This week was the London LGBTQ+ film festival at the BFI. One of the events I went to was a screening of the film Freak Show, with a Q&A session with the director Trudie Styler. Freak Show features Alex Lawther as the main character, Billy Bloom, who is an outrageous and socially isolated teen with a glamorous personality unlike many of his age. As the film progresses we get to know Billy’s character and root for him to rise amongst all the torment he faces with the bullies at school and family difficulties at home. In terms of diversity, this film covers a main one alone with its LGBTQ+ theme. Billy defines himself as queer and isn’t afraid to express his true identity with the world. He shows his strength and determination to have others understand the importance of freedom when it comes to self-identity.
As Styler emphasized, Alex was the perfect candidate for this role. Billy’s character was the heart of the film and without the right person to bring Billy to life, there would be no Freak Show. I have only seen one other production starring Alex as the lead, The End of the F***ing World, which also features a teen who is an outsider. Based on these two characters, I am able to note a connection with the style and relationship in films Alex chooses to take part in. In both, Freak Show and The End of the F****ing World, Alex plays individuals who don’t fit in with social norms and are seen as unusual. Styler also mentioned that this film takes place in a red state, but it’s never clear which state exactly. What we are able to infer is that Billy attends school in a state that has conservative political perspectives. Styler references the current political situation faced by the United States with Donald Trump’s administration. This part is clear when the antagonist, Lynette, mentions the phrase “Make America Great Again,” during an election interview. Throughout the Q&A session Styler said these comments were intentional when she was working on the film, but never thought they’d become so relevant once it was released. I was glad that the movie didn’t have the ending most would expect it to have. The ending of Freak Show, wasn’t the perfect conclusion to the story, it had a more hopeful feeling to it. Although Billy didn’t win homecoming queen, he used that platform as a way of getting an important message across to his classmates. I saw this as a parallel to the current LGBTQ+ fight that is happening and also as a way of Styler implying that the fight is not over. Aside from this, I was happy to see Laverne Cox, a famous political activist, on screen. She is known for being an openly transgender woman and her appearance in this film brought a higher value to the entirety of the story. So much of this film references the political world we live in today, especially as Americans. I would recommend Freak Show to my friends as it is a very hopeful film that tells a story that many young teens would be able to relate to.
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A political thriller written by William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar is brought to life in a modern-day interpretation by director Nicholas Hytner. The experience with this play was completely different compared to the other plays we’ve watched this term. The stage setup was very interactive, especially because our tickets allowed us to be in the center of all the action.
The “pit,” as they call the area we were in, had us hustling around the raising platforms every few minutes experiencing the stage changes right in front of us. Not only this, but the pit also had us inches away from the actors. The play started off with a rock concert, which threw me off a bit at first still not realizing it was actually a part of the production. The concert seemed to be a pro-Caesar rally and was the moment the audience started to become a part of the performance. Aside from the whole stage set up, an important thing to mention is the choice of cast. In terms of diversity I was glad to see females take on important roles in the play. Michelle Fairley was the second female in this production to play the male role of Cassius (Billington, 2018). Cassius was a manipulative man who uses Brutus to destroy Caesar’s life. Another female role was Casca, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar, interpreted by Adjoa Andoh. Fairley and Andoh both played roles that were originally meant for male characters and were able to deliver them with great intensity and passion. Another female worth mentioning is Portia, played by Leaphia Darko, who is the wife of Brutis. I mention Darko because Hytner chose a female of color for this role which added to both his gender and cultural diversification in casting for this play. While watching the production, it felt like there were many modern parallels present, and after doing a bit of research I found that Nicholas Hytner does include parallels in many of his play productions. Hytner himself says, “I’ve staged plays by Shakespeare that seemed to speak about the Iraq war, the 2008 financial crisis, and the power of the surveillance state, among many other contemporary preoccupations (Hytner, 2018).” The most common parallel referred to for Julius Caesar is Donald Trump. Hytner also added that he had “never before staged a play that has said so much about our present or warned of such a terrible future.” Caesar’s death brought a civil war that eventually led to a collapse of the Roman Empire and with this Hytner could be portraying a message of what our modern-day political future may hold. Billington, M. (2018). Julius Caesar review – Hytner delivers a visceral, politically urgent tragedy. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/jan/30/julius-caesar-review-bridge-theatre-nicholas-hytner-ben-whishaw-david-morrissey [Accessed 26 Mar. 2018]. Hytner, N. (2018). Nicholas Hytner on Julius Caesar: 'I've staged many plays but never one that warns of such a terrible future'. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/jan/25/nicholas-hytner-on-julius-caesar-shakespeare [Accessed 26 Mar. 2018]. The Danish Girl, a film by English director Thomas George Hooper, takes place nearly a century ago in Denmark and is based on a true story about transgenderism. The main character in the film is played by Eddie Redmayne, whose striking facial structure and features make him ideal for the role.
At the start of the film we are introduced to a happily married couple, Gerda and Einar Wegener. Both of whom are very talented artists in Denmark. Einar Wegener’s work is mainly based on landscape art and seems to be highly recognized and praised in comparison to his wife’s. Regardless of the acknowledgement toward her art, Gerda is an amazingly skilled and talented portrait artist. Throughout the film we see much of Gerda’s work and the development of her artistic vision that eventually earns her praise and acceptance. There was an incident where one of Gerda’s models failed to show up to the painting shoot and Einar is convinced to step in for her. He wears the stockings, shoes, and holds the dress up to his body in order for his wife to better capture the image. This moment in the film serves as an awakening for Einar and his true identity. Einar finds the real person he is meant to be and continues to explore it by dressing up as his alter ego, Lili Elbe. Einar sees multiple doctors to help him in his journey toward becoming Lili, however most aren’t understanding and even believe him to be schizophrenic. It’s easy to see the perspective and patterns in the medical responses Lili receives. During that time most answers toward LGBTQ issues such as transgenderism were diagnosed as mental or psychological problems. Eventually, Lili Elbe was able to find a doctor who seemed to recognize her issue and underwent two operations, a gender reassignment surgery and a womb transplant. I was able to note the change in Einar Wegener’s mental state. At the start of the film he was depicted as a very positive and cheerful person. When he encounters this issue about his true self, Einar slowly becomes depressed and ill. Gerda seems very supportive and understanding about Lili’s identity crisis. Her love for her husband is still visible throughout the film as she continues to help Lili become herself. She is supportive almost to a point where one could speculate that maybe Gerda herself could have been gay. This story takes place around the late 1920 and early 1930’s, when sex and gender identification was still long ways from being understood. The Danish girl film ends with a message that reads, “[Lili Elbe’s] bravery and pioneering spirit remain an inspiration for today’s transgender movement.” It is a film that leads into the eventual movements of LGBTQ rights we still face in modern day. This week’s objective being to view a film focused on women & gender identity in the UK, I chose to watch Duchess by English director Saul Dibb. A British drama based on the societal influence of the 18th century Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana, the ideas of freedom and gender discrimination are brought to light.
Georgiana, played by British actress Keira Knightley, portrays the icon that the Duchess of Devonshire was in England’s high society. She married the Duke of Devonshire at the young age of 17 with her mother’s encouragement, who’s best interest was in mind for the sake of her own rank. Upon marriage, Georgiana found that love was absent in her relationship for the only thing the Duke wanted was for her to provide him with a male heir. As her first two children were girls and her encounter with stillborn children, the Duke seemed to become more miserable and lost compassion for Georgina. She is eventually able to birth a male child, but prior to this the Duke is seen having multiple affairs right in front of her eyes, intending to find someone who could provide him with what the duchess couldn’t at the time. Georgiana’s interest in fashion, gambling, and politics placed her in an untraditional category for a woman of her time. She was highly praised for her fashion choices and served as a style icon to the women in society. At the start of the film, we get a first glance at Georgiana’s interest in gambling when she bets money with her friends on a race. Her gambling interest develops throughout the film as we see the Duchess at a gambling table on multiple occasions being the only woman participating amongst a group of men. Aside from this, her popular figure served a positive impact on the political parties she supported, driving crowds of people to listen in on political speeches. Male domination in England’s political society is apparent when Georgina attends a speech reading from Mr.Fox, his character translating to British politician, Charles James Fox, of The Whig party. Upon terminating his speech Mr.Fox asks the Duchess what her thoughts are regarding his perspectives. She questions him about how fully committed he actually is to the idea of freedom he mentions. Would he be extending the vote to more men? women? society in general? Mr. Fox’s response was “freedom in moderation.” He did not intend to give freedom to all men, but only those who mattered. The response of Georgiana was very striking, but it seemed to have been brushed off by everyone as if it had no meaning. Georgiana stated, “One is either free or one is not…The concept of freedom is an absolute.” With this I ask myself, has the idea of freedom changed from the 18th to the 21st century? In my opinion, as unfortunate as it is, freedom is still a concept that needs to be worked on around the world today. I watched The Book of Mormon last week…I had an idea about what I was getting myself into when I heard its relation to South Park, or so I thought.
A comedic musical brought about by the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, The Book of Mormon puts a satirical spin on the Mormon religion. Mainly based on the missionary efforts of Elder Prince and Elder Cunningham, the creators find ways to highlight hypocrisies and some of the fallacies about the religion through their mission in Uganda, Africa. If you’re an overly sensitive person, this may not be the Broadway number you’d want to watch. It takes a certain level of appreciation and understanding of humor to enjoy this show. For those who aren’t aware of the extreme comedic work of Stone and Parker may find The Book of Mormon insulting and distasteful. I have to admit, there were portions of the musical that I personally felt a little uncomfortable and was shocked in terms of how far some of the jokes went. However, I’m not one to get easily offended and never at one point did I feel insulted as I knew it was part of the satirical humor. One more thing to mention about the musical is of course, the music. Most of the songs were very captivating and left most of the audience in a fit of laughter. The musical number did include a diverse cast, the main group of Mormon missionaries are fully portrayed by white individuals, while the majority of the scenes that take place in a Ugandan village are played by people of color. The Mormon religion was portrayed through only white males and failed to incorporate gender diversity in this sense. Most of the Mormon people I have met back home have been people of color and women. Including a few women to represent missionary “sisters” and not just missionary “elders” could have made a bit of a difference in the musical. However, this could all have been a part of the effect the creators were trying to convey, I don’t know. Nevertheless, The Book of Mormon was an entertaining musical that had me laughing more than a couple of times throughout the whole thing. I would recommend The Book of Mormon to my friends, making sure they go in with an open mind. It passes the boundaries of political correctness but more to portray a sense of humor than to offend in regard to racism. Marvel’s Black Panther blew up on social media since before it was released. It was EVERYWHERE on my timeline, which only made me want to go see it even more. I was afraid it was being overhyped and expected a great film from the start, and for me… it lived up to those expectations. I watched Black Panther this past Friday and truly enjoyed every aspect of it. Being one that loves action and comedy in films, this had a great combination of both. Some people may argue that the plot of the film was very predictable, which I do agree with, but I personally didn’t mind it because of the many other attention-grabbing factors. The director, the cast, the cultural representation are only some of the many things there are to talk about.
Box office & Coogler Forbes stated that Black Panther made $242 million domestically on its opening holiday weekend and $427 million worldwide.[1] This outcome placed it on the highest opening of all time for a film released in February in the US, UK and Ireland, Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia.[2] These astounding results are in part due to the talented film director Ryan Coogler. Coogler, 31, is an American film director and screenwriter who has also now become Marvel’s youngest filmmaker. Two of Coogler’s past films include Creed and Fruitvale Station. I have only watched Creed which was a powerful and moving film that I absolutely loved. Knowing that Ryan Coogler still has a long career life ahead of him makes me excited for the future films he will direct. Diverse Cast The cast is one of the reasons Black Panther has been so highly praised for. The film has and extraordinary group of actors, almost fully people of color. Some of the main cast members were born in African countries including Lupita Nyong’o from Kenya, Danai Gurira from Zimbabwe, Daniel Kaluuya and Florence Kasumba from Uganda, and John Khani from South Africa. Aside from this group of people there is also Letitia Wright, a British actress from Guyana, who plays Black Panther’s sister, and the two main cast members Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan both from America. The movie also includes a scene located in South Korea where a piece of asian culture was captured. It was a nice change to see a movie with nearly a whole cast with people of color, a diversity factor that many films in the past have tried but failed to represent. I was watching Trevor Noah, a South African comedian, on his Comedy Central show where made a comment about how people have been referring to the film as a “black film.” He puts down the statement by saying “No, it’s just as film.” I think Trevor made a good point with his response because it shows how unaccustomed people are to seeing films with an entire cast of color and they just place it under a separate category. Films like Black Panther need to become more of a norm. Representation Trevor Noah also mentioned how he understood when the people of Wakanda spoke Xhosa, a language spoken by over 7 million South Africans.[3] This is another thing the film did well. I researched some of the outfit choices used on the actors and found that they featured a large number of different African tribes and cultures. This twitter thread depicts some of the inspiration used in Black Panther for the costumers, hair, and make-up. https://twitter.com/diasporicblues/status/964770975190528000?lang=en [1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2018/02/19/black-panther-all-the-box-office-records-it-broke-and-almost-broke-in-its-242m-debut/#350e432b7195 [2] http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4372 [3] http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/xhosa Over reading week, me and two of my friends traveled to Amsterdam and Paris for a few days. Once we arrived in Amsterdam we figured that none of us knew a single word in the Dutch language to help us communicate. To our advantage, most people in Amsterdam seem to speak the English language pretty well so we ended up not having too difficult of a time while we were there. The transportation in the city wasn’t too difficult and we were easily able to understand how to commute. I included an image of the Iamsterdam sign located in the central area of the city below. When we got to the sign we expected to be able to take some nice pictures in front of it, but failed to realize that it would be packed, considering it is one of the city’s main tourist attractions. While we were getting a picture of the sign, I couldn’t help but notice the many different languages from people visiting from all over the world. I heard English, Spanish, Japanese, many other Asian languages, and some that I couldn’t recognize because I had never heard them before. Coming from Hawaii I am used to the diversity and having unique people around me. However, these European countries have exposed be to a different kind of diversity and to people from areas around the world of whom I’ve never witnessed before in person. Most of these experiences were different when we arrived in Paris. Although I knew a few basic terms and my friend Alex had taken a few semesters of French to help us say a bit more than just “hello” and “thank you,” I still found it a bit more difficult to communicate with people here. I noticed that it was because less people in France seem to speak English compared to what I experienced in Amsterdam. During our time in Paris we stayed in a hostel in Montmartre. I included a picture of the cathedral Sacré-Cœur that was visible from our hostel window (second picture). We went to see the cathedral the morning after we arrived and as you can tell from the picture that most of the people present weren’t people of color. This of course could be because we are in a European country where most people are fair skinned, and also, based on my observations there, the majority were tourists. I did see quite a bit of Asian people, not visible in the picture, and many of whom seemed American.
I attended two sessions at the BFI Future Film Festival on Friday, February 16. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the events because when I was registering for them there wasn’t much of a description for each one. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the different film related projects I saw throughout the day.
At 11am I sat in a viewing for ‘Female Portraits’ that consisted of different short films that were submitted by people from around the world for this BFI festival event. It was interesting to see the different approach directors take on delivering a certain point to their audience. Most of the films were very interesting, others got me thinking a little harder than usual, and a few of them just left me confused. Regardless, the creativity in all of them was remarkable. After a quick lunch break at a food market around the corner, I headed to my second session at 1:30pm for ‘Cut to the Rhythm.’ This was a Q&A session with three film directors for music videos. We viewed a couple music videos from Matilda Finn, Oscar Hudson, and Holly Blakey and had the opportunity to hear them respond to a few questions from the audience. The film style of Matilda Finn really caught my attention. During her Q&A portion she mentions seeing visual images through music which is how she approaches her work. Matilda also said that as her work became more appreciated she started to only work with people who accepted her creative vision. The next person we were introduced to was Oscar Hudson. Oscar has worked with artists like Young Thug & Carnage and Radiohead and shared a different approach to his work in comparison to Matilda. Oscar discussed how he has a list of ideas that come to mind over time and when a project comes up he draws inspiration from those ideas. Lastly, we took a look at a couple pieces of work from Holly Blakey. Holly is also choreographer which was a present theme in both of her videos. Similar to Matilda, Holly said she sees movement through music which is how her visual ideas come to life. Based on my experience at the BFI Festival I noticed that each of the paths from the three creative directors were in no way similar. Everyone’s path in this industry is developed differently without a right or wrong approach. It’s all in the consistency and belief of their passion that leads to their success. Here are the websites of the three music video film directors: http://www.matilda-finn.com/ http://www.oscarhudsonfilm.com/ http://hollyblakey.co.uk/ The film I viewed this week was Hunger by English film director Steve McQueen. Steve McQueen was also the director of the 2013 film, 12 Years a Slave. Hunger provides graphic details and, nearly painful to watch, images of the human brutality occurring in the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland during the 1981 Hunger Strike.
The film was very graphic and conveyed many emotions, but my lack of knowledge on this tragic event in history made it hard for me to understand the storyline at first. After a bit of research, I understood that Bobby Sands, introduced in the film, was an Irish Nationalist and the person who was leading the hunger strike in the prison. It was his second time being in prison and this time around he was sentenced to 14 years. The removal of their rights as political prisoners led to his idea of the protest, but also brought them violence as a result of their demands.[1] The film didn’t include any people of color, from what I noticed, but the setting was in Northern Ireland in the 1980’s so this was probably due to historical accuracy. However, Steve McQueen himself was a person of color and most likely aimed to depict and shine a light on a serious issue that took place in his country. The idea of showing cultural diversity in this film would not have been appropriate for the story plot. The cinematography of the film contained many close-up, blurred/out-of-focus, and long consecutive shots. I also noticed that the characters never really spoke much. The setting of the movie was all based on the mood of the shots and it’s striking images. At the start of Hunger we are introduced to an image of bloody knuckles being washed in the bathroom sink for a bit of time. At that moment I couldn’t really piece together what had caused it until a similar scene showed up again later in the film that gave me a bit of context that the blood was caused by the punching and mistreating of inmates by an officer. Going more into the mistreatment of inmates, we see shots of feces on the walls and decaying food on the floors that depict the dirty conditions in the prison cells. There is also a scene where the inmates are being horrifically beaten and searched one by one for anything they may be hiding. In this moment in the film there was a scene where half the screen was being cut off by a wall where an officer stood on one side while a group of others were beating a prisoner on the inside. The officer on the outside can’t stand to participate, let alone watch, and stands outside with tears rolling down the side of his cheeks. Aside from those graphic clips, as the story progresses we also see how Bobby Sands goes through with the hunger strike protest and his health begins to deteriorate. I enjoyed the film but would have liked it if the director included a bit more into the story plot of what was going on in the world outside of the prison at that time, such as the political unrest. It would have helped me piece the story together sooner, but once again, maybe my confusion in the film at the start was due to my unfamiliarity with this area of history. [1] Tunzelmann, A. (2018). Hunger: A mood piece with impressive historical balance. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2014/mar/06/hunger-reel-history-bobby-sands-hunger-strike [Accessed 15 Feb. 2018]. Director Gurinder Chanda in Bend It Like Beckham tells the story of a young Indian girl, Jesminder, who finds herself caught between pursuing the traditional route expected of her from her parents, versus her dream to become a professional football (soccer) player. Bend It Like Beckham is an insightful film that delivers a better understanding of the issues that British Asians, in this case Indian, deal with when cultural influences clash.
Chanda was born in Kenya and grew up in Southall London, where the film Bend It Like Beckham takes place. Most likely do to her personal experiences and understanding of the culture, Chanda has a strong focus on expressing diversity, mainly in the British Asian sector, in the majority of her work[1]. Jesminder (Jes), the protagonist in the film, is a football aficionado and a David Beckham admirer. At the beginning of the film she is shown playing football with all of her other guy friends at the park. When Juliette approaches Jess about joining a women’s football team, Jess’ world is completely changed. At this moment she knew that accepting the offer would mean going against her strict parents and their traditional views, but her passion for football overpowers the consequences she might face. I am able to easily distinguish the standards on which Jess and her sister are held to throughout the movie. To name a few, Jess’ parents expect her to go to university, get good grades, marry an Indian boy, and have a traditional wedding. The way in which Jess and her family were displayed provided a deeper understanding to the closed-in feeling Jess has when having to make decisions about her life. At the end of the film I realized the extent an Indian son/daughter would go to in order to please their parents. Tony, Jess’s good friend, admits to being gay but tells no one about this aside from Jess, knowing the chaos and disappointment it would bring to his parents. In the end, Tony offers to marry Jess in order to help her accomplish her dream of moving the US and accepting her football scholarship. With fear of their parents’ reactions, Tony would have committed to marriage in order to continue hiding his true self and Jess would have been allowed to move away from home knowing she was marrying an Indian boy. Jess’ parents are depicted like any other Indian parents in movies I have seen. Her family is also largely stereotyped by some of the other characters in the film, which serves as an accurate representation of the day-to-day assumptions people make about others. Juliette’s mom was one of the characters in the film that automatically stereotyped Jess and her family as soon as she met her. It started with Juliette's mom making a comment about the name ‘Jesminder.’ The mom also turned to Jess in this same scene and said, “Your parents must be fixing you up with a guy.” This is an assumption she made based on the way she characterized the Indian culture. I think that Chanda did an incredible job in presenting a real-life situation to her audience and explaining how cultural beliefs can be very impactful to someone's future. [1] Bhattacharyya, Gargi and John Gabriel, 'Gurinder Chadha and The Apna Generation', Third Text (Summer 1994), pp. 55-63. National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA), 'Filmmaker of the Month October/November 2002: Gurinder Chadha and Paul Berges', www.naatanet.org/community/archives/arch_filmmaker/gurinder_chadha.html Wambu, Onyekachi and Kevin Arnold, A Fuller Picture: The Commercial Impact of Six British Films with Black Themes in the 1990s (London: BFI, 1999). |
AuthorI'm Erica Esquivel and this semester I will be exploring film diversity in the UK through my ACM 384 course. My blog posts will be based on my view and perspective of different films viewed over the next few months. Archives
March 2018
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