of stylistic devices used. For instance, the dramatic film “The Notebook” effectively uses color to reinforce theme and has plausible performers as the two main protagonists.…
Twelve angry men is a 1957 American Film that originated from a play of Reginald Rose and has been directed to a film by Sidney Lumet. The movie is not just about the outcome of the trial of a Puerto Rican youth who has been accused of murdering his father, but also shows how the beliefs and attitudes of the twelve jurors lead to his acquittal. Aside from that, this movie also shows Leadership traits that can help every individual on developing their leadership capabilities. The story started when the twelve jurors were put together in a sweltering deliberation room somewhere in America where they have been asked for their verdicts whether to put the child on chair or not. Eleven of them unanimously voted that the youth is guilty and must be…