Born into Brothels

1. The juxtaposed photos and eyes give the introduction more emotion. The viewer connects the child and the place in an emotional way; in this case we are sad and feel their pain just by looking at photos of where they grew up and their eyes. Eyes are a very deep and emotional part of the human body. I think eyes are a good close up in films to capture that emotional aspect. That being said, I think they used this strategy to do just that, capture a deeper more motional feeling for the introduction, and to set the tone for the rest of the movie.

2. I think photography was a great medium to bridge the lives of the children with the directors. Photography is still, but you can capture so much emotion and life in one photo. In this movie, the photos of the children were shown, and then photos of the director. It was not only a refreshing break from the video, which gave it good balance and structure, but the photos were amazing and helped tell the story. This worked well because she really was connecting with them in a way; they were all teaching, learning, and taking photos. She was relating to them and trying to be a positive impact through something she loved, and many of the children had grown to love too. You could tell how happy the children were and how hopefully Zana Auntie was. There is no doubt those children’s lives were not only better off, but forever changed just by taking photos.

3. Zana’s motivation for teaching the children to take photography is to change the children’s horrible educational and living arrangements. She wanted to get them out of the Brothels. When she first went there she wanted to focus more on the women of the Brothels, try to help them. But when she got there, there were so many children and they were all interested in her, and she eventually started her photography class to get them out of the red light district. She used her own talent and passion of photography to do so.

4. I feel that in this situation, it was a wonderful thing. Although, it is very important to understand the people where you are, and to fully respect them, especially the elders. Children are the future of the world, and I think there needs to be more people who are passionate about helping children out who are disadvantaged. But it’s not always fully accepted by the local people, therefore one should stay there a long time and try to get to know lots of people and try to make changes on a closer, friendlier level. Zana was in Calcutta for three years, if I remember correctly, and I think she was smart in that she lived there and fully got to know the community. She wasn’t just going there to change people all of a sudden. It takes time and trust.

5. The trips to the zoo and beach are very important for the children. How often do they really get to leave their dingy streets of the red light district? Not often. This gave the children an excellent opportunity to leave that place and see something new and exciting. To play like children should play. The animals at the zoo were all caged in. They couldn’t go very far, they were hungry, thirsty, tired, and tied up. This is similar to the life of the children. The children are in a way locked up too. They are in the Brothels, working for their families and unable to go anywhere or do much of anything different. They have to scrounge for food and they most defiantly must help prepare if they want to eat. The animals and the children are both trapped.

6. This statement gives the audience an accurate view of the attitude of many of the children and people who live in the Brothels. Many of the children can’t even fathom what they would do if they had the opportunity, education, or money to do something. Their environment is keeping them from truly finding themselves and allowing them to experiment with different aspects of life. They learn how to take care of their baby brother and how to prepare food and wash dishes, but they are missing out on good preparation for a bright future. This statement proves that a child can not live there; they must live in a better community and get good education to really succeed.

Marxism and the Menen Model

According to Marxism, the mode of production of material things determines the general character of the social, political, and spiritual processes of life. And, social beings determine consciousness. In a society with class, the upper class, the ruling class, will have more power over consciousness. Our economic society shapes the ideas individuals have and affects the ideas institutions establish. The economic system found in a society, the mode of production, influences the institutions and values of a given society. And these institutions influence everyone in a society, giving them things to believe in, or disbelieve. Classes are formed when there are different economic conditions between groups of people in a certain time period. Ideas transfer to people through the superstructure (institutions, philosophical systems, religious organizations, arts found in a society, ect). Because the economic system is always changing, the ideas are also changing. According to Marxism, in a society that has class structure, there will be conflict. There will be the bourgeoisie, the ruling class, and the proletariats, the workers exploited by the ruling class. These people experience increasingly desperate conditions. If the conflicts of the society are being “fixed” by the bourgeoisie, then they are just dealing with conflicts with “ruling class ideas”. Because of classes, a hierarchy society will form, ultimately creating a society with people afraid of those in power, a terrorist state. People of the lower classes will soon feel alienated, and will suffer from false consciousness, ultimately, the upper class will be dominating their thinking.

According to Marxism, Menen was one of the people who made up the ruling class of Argentina. These were the people who dominated material force, they dominate intellectual force, they were thinkers, producers of ideas, but most of all, the ruling class regulates the production and distribution of ideas of their age. Masses of people were being manipulated and exploited by Menen and the ruling class. Menen was creating a successful economy at one time. President Menen imposed a peso-dollar fixed exchange rate, which contributed to significant increases in investment and growth with stable prices through most of the 1990s. But soon, his model failed, causing massive imports to diminish, which damaged national industry and reduced employment and economic crises. Half of the country slid into poverty, the currency dropped, and bank accounts became locked. According to Marx, any class society will have conflict and false consciousness. Argentina is proof that a bourgeoisie society is not the way.

I think The Take is an illustration of a Marxist Revolution, but may not have been the sole influence in the making of this film. It can defiantly be related and analyzed through Marxism. I think it may be a combination of Marxism and a model of worker suffrage. The Take was explaining the economic and social situation of Argentina of that time, and we were able to understand how the workers suffered, and what they did about it. And after learning about Marxism, this video is a great example of a Marxist revolution and how class and current social and economic situations will determine and influence the future of a country. The working class of Argentina was constantly loosing their jobs. Factories were being shut down and the workers were without jobs, and without money. It still costs money to live in Argentina. But only the upper classes were actually able to afford to live. Workers came together and started to run the factories themselves. There was no boss, everyone was equal. They all got paid the same. They all voted on decisions. Multiple factories were under worker control. According to Marx, social and economic arrangements found in a given society at a given time are historical, created by people, and therefore capable of being changed by people. And that is exactly what the people in Argentina did. They were changing the social and economical arrangements in their society. It truly was a Marxist Revolution. People stood up for their rights and jobs, some people got shot, and even killed. There were riots and protest. But the working class soon had their jobs back. The factories were open again, and the economy was on it’s way back up. Kirchner was the next President, who restructured and paid off its debt, and renegotiated contracts with utilities. The economy became stable again, and more factories re-opened, providing more people with jobs again.

What happened in Argentina is a perfect example of a Marxism revolution, but there is still class and corruption. With different classes of power, there will always be different ideas, and manipulation to those under the high class ideas.

Freud’s 4 stages of Development

Sigmund Freud is known as a psychoanalyst who did not discover the unconscious, but he did develop the concept more thoroughly. Our minds are full of information, but we are not aware of all that is in it. We only are conscious of a small portion of everything that is going on in our minds. This means that we are not completely in control of ourselves and the actions we do. Sigmund Freud suggests that all people go through four stages of development during a life time: the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, and then the genital stage. The first three stages are unconscious. We do not realize what we are doing or thinking. These first three stages are our sexual instinct, which give us sensual pleasures and gratification.

The oral stage is the first stage an individual will pass through. This happens during infantry. The infant will begin by sucking then biting, and then later start to eat, which represents the gratification of oral needs. When sucking, the infant is not eating or concern with food at all. Then the infant will grow teeth and start to chew and bite. According to Freud, this is an expression of his sadistic desires, which is sexual gratification through causing pain. The infant is doing this all unconsciously. It may seem odd that an infant unconsciously wants to cause pain by biting. But Freud suggests that it is instinct. And all babies do bite, especially when their teeth are coming in. Maybe because it is painful for them, but want to bite and cause pain back. But they do this unconsciously, through instinct.

The second stage that people will pass through is the anal stage. During this stage, an infant will become more interested in their own feces. There is a connection with feces and money in many myths, fairy tales, and superstitions, as well as, the unconscious thoughts and dreams. Freud writes “We know how the money which the devil gives his paramours turns to excrement after his departure and the devil is most certainly nothing more than a personification of the unconscious instinctual forces, the most precious substance known to man and the most worthless.”

The third stage is the phallic stage. In this stage boys will become interested in their penis, and girls will become interested in their clitoris. When boys and girls go through this stage, it causes their Oedipus complex. Oedipus complex is a stage that everyone will go through. It’s a stage of desiring the parent of the opposite sex at an unconscious level. For boys, they fear retaliation by their fathers, which causes them to renounce their love for their mothers, which helps them to identify with masculinity of their fathers, which re-channels their love outside the family. For girls, they fear the loss of the love of both parents, which causes them to re-identify with their mother, and helps them to find other males to love other than her father. The fear of castration, the removal of the genitals, encourages the children to re-channel their love outside the family members. According to psychoanalytic theory, everyone goes through this stage, at an unconscious level, of course. But, in some cases, children will not grow out of this and consciously have feelings of love toward a parent. Oedipus complex is named after the myth of Oedipus who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. I thought it was really interesting that a way for children to deal with their Oedipal anxieties is through reading and listening to fairy tales. Fairy tales teach young children how to deal with problems, helps them to identify with heroes, and helps them learn important things about life. And if they are unconsciously under anxiety from this Oedipal complex, these fairly tales would most defiantly help children to deal with that. These fairy tales have the power to reach a child, with hardly any education, as well as a sophisticated adult. These stories help the ego to develop more, and help children to satisfy their id urges in line with ego and superego. The id wants pleasure, the ego functions with the individual’s relation to the environment, and the superego is the moral precepts of our minds as well as our ideal aspirations. Unconsciously, when we are infants and passing through these first three stages, the id is in control. The fairy tales help the superego to balance out and create right and wrong moral lessons.

Finally, the fourth stage is the genital stage. This stage is only achieved when one goes through puberty. This is the stage where all the sexual desires become conscious, and they become focused on their sexual life.

Everyone will pass through these four stages. The first three are unconscious stages that we will experience, and use fairy tales and myths to learn life lessons and to learn about good and bad. Aggression and guilt are also explained by Freud as a way for the id and superego to balance. Aggression is an instinct for humans, like the biting of infants. Guilt is the powerful opposing force that balances the aggression of many people. Otherwise, our society would be disrupt, or even destroyed.

Sociological Analysis on the American Dream

Since WWII, Americans were interested and active on the idea of living out of town, in a nice neighborhood, away from the crime and the hustle of the city. People wanted to move out of town, slightly in the country, in the suburbs. The suburbs allowed the rich people of America to get away of the city. From 1946, homes and apartments sprung up all over the outskirts of many American cities. It was a housing boom. Soon to follow was the automobile age, with a boom in automobiles, furnishings, and accessories. The suburbs were not very convenient for commuters who walked or biked, therefore cars became a big hit. With out cars Suburban people could not go anywhere. And to increase car sales, GM actually paid to get rid of the railroads. Functions soon followed as well, such as shopping areas and restaurants. Huge developments were springing up all around the cities, because rich people wanted some nice country living, close enough to still get in the city if they needed to. Oil was cheap and plentiful back then, and we used it up quickly and carelessly. Now, our oil is depleting, and America will have to make drastic changes if they want to survive. The suburban life does not fit into the new urbanism that will be sustainable. Today’s American is engrossed with buying in large quantities, quite often, and this lifestyle will not be available later in life. How has this way of life become? Through sociological studies, it is interesting to understand what drives development and people.

The basic concern of sociology, according to Arthur Berger, is how groups and institutions function. Many sociologist observe public arts and mass media with a concern for human interactions and personal relationships. They study the process of being an individual and becoming a member of society. Emile Durkheim is a sociological theorist who believes that an individual is also a member of society. Everyone has a physical body and personality, therefore we are individual, but we also are social and communicate with people in society regularly. Our thoughts are influenced by everything that is around us within our society. What we are taught in school, what we see on TV, who we spend most of our time with, our socioeconomic class, and how our caretakers brought us up all affect our thoughts and the way in which we live as a member of society. Emile Durkheim wrote “An individual’s intellectual activity is not as rich or as complex as a society’s intellectual activity, because a society’s thought is enriched by historical tradition.” A society is made up of many individuals, which would only result in a more rich and complex intellectual than one individual.

The American dream has become manufactured by land use and spirit of individuality, which can be analyzed using the sociological method. To analyze the American dream and how it was created, I will apply some basic fundamental sociological concepts.

Socioeconomic Class

Of the Americans who wanted to live the American Dream out in the Suburbs were upper-middle to upper-upper socioeconomic class. A class is a group of people who share something in common. They were usually well educated, they had a high income, and a good job that provided them with that income. They held certain values and partook in a specific lifestyle. Most suburban families had more money, so they bought more material stuff. They probably raised their children in similar ways as well, making sure they get a good education, they were clean and well mannered. Socioeconomic class also relates to our next concept, elites.

Elites

The elites are the people in the upper class, or lower-upper class. These people usually have some sort of power. They have professional or executive occupations. People who were living in the suburbs were rich, and did not want to live in the city with the poor people or the violence.

Ethnicity/Race

Ethnicity is certain cultural traits and traditions that separate different groups in society. Race is a category of people who have common genetic traits. The people who were moving out in the Suburbs and using massive amounts of energy were white Americans.

Functionalism

According to Berger, something is functional when it contributes to the maintenance and stability of whatever entity it is part of; likewise, something can be dysfunctional if it is a destabilizing or destructive factor. And something can also be nonfunctional, which means it does not affect the entity it is part of. The suburbs could be viewed as functional because it allows people to live more comfortably, but it is also very dysfunctional. It stimulates segregation or separation of societies, and it can easily encourage people to consume more than necessary, faster, such as oil, energy, automobiles, and housing furniture and accessories.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle is how a person fashions their life. Clothes, cars, food, and entertainment, just to name a few, describe how a person fashions his or her life. Lifestyle gives people an image, and is many times connected to the socioeconomic class a person belongs to. People of a higher class, has more money, therefore they will buy more. With more material things, a person has a larger opportunity to be exposed to mass communication and mass media.

Mass Communications and Mass Media

Mass communications involves the use of the mass media to send messages into a large number of consumer’s minds. When Americans were building their suburban dreams, they were buying more than ever. Mass communications and mass media encouraged people to buy more, and eventually more shopping centers, restaurants, and corporations started to develop to meet the needs and wants of those well-to-do, buying folk.

Postmodernism

During the postmodernism era, there was an evolution in society, economy, and culture. People were becoming more modern, and more individualistic. More developments were springing up in the Suburban and surrounding areas. People were challenging much of the tradition, and encouraging development, buying, and selling. Many of this production was used to create a “Suburban American Dream” lifestyle. People were choosing to be more “free”, believing in whatever they wanted, and doing anything they wanted to do.

Social Roles/Gender

In the Suburbs, many social and gender roles on television and in the mass media, were viewed by many people and greatly influenced the way people socialize and view women and men, in the media and everyday. Women were very happy, pretty homemakers. The men had a good job, they were always dressed neatly and nicely. Peoples social roles are determined by the place they stand in their society. The media can have a large effect on the way woman are viewed and the many roles people take on.

Socialization

The media can also have large effects on values actually teach a person how to life in a particular society. Socialization is the process that people are taught the rules, roles, and values of their society. It can be taught in families, schools, churches, and even the media. The media in the postmodern era had a huge influence on people then, and still do today. The suburbs were a nice lifestyle that by socialization, in many forms (family, school, church, and media) has giving the suburban lifestyle the values, roles, and rules of their society.

Status

Status is very similar to socioeconomic class, upper class, but with a prestige attached to that position. People in suburbia were upper class who had money and had individual attitudes. And roles can be a factor in this as well. Men usually had higher status than woman, and upper class had higher status than working class.

All of these concepts allow you to understand what determines and creates a society. The American dream, Suburbia, was created mainly because people had money and wanted to move away from the city, for a “better” (more comfortable) lifestyle.

Use of Signs in Television and Film

While watching television or a movie, certain camera shots and editing techniques are used to signify certain meaning. For example, according to Arthur Berger, author of Media Analysis Techniques, a close up shot, focusing on a person's face signifies intimacy. A long shot, capturing the setting and characters signifies context, scope, and public distance. When the camera pans down, camera looks down, signifies power and authority. When the camera pans up, looks up, it signifies smallness, or weakness. When we watch television or films, these shots and editing techniques help us to understand the story, characters and/or program better. These signs help us to interpret what we see and hear on the TV.

Something that signifies a deeper meaning is a sign. Signs are used in the media all the time. For example, certain products may signify a certain status, class or style depending on their advertising and consumer perceptions. Symbols and icons are used often to establish an identity, especially in the corporate world. There are many different products, and each brand is trying to establish an identity. So by creating an icon or symbol to relate their product to, meaning also is established to the brand. These icons and symbols are also examples of signs. They signify something. When consumers think about certain brands, or when they see their logo, different meanings and emotions can be related to the product. For example, Starbucks coffee signifies comfort. The Hummer signifies power and ego.

People use signs to convey certain notions about themselves as well. Hairstyle and clothing are signs to what people may be like. When I see someone with a Mohawk, I think that they might want to be different and probably have interesting and unique views on society, culture, style, and/or music. I might assume they listen to Punk rock. I might assume they resist authority in some way. I get these assumptions by the interpreting signs they provide. The hairstyle is a sign that tells a little bit more about the person, just by viewing them. Body language, gestures, voices, and facial expressions are all signs that help people understand each other or gain insight to who this is, their personality, and sometimes even their values.

Music can also be a sign. Sounds can provoke certain emotions. This is especially important in TV and films. Certain sound effects and music make the TV or film more realistic, and help the audience to feel the emotions related to what they are watching.

People interpret signs everyday, and don't even realize it. Our culture and society teaches us what these signs mean as we are brought up in our communities.

In the movie, What the ***** do We Know, they used many different camera shots, sounds, and visual images. The female photographer character was viewed as frustrated, confused, thinking deeply about life, and insecure during the majority of the film, up until the end. They convey these emotions and help the audience to understand her character by using camera shots and different camera techniques. Camera shots such as close up, full shots, and medium shots were used. To signify intimacy, close up shots were taken of the characters face. The audience was able to understand the character by her facial expressions. The audience can feel what she is feeling because it is close and personal. They used the full shot to signify social relationships. The audience was able to understand how the character reacts around and with others. With this type of shot, the audience can watch the characters nonverbal communication, which is a good indication of how a person is feeling or what a person is like. A good example of this shot is when the photographer was at the wedding reception, drinking and dancing with the man. We understood the feelings and interaction of the characters because we could see their nonverbal communication from a distance. They also used medium shots to signify personal relationships. Medium shots are when the camera is focused on most of the body. This allows the audience to understand the character’s personal relationships with ideas, thoughts, or things. They also moved the camera in (dolly in) when she was thinking or focusing hard. This camera editing technique signifies observation and focus. This character was partly deaf, so she did not talk very much. But certain camera shots and her facial expressions, gestures, and body language were signs that gave the audience an accurate perception of her character. The movie also had a lot of cut editing technique, which is switching from one image to another. This signifies simultaneity and excitement. The movie had a lot of different images switching back and forth, which did create the intended excitement at those times. Of course the beginning and end were obvious by fade in and wipe. Fade in is when the first images appear on a blank screen, signifying the beginning of the movie. Wipe is the technique when the image or images are wiped off the screen, concluding the movie. This production did an excellent job at using signs to convey the message of the movie.

Signs are used everywhere, everyday, through multiple mediums. It is interesting and extremely useful to view the signs used in television and film production as a way to convey incites to personalities, emotions, ideas, and to better understand the characters and the film itself.