Born into Brothels

What a truly thought-provoking movie. It was filmed in the Red Light District in Calcutta and it's a documentary showing mainly the lives of the children that grow up there.

It was difficult to watch and it definitely showed a side of life that we have no idea of in Canada. These children are born to prostitutes and know that there is a better life out there for them but yet have no way of escaping their future. The documentary shows these children given cameras and the kind of pictures they take in their daily lives. Inter-dispersed with these photographs is the movie camera showing them and their environment. It is obvious most of the movie pictures are taken from the hip so that the subjects are unaware of it and most of the photographs are from the children and the subjects are aware yet not intimidated by the camera.

The kids have such a deep understanding of how they are living as compared to other parts of the world. They know what their parents (or just mothers) are doing for a living and when interviewed, for the most part they say "I like my mom, because she's my mom...". You never hear them say they love their parents. We see some graphic images of the women yelling at the children and the other women, with much vulgarity right in front of the children. Beatings are common and in one case, a boy lost his mother because she was set on fire by her pimp.

Some of the children were placed in boarding schools and given opportunities, yet at the end of the film we see that only a few stayed within the schools. Most went back to the life they knew. It was not a very uplifting film. Definitely not your fake Hollywood type. But it was worthwhile to watch and give us each something to think about. Not only how well off we are even when we complain that we don't have the latest gear, car, iPod, etc, but also what can we do for others that need our help. If we are able to go to a school like Prairieview then for sure we should have charity to give for others. Every little bit helps. Pick an organization and follow through.

Pecker

A film by John Waters. Now this was strange. I had no idea what to expect from it but had heard many of my classmates really didn't like this film, so I was pleasantly surprised that I did.

It's about a young man named Pecker (b/c he 'peck's at his food) who goes around his neighbourhood in Baltimore taking pictures of events (yes, rats having sex) and people (strippers, homeless people, his family) with his little black and white film camera. He 'sees art everywhere'. From a show he has in the diner he works at he gets discovered by the New York art world and is suddenly a sensation there. Of course they see the images as amusing insights to the uncultured. Pecker's family and friends are not so happy with how they are portrayed and it affects his relationships until he figures out a way to rectify them. Which he does.

What I liked about this movie is the sly humour running through it. There were many subliminal messages going on - such as the theme to vaginas - pictures of them, pubic hair talk, crabs bar, and more. Plus what it's saying about the art world and how strange it can be. You just never know what's going to be the hit that month. It also was a satirical look at life in Baltimore from which most of John Waters movies are based.

All said and done, very amusing.

Movie Week Extravaganza!

Well, rather than have a proper shoot week before exams, we have a movie week with just a few photo assignments thrown in. We're to watch 3 movies and review them.

My first movie that I saw today was O' Brother Where Art Thou

I really liked this movie. It was done by the Coen brother's who are quite frankly a bit off the wall. It's supposed to be based on Homer's The Odyssey, and although I would like to admit that I could tell from reading that book - I never had, but as it happens, neither had to Coen brothers! What I could gather though just from hearing about the Odyssey, there were characters in the movie with relation to the book. For example, George Clooney's character's name was Ulysses, there was a bible salesman (John Goodman) with a patch on one eye - like a Cyclops, there were 3 singing seductive women - like the sirens, and I'm sure many other references that I wasn't able to catch (maybe I'm wrong, but I think for each of their outdoor fireside scenes they are sitting in Roman ruins).

There were two things for me that really stood out in this film. One of them I wasn't even aware of the first time I saw this film, until we saw the short clip about it in the extra's section of the DVD today. It talked about how this film was put through a digital process to change the colour of the scenes and do other special effects that hadn't been done before in film. Rather than use filters and chemicals in processing, they stressed that the movie was shoot 'clean' and then played with post-production. They made the colours de-saturated to create the atmosphere of olden days during the depression times, and the heat of the summer down South.

The other thing that impressed me was the script. It was so intelligent. Especially George Clooney's character. He had the 'gift for gab' for sure. I really had to pay attention to what he was saying to catch all the subtleties of humour at times.

This movie incorporated many different styles, and techniques from movies past, and then re-created it's own unique work. It's definitely worth seeing more than once.