Tarnation, Director Jonathan Caouette (2003)

I thought it was really interesting how Jonathan chose to start the film with his mother Renee singing “this little light of mine” looking a mess, disheveled, and living in a gross and messy house. This scene really makes the viewer question what is going on, who is this lady? What is wrong with her? Is she sick? The beginning of the documentary also resembles a horror movie with the eerie music and the deranged lady, it is difficult to understand what was going on, but I was definitely afraid. Overall this scene was a very strong introduction to what the rest of the documentary would lead up to. I love when movies start at the end, it definitely kept my attention while keeping me wondering at the same time. 

I loved how Jonathan described the tragedy of his and his family’s life through subtitles and flashes of still and moving images. Besides the introduction, which features a preview of the end, the rest of the documentary follows the temporal order of Jonathan’s life. After seeing the entire documentary, I was inspired by how Jonathan reflected on his life and feelings through images, music and narration. The film as a whole provides a great representation of the emotional rollercoaster that is his life.

Throughout the viewing process, this documentary often made me feel sad, uncomfortable, and intrigued at the same time. When 11 year old Jonathan acts dramatically as a beaten pregnant woman I was shocked, yet could not tear my eyes away from the screen. To see a child swear and discuss violent ideas so dramatically definitely  foreshadowed all the trouble that was to come in his life.

After watching this documentary there were also some quotes that really resonated with me. When Jonathan said “Oh wow… life is a trip … seems like one long dream” in my opinion, this was exactly how this movie was presented.  In addition, when Jonathan’s Grandfather says “it can turn form a bright sunny day to a stormy one” I thought this also reflected several aspects of their family’s life.

Some of my favorite parts of the film were how Jonathan mixes found music videos with his footage, how he transitions through the TV static, and how he films himself filming himself. As a viewer I loved being aware of the creative process that was going on.  When Jonathan grabs the camera, or when he interviews Renee I was amazed to see the film process take place. When Jonathan filmed his grandmother, Rosemary, the handheld filming really gave me a personal point of view and made me feel like I was there. It is the combination of these editing and filming techniques that I think make the film such a success. When the camera focused on Renee singing “I’m a little tea pot” near the end of the film, she is so out of it. I felt as if I had watched this woman's horrible life unfold before my eyes. This particular scene is so long and so painful to watch. I felt as if I should not be watching but somehow could not help myself. 

Overall this film successfully and artistically demonstrates how drugs, alcohol, and unfortunate circumstances can ruin peoples lives. It is interesting to see how much the people in your life can impact your decisions and ultimately shape who you become. I believe that anyone who has gone through a troubling time in their life would find comfort in relating to this documentary.

The movie mrailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLDQL23nutw

Jonathan's 11 year old Performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en7ltF2kCXg

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Director Todd Haynes (1987)

After watching this documentary I now have an even deeper understanding of anorexia nervosa. I think the narration used in this documentary is fabulous as it emphasizes the seriousness of this condition that ultimately killed Karen Carpenter. Throughout the past couple years of my life, I have see several friends, acquaintances, and celebrities diagnosed with this horrible disease but have never had the condition described so clearly as through the subtitles and narration that I saw in this film. It is very important that this disease is brought to light in such a visual and biographical way that makes people realize the lengths people will go to in order to be thin. The amount of celebrities that have eating disorders today make it seem like a cultural trend. Luckily this documentary demonstrates the seriousness of this issue through Karen Carpenter's tragic story. 

This documentary begins using a hand held camera as Karen’s mother searches through the house yelling Karen’s name. These shaky, point of view, camera movements made me feel as if I was the one searching for Karen. I love how Todd Haynes also decided to use dolls to explain the story of Karen’s deterioration. Both Karen and her brother Richard’s lives were artificially presented to the public, which is why the use of fake people to represent them is very fitting. Karen and Richard pretend to be perfect people with no issues when this was not the case. Throughout the video, I thought it was great that the cameras were positioned in a way that allowed the dolls to be moved around realistically. I often forgot that I was watching dolls as I was so intrigued by the story.

When Karen and Richard are in a business meeting, I found it interesting how the camera goes back and forth between them sitting on the couch, and between the man they are making a record deal with. The combination of quick cuts, creepy music, and the man's giant hand makes the viewer understand the horror that is to come. When the music intensifies as a woman is shown screaming and falling, this really symbolizes the rest of Karen’s life. In addition, when Richard announces that Jack is taking them out for a celebration dinner, the music builds, the tension rises and the camera quickly zooms into Karen’s face. The camera then switches to a frozen shot of a huge meal and then switches to a shot of ex-lax. I really thought this line up of shots was a good representation of Karen’s thought process.

I was particularly fascinated by the scene where Karen is trying to walk through her apartment as flashes of the most crucial quotes and images of the documentary are featured including the big plate of food, when she collapses on stage, when her brother is yelling at her, when her parents don’t want her to move away, when her mom yells "Karen", the ex-lax, and the toilet. Another one of my favorite parts of this film is at the end when Karen is on the phone with her doctor explaining how she is maintaining a good weight and then proceeds to drink Ipecac Syrup and the camera is thrown back with her head movements as she drinks this substance used to induce vomiting. The way the camera moves in this scene is not only innovative, but is also descriptive of her personal experience.

In terms of Karen’s music, it is interesting how all her songs in this documentary take on such a sad tone; whenever I used to hear her songs on the radio I always thought they were happy. When her music plays while the scale drops and various kinds of salads are show as meals with a side of ex-lax I felt as though her life was really plummeting. Between the narration, the use of dolls and tiny props, the use of real people, and the use of Karen’s music, Todd Haynes created a unique documentary. Ultimately, Karen Carpenter’s deterioration is successfully shown through the manipulation of a doll that is made increasingly thin.

Karen denies her condition in an interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCCGI8wLdZU

Cannibal Tours (1988) Director: Dennis O’Rourke

At the beginning of this film, a sentence appears on the screen that best describes the content, “there is nothing so strange in a strange land as the stranger who comes to visit it”. In Cannibal Tours the natives live on the land with their friends and family and everything is normal accept for the foreign people who come to watch and photograph them. It is apparent that the people of Papua New Guinea do not appreciate the arrogant tourists who come to observe their culture and bargain for their creations. As I watched this film, a strong feeling of invasion and lack of privacy consumed me. Dennis O’Rourke thoroughly depicts how ignorant tourists can be throughout this documentary.

People should treat people the way they wish to be treated, which should be told to the bourgeois tourists who visit New Guinea. Through translations in subtitled form, I was able to see from the perspective of the natives how badly they feel about the interactions they have with the tourists. It is interesting how O’Rourke would go from interviewing a native about the hard work that goes into their carvings and then how he would switch to a scene where a tourist is trying to bargain with them for lower prices. Selling their carvings and charging for photographs of “The Spirit House” are how these people earn their money and it is devastating when the tourists try to get them to reduce to “2^nd or 3^rd prices”. Although O’Rourke does not say any of his opinions, he shows through editing how he negatively feels about these tourists and their choices.

During the course of this film it is interesting to see how O’Rourke makes his editing choices to contrast the two very different ways of life.  At one part during the film, the tourists are shown on the boat discussing the amount of calories in their eggs. The camera then cuts to the natives and how they barely have any money for food because the tourists are not even willing to pay the asking price for their carvings. It is interesting to see the difference between the two groups of people through which scenes O’Rourke strategically chooses to place side by side.

When one native woman is being interviewed she explains how the tourists don’t help them, “they don’t buy our things, they just come to stare and take pictures”. It is as if they are being watched like caged animals at a zoo. It is great how O’Rourke captures material that expresses the native’s emotions so people can hopefully stop this kind of horrible tourist behavior. There are so many public service announcements on television that show people in third world countries filming the natives and we never get to hear their side of the story. The only people we ever hear from are the tourists or the people claiming that they are trying to help. It is intriguing to hear from the people who live in these places and what they think of these people invading their territory.

In the end there is a weird combination of the tourists being jealous of the simple ways in which these people live and the natives being jealous of the tourist’s money; I guess the grass really is greener on the other side. 

Titicut Follies (1967) Director: Frederick Wiseman

Throughout the course of this film I not only felt uncomfortable and disturbed, but also empathetic for the subjects. At the beginning of the film it was difficult to comprehend what was being said and for what purpose the men were being interviewed. I believe that Wiseman created this lack of clarity on purpose so that the viewers could observe the surroundings instead of the dialogue in order to understand where the footage was documented. Wiseman definitely introduced the content in an interesting way that allowed the viewer to learn what was going on through actions instead of words. 

The way this documentary was filmed with close ups, slow pans, and holding shots made me feel violated and frustrated for the subjects. I had a particularly difficult time watching the part that featured Jim. It was as if the doctors were trying to make him go crazy by treating him poorly, watching him, and repeatedly asking him questions. When the person who is shaving his face repeatedly asks “why isn’t your room clean Jim?” I felt like I was going crazy too. I believe that Wiseman strategically placed repetition into the documentary to portray how annoyed the patients must feel. When the camera stares at Jim stomping around his room I felt as if I should turn away. I think that Wiseman was trying to portray the violation of privacy that the patients experience in the part where the camera zooms into Jim’s face and Jim stares back for about 15 seconds. During this part of the documentary I felt like I was producing an unwanted gaze; Wiseman is successful at portraying feeling in the viewer when watching this documentary.

The lack of confidence and strength that the patients possess is also shown by the fact that they are always naked. It is obvious that the doctors and guards have power and control over the patients because of the way they treat them and because they are clothed and the patients are not. The fact that the men are denied the right to even wear clothes is disrespectful and rude. 

Overall, this documentary evokes a lot of sympathy in the viewers. When I was watching I could sympathize with how badly the patients were feeling. One part of the film that I found extremely interesting was at the beginning when one of the patients yelled out “I want all those men arrested” when referring to the doctors. Although this man was clearly mentally unwell and seemed to be talking nonsense I thought he had a good point. 

The way that Wiseman edited this documentary together made it seem as though the doctors were the ones tricking the patients into being mentally unwell. By asking questions unrelated to medicine, heavily medicating the patients, and telling them that they were crazy it was clear that the doctors were a big part of the problem. When seeing this mental hospital from Wiseman’s point of view it is clear that the patients are literally stripped of their rights and freedoms. 

Clip of the film that portrays how badly the patients are treated: 

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e5e_1233082303