Responses

Secret Daughter- June Cross
I thought this documentary was well done because of its strong narrative. Cross made the story very personal, which always helps bring empathy and understanding to any situation. June Cross was exploring the place of mixed race individuals in America because she wanted some resolution to her own place in the world, and along the way she discovered with the audience that she is not the only person and that this is a difficult issue that everyone in America needs to deal with (not just people who are biracial). I’m sure she knew all this when she started, but by taking the audience with her on her journey to understanding her own family history, she allowed the viewer to understand one story in depth and therefore connect with her on a personal level. This makes the viewer care about the bigger issues in America, and perhaps it makes some viewers seek more information and want to change the way that race is dealt with in America.

Joan Does Dynasty- Joan Braderman
I agree with what Cass said about wishing that I had seen the show before. I also had to split my focus between the commentary and the show to understand what she was saying. I think that it is a very good idea to put commentary over a well-known tv show (or movie, or anything). I think if it were a newer show that I knew, I would have really liked it—especially the times when she would say cutting remarks that sounded like something I would say when watching a show like that. I think that if this documentary was out to educate people who watched this about the misogyny in the show, she may have been too blunt and not ironic enough. I think this because if someone is trying to sway me to have a certain opinion, I prefer to feel like I am being talked to like an intelligent person, rather than bombarded with opinions. However, I recognize that there is a place for this type of activism, and while it is not to my personal tastes, I still think it is important to have it and this piece was well executed in what it was doing.


Ilha das Flores- Jorge Furtado
This film was the most effective for me (which I think speaks to the kind of activist films I like rather than the film itself). By starting out like a satire on educational videos, it immediately established a connection with its audience that allowed the viewer to let down their guard and get into the video. Then it foreshadowed the seriousness of what it was talking about by cutting to a few graphic pictures when it talked about animals and people. I found as an audience member I knew what was coming but was still surprised to see the ending, and that by making the narrator sound like he didn’t care about the people who are in these horrible situations that it made me care even more. In opposition to “Joan Does Dynasty,” this video makes the viewer feel that they have been shown something that they should draw their own conclusion about how to deal with it—even though it is perfectly clear at the same time that they are supposed to want to help.

Semiotics of the Kitchen- Martha Rosler
I liked this film a lot and am not entirely sure why. I think that I liked the simplicity of it. Her message was simple and clear: she is breaking out of her role as a housewife and is angry about women’s believed role. I think I like that it was one of the first women’s experimental videos and she found a public voice for herself in television—which in her time was heavily male dominated. The simplicity of the video—one straight on shot of her picking up, defining, and “demonstrating” common kitchen utensils is deceptive. I think it shows a lot of other layers to her anger, one with I think is that the simplicity parallels the idea that a woman’s place in the kitchen is simple and straightforward. This may be stretching what she wanted, but I also think that a viewer can take their own ideas into account when interpreting a piece, and this video is particularly geared for people to understand her specific point (because it is so obvious), and because of its seeming simplicity people will look for more in it and find what they want.