Movie Week

So we took a break from our regular classes to watch some movies.  These movies either had something to do with photography, or had some photographic qualities.

The first film I watched was an inspiring and to a point heart breaking one.  This film was "Born Into Brothels".  It is about the efforts a photographer named Zana Briski makes to help the children born into one of the Red Light Districts of Calcutta.  She bonded with the children, taught them about photography, and tried several times to better their situations.  She knows that if something doesn't change, the future of the young girls is to become a part of the line.  The girls know it too.  We watch her struggle to get these kids accepted into boarding schools.  Where if they can stay, they might have a fighting chance at a better future.  In the end, only one or two are allowed to stay in their schools, some were removed by their parents, some chose to go back home on their own.
The heart breaking thing is that it is so hard to believe that one wouldn't want a better future, or a different future for their kids.  How could someone want to bestow such hardships, such cruelties onto another, not even another, but one's own blood?  How could you want them to follow the same path as you, if they have a chance at something better?  A chance at something less degrading? A chance at a brighter and slightly less cruel future?   I just don't understand some of the things in this world.  And it seems as though no matter how much one tries, prays, hopes, or even does, sometimes... it still isn't enough.  In Zana's case, after everything, at least she got to help a few of the children.  Unfortunately, there were too many variables against her and the children.


The second film I watched was "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"  This one was quite a bit less heavy on emotions.  It lightened the mood a little.  The main qualities of this film were what the director/editors did to the quality of the film to enhance certain moods or characteristics of the movie.  For instance saturating out some, most or all of the color to bring you back to the 1930's.  Or controlling the saturation of certain scenes to enhance the main subject of the scene or to set a certain mood.   They did an incredible job with their editing.  Seeing some of the before and after shots of what the movie would have looked like without the editing, well, I gotta say, the editing made a big difference in the end.   It gave the movie a certain essence, in which I don't believe the movie would have held up to the same standards if those editing decisions had not been made.



The third movie I watched was "One Hour Photo."  Although the main plot of the movie was somewhat eery, there were many interesting quotes on or about photography by Sy the Photo Guy.  The idea 'that it is the little things in life that make up the true picture of our lives'.  These are the things that most people don't photograph, the things that most people don't even notice.  The things that very few people (photographers) notice and note that it is worth taking a photo of, and do just that... photograph it.  Another quote that I liked was: "If Pictures have anything to say, it's this: ... someone cared enough about me to take my picture." This idea can be placed on all of the different subject matters that we shoot.  Whether it be people, landscapes, objects, or even those little things in life that most people don't notice.  But it is us as photographers that give meaning and importance to certain things and people.  When we choose to shoot what ever it is or whomever it is that we are photographing, we give it/them a certain sense of importance because we cared enough to take that photograph.