Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Reading Response: 13th
As you watch the documentary, I'd like for you to think about how this form of storytelling compares with other texts we've read. Do you find the film more or less compelling than poetry ("Cells and Windows," for instance) or memoir (ex: Between the World and Me) or fiction (ex: Homegoing)? Why do you think that is? How does documentary function differently as a genre than other forms of representation? Make sure to refer to particular strategies or elements from the film to make your points. This response is due no later than May 9 (but the end of the day is fine).
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While watching this documentary, I found it more compelling than reading poetries. Even though literature definitely brought out a powerful message within the black community, visual and audio brings about a whole new experience to the audience.
ReplyDeleteThe documentary highlighted the inhumane things that Americans have been doing to the minority group (mainly focusing on the black community). The documentary gave several examples of different court cases which ties into the different poetries we have been reading. The reason why it became a such an impactful message was because we had already developed some background on the real event through poetry. Reading Emmett Till’s Glass Top Casket gave a strong descriptive explanation of the purpose of his open casket funeral. But through the documentary, it explained the background and the main events, which gave readers a more well-rounded and fuller understanding towards what was going on. It was a good tie to the poetries that we have been reading since it gave a whole new level of experience compared to just reading the poetry by itself. The stories, the cries, the voices that we hear and see in the poems were being magnified and explained through the actions of society. We get to see the events play out, and how the American government is trying to improve itself by indirectly harming so many innocent black citizens.
Not only that, the documentary focused on how the political side of America brought out the inhumanity within each individual. Through examples such as the southern strategies, we see how Americans make innocent young black man their crime. These black men who were innocently accused of crime was forced to a point where they actually start to believe that they were criminals. Without any evidence, we see how powerful words can be. By brainwashing these innocent black men, America has made them into their “crime”. This documentary also shows how many politicians used the power of fear to their advantage. By creating fear towards the black community, they could win more votes. This created a spiraling effect on the black community because innocent men were being put into jail. Yet they were unable to escape the false accusation, and were being forced to stay in prison because they were often too poor to get out. Another important thing that the documentary pointed out was how crime reforms such as ALEC were being used as a way for the business world to earn money. As the power of the police department grew, and more individuals were being sent to prison, they were soon running out of places to keep prisoners. Reforms such as using ankle bracelets to allow prisoners to go back to their community allowed companies to earn more money through making such products. Companies could take advantage of the free service by prison inmates and use that to gain more money through their “services”, and profit through their punishments.
I found the ending of the documentary to be extremely striking. Because throughout the entire video, it has been showing how the black community has suffered, and is continuing to struggle to fit into the American society, it ended with a strong note of re-humanizing society. That even after being criminalized for things that they did not do, there is still hope in the community in re-humanizing this nation, and to bring people back to unity.
The documentary, 13th, was well made and educational to watch. The film drew on several different strategies to get its point across to the audience. Overall, I think that the film was more compelling than poetry like “Cells and Windows”, memoirs like Between the World and Me, and fiction like Homegoing. All three of those pieces of literature are interesting and well written, however I do not believe that they impact the reader or the audience as much as a documentary, like 13th, does.
ReplyDeleteThe documentary uses several different elements to compel the audience to consider the point it is trying to make. One of the main strategies that the documentary uses is real life witnesses. The film brings in people who are experts in different aspects of our current prison system and criminal justice system. There are also witnesses in the documentary who have been in the prison system themselves, and some who have even been wrongly accused by our criminal justice system. Hearing the words and seeing the people compels the reader because they can no longer pretend that injustice does not happen. In the poems, memoirs, and fictional pieces of literature, authors can write personal stories and facts, however the reader can read this information and pretend it’s just a made up story. On the other hand, when there are real life people on the screen in front of them and the audience is hearing their voices, it is harder to ignore what they are saying and pretend that injustice is not a real thing. The documentary also explains what is going on in the prison system with the use of facts, diagrams, and visuals. This aids in allowing the audience to view the facts in an easily presented way. The facts go on to support what the testimonies are saying, therefore, the audience can see that these are not just emotion filled stories but they are backed with facts. The other pieces of literature that we looked at recently about the same issue of the criminal justice system do not have as many factual pieces of evidence or the use of visuals to support what is being said. For me, and many others, this use of the visual and audio aspect of documentaries has a great impact because it is harder to ignore what is being said when there is a person with a voice right in front of you. This aspect, in addition to the use of plentiful facts and visual information, makes documentaries, like 13th, leave its audience with something they will remember. Therefore, this film is much more compelling than the poetry, memoir, and fiction that we examined.
Documentaries function differently as a genre compared to other forms of representation. While written pieces of literature hold a great amount of influence, it is hard for them to compare to documentaries in some sense. While both parts have the same written, or spoken information, documentaries have a whole other level that connects to the audience. A documentary is able to provide the audience with a visual and an audio source that a poem or story is unable to do. This extra level of connecting to the reader allows documentaries to function differently as a genre compared to other forms of representation. In the end, the documentary 13th definitely was more compelling than the other forms of literature that we have looked at in class concerning prisons and the injustice in the criminal justice system.
I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary "13th". I believe that the documentary as an educational media is a powerful tool that should be utilized more. Even though I love poetry and social justice issues with all my heart, I found the poems that we read to have a very small effect on me. However, while viewing the film, I found it incredibly compelling because of the images, statistics, the experts who spoke on the issue, and the music that accompanied these interviews. I was much more engaged in what was being communicated to me because of the influx of supporting evidence that came with the words spoken to me. Perhaps I am just used to the constant stimulation of multi-media presentations/ movies because I am more exposed to that due to my age/way of upbringing.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most powerful tactics that was utilized in the documentary was the use of rap songs and their lyrics to perpetrate the feeling of unrest over the issue of mass incarceration of African-Americans. I think this was perfectly represented and gave an intense feeling of dissatisfaction which is important in a documentary. This is important because it represents the voice of the people which needs to be present in an account such as this. Documentaries are similar to poetry and other literature mediums in this way, but ultimately put forth a diverse experience that keep people engaged and get people more passionate about the issue spoken about.
I think the documentary 13th wraped up our talk about black lives matter in a great way. Even though we could still have so many more conversations after the documentary, I believe that the documentary speaks for a lot of what we read. I think the documentary was a really good way to learn about the differences between white and black in the today's days as well as throouhout history. I believe that the documentary helped me to understand better how the black population is treated in the US and how the racial difference, together with the monetary difference is very relevat and very important to discuss in a society like the US. I was very shocked and awakened by the amount of information there was in it. One of the facts that was very shocking for me was that 97% percent of the encarcerated population did not go though a trial. I think the type of information in a documentary is much more impactful than poetry, at least for me. I also think that in a society like today's we need to have facts shown to us more clearly than in poetry, where the meaning is a little hidden. Even though poetry is really beautiful and meaningful at the same time. I believe also that when people tells us and we get to hear their voice and their oppinion, we have a better empathizing with them, creating a better understanding too. I think the documentary explained to me more about the racial differences throughout history and in the US. I really enjoyed it and liked to watch experts talking about the statistics and the differences between races and colors. I really liked to hear the oppinion of various experts in one single documentary, which I think made it more powerful and engaging.
ReplyDeleteThere are many different ways in the modern world to get your point across, such as movies or books or even poetry. Many of these ways of expressing oneself allow for a story to be told, or a way of seeing into the writer or directors life. The different types of representation allow the audience to choose which is their favorite and which one helps them best see the story. For me, the documentary 13th was a much more vivid way of representing the information and the story that the director wanted to get across. The use of a movie to represent this information allows the director to control everything. He or she controls what the audience sees, the way they see it, and even the feeling that they get when they see it. Seeing the documentary 13th and seeing the blacks struggling and not able to express themselves in the way that the director portrayed it made me feel much more deeply for the way that they were being treated. If I had read a novel, or a piece poetry with a similar storyline and tried to match it with the movie, I believe that I would have envisioned something less than what was shown in the movie; which in it’s own way, is powerful. The way that a novel can get the reader seeing the pictures in their mind using descriptive words or phrases makes a person wonder what their film would look like if they created it with the images that they get when reading things on these topics. In the documentary 13th, the way that the director used the music and sounds of the incarcerated blacks to make the viewer get much deeper emotionally is much more effective than it would’ve been in a poem or novel. Although I still agree that poems and novels can be very good and allow for great imaginative fun, I strongly believe that the subject of racism and the way that the people were treated during these times are much more significant to be watched and heard, rather than read.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, I believe that all information, whether it be written or filmed is a great way to get someone’s or a group of people’s story out and to the world. When someone is being suppressed the most effective way is to put it in the face of the suppressors and force them to see how what they are doing is wrong. However, I do believe that the documentary 13th was the most effective way to reach me about the black suppression in the world. There was just something about seeing it on screen and hearing the sounds of it that made me more sympathetic than the images that came to mind while reading the poetry and novels that we have read during the class.
The documentary 13th was relevant in the sense that it was something closely related to where we are from. It’s not that I found the film more compelling but it creates a timeline that expresses the massive numbers of prisoners in the U.S. and why these numbers are so large. Homegoing is told from the personal perspective of a line of descendants and shows us the history of slavery and its development into modern incarceration, but the documentary 13th gives us a realistic sense of this timeline that is focused on movements that were created in modern times. We can see specific case stories in the documentary where the people who ran the government had such a large impact on society and its findings. The fiction novel, although insightful into the ways of how things may have been, seems just like a story that stays on the pages and never becomes real. The documentary draws from things we’ve seen in the news and traces back into history to provide examples of the chain reaction that has caused the destruction we see in today’s society. The main focus in the documentary pointed to the era of mass incarceration and the reason why it exists in the first place. The documentary 13th was more compelling for me personally because it was easier to relate to. It gave rise to understanding about the numbers of prisoners that have been incarcerated throughout history and traces back to the roots of the discrimination so many Americans face today. The documentary touched on the societal impact through music, case studies and modern movements such as the black lives matter movement.
ReplyDeleteI feel that this documentary was quite similar to several of the other texts we have read this year. I personally find film to be more compelling than poetry simply because it is much easier to find the meaning behind it. I often find it quite challenging to find the themes and messages within the poetry. However, in film, I find it much easier to interpret the themes and messages that the producers and directors are trying to portray. Alternatively, I find it much easier to find the messages being portrayed in memoirs because watching a movie will tend to make me lazy because it throws all of the information at me without me having to analyze the film deeply. Documentaries function differently as a genre than most other genres because the makers of the film have complete control over what and when they want the audience to see and feel. Whereas in a novel, for example, the reader has a lot of control over the story because they have the power to imagine the scenery and other things like that. In the documentary, the makers of 13th were able to show me exactly what they wanted me to see, such as violence against African Americans and injustice in general. Being a documentary, it also had the ability to present the ideas with whatever timing it wanted. Because of this, they were able to talk longer about the ideas that they thought were most important and were able to talk less or leave out ideas that didn’t seem to be as important for the documentary.
ReplyDeleteI believe that text very much reminds me of the way Homegoing is written. The documentary reviewed the history of the persecution of African Americans in the country from the beginning of the reconstruction era until the year 2016. The documentary diligently went through individual stories that occurred during this time, which was similar to that of Homegoing. Homegoing is set up similar to the documentary, which it takes time and goes through every era where African Americans were persecuted, yet the stories go into personal and deep details of the events happening during those times. What is very compelling about Homegoing is that it goes in depth of individual stories of a family who suffered racial discrimination and repression. The details that are in each story are riveting, since they offer graphic and intense details about the injustices happening during those times, especially in the story “Sonny” that explored a man’s struggle with an addiction to crack cocaine, which caused suffering throughout the African-American community.
ReplyDeleteWhat made the documentary more compelling however, are the images, and the testimonies from various experts who have dealt with African-American injustices in America. The images that were shown throughout the documentary gave an opportunity to physically see and hear stories and history of injustices happening in America, particularly within the incarceration system and the war on drugs. The purpose of a documentary is typically to allow one to absorb historical or scientific information, along with physically hearing and seeing testimonies. Another handy tool about documentaries is that you can hear from people from various viewpoints, who recognize the issue. In this case, we see more liberal inputs from people like Van Jones, as well as more conservative views from people like Newt Gingrich. The effectiveness of the variety of sources in this documentary is impactful due to its historical context, in which sides from various viewpoints and parties can see and not ignore. It is very hard to accomplish this through fictional stories or poetry, since those are more expressive forms of literature than documentaries are or other forms of non-fiction work. Overall, I believe I have been more heavily impacted by the documentary by learning more and absorbing more material. The images and testimonies represented were riveting. Even though this is the case, the expression through stories like Homegoing, as well as poetry has been very powerful as well. These are very different genres and techniques, but both do very good jobs at representing the injustice of the African-American community.
ReplyDeleteI found the documentary 13th to be more compelling than the certain texts that we have read. When reading these texts, there might be the tendency to think of other things, or not being able to imagine how bad the situation actually is. By watching the film you are forced to face the situation head on. The use of sound, and actual footage from this film was much more compelling to me than the texts that we have read.
One thing I found to be compelling was the interviews throughout the film. One instance that stood out to me was when a worker for ALEC was interviewed he seemed to be show his discomfort when being questioned about the organization that he asked for. The movie talked about the ways in which ALEC promotes imprisonment, and when this worker was asked I could hear the discomfort in his voice. This is something I would not be able to fully imagine by simply reading it in text form. Through watching the man's body language, and eye contact with the camera it was more compelling than if I were to just read about it, and have to imagine for myself what he was like.
I also found the use of audio and real footage from events to be quite compelling. For example, when the movie showed the African American man in the street being pushed by white men, or when they showed the abuse that the African American people faced from the police it truly struck me. It made me squirm while watching it. I have never had that sort of reaction while reading a book. The realness of seeing the action, and the voices that are screaming with it made it much more real for me. Also, just by hearing the voices of those who were interviewed was captivating as well. You could hear the hurt and pain and trauma that they were forced to deal with. Again this is something that while I was reading I could not imagine in my mind. It just seems so much more real when I hear it from someone else.
Lastly, the use of music with lyrics was something that truly moved me. It was crazy for me to think that these people could sing these songs for the public to hear, and still nothing was done to fix the racial issues. The words that these people were singing were so blunt and did not hold anything back, yet the public was still so cruel to these African American people. The pain behind these singers’ voices was so apparent and they are singing as a way to their thoughts out to the world.
Overall, I truly enjoyed this documentary. It was hard to watch due to the realness that this movie was conveying, yet it did leave a lasting impact on me, and there are certain scenes that I will never forget from it due to its compelling choices of presenting the information.