Documentary reflection

1. Write a reflection on your documentary presentation that includes portions of your presentation or the presentation in its entirety. Please include any new insights that you developed in presenting your documentary to the class.

I though our documentary presentation went very well. The documentary we chose to present was called The Bride Price. Our documentary wasn't to long, which meant the class didn't become disinterested in our presentation. I thought the documentary we chose had a very strong message and conveyed it very effectively. Even though our documentary was short every moment of it was important and relevant to proving how serious child marriages are, and how the film maker (Stephanie Sinclair) thinks it should be abolished. Each time I re watched the documentary it makes me appreciate even more the freedom to chose to marrying whomever I may choose, and at an age where I am ready to be married. Unfortunately for these girls in this documentary they never had that option and were married off at a very young age.One question I started to wonder about while I was doing the my presentation was whether or not Stephanie Sinclair has started an organization to free young women from having to marry men, whom they do not know at such a young age. I have since looked up the answer to my question and discovered she has not started her own organization, but she often helps out with other humans rights organizations.

This is the link to the documentary The Bride Price,  created by Stephanie Sinclair: http://mediastorm.com/clients/the-bride-price-for-icrw




2. Write a reflection on one of the other documentaries that you viewed in class. Name the tittle of the documentary, the intended message and please include your opinion on whether you think the message of the documentary was conveyed effectively. 

Another documentary I viewed in class was called The finale of HBO's "24/7" Red Wings-Maple Leafs: Road to the NHL Winter Classic.  The message of this documentary is used for entertainment purposes. They are trying to promote the the Winter classic and trying to tell people there is a deeper meaning to hockey and it is a serious game. The players who are on the team have had to go on a long journey to get to where they are now, and most of them are pretty humbled by it. Personally I am not a huge hockey fan, however viewing this documentary made me want to watch the winter classic, and maybe even some other hockey games. It made me feel sympathy towards the players because they had to play in horrendous conditions, however they all played because they are passionate about the game. Therefore I would say this documentary effectively conveyed its message.

This is the link to The finale of HBO's "24/7" Red Wings-Maple Leafs: Road to the NHL Winter Classic: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=699005

Hoop dreams vs. Bowling for Columbine

1) List three major differences between the two documentaries.

Three major differences between these documentaries are the length, Bowling for Columbine was a much shorter documentary than Hoop Dreams. Secondly the viewing of the filmmaker, you only saw the filmmaker in Bowling for Columbine however they never showed up in Hoop Dreams. The filmmaker was not shown in Hoop Dreams because it is a more traditional documentary. Lastly these were two different types of documentaries. Hoop Dreams was focused on two boys and their basketball careers, whereas Bowling for Columbine is more focused on an object and an organisation. The object being guns and the organisation being the NRA (National Rifle Association) in the United States.

2) Hoop Dreams was an incredibly long film 2hrs 52mins, why do you think the filmmakers chose to include so much footage in their film?

I think the film makers wanted to include so much footage into their film because it was all relevant to the story they are telling. They are following the lives of these young boys for 4 years, therefore they would have immense amounts of footage. Obviously they edited the amount of footage they had, however they took the most relevant aspects and parts from their years of footage to create this film. I think the film was long, however while watching it didn't feel that long because it was very well edited and contained all the necessary points to make this a brilliant documentary.

3) Who was the narrator in the documentary Hoop Dreams. Why are we not made aware who the filmmaker is or what they look like throughout the documentary? 

The narrator in Hoop Dreams is Steve James (he is also the filmmaker). We are not made aware of who the filmmaker is because it isn't that important to the documentary. The documentary is following the lives of two boys, therefore the filmmaker had no purpose putting himself in the documentary because it is not relevant. By adding himself into the documentary they are creating more footage that will make the film unnecessarily longer.

4) What makes Hoop Dreams a more traditional Documentary?

Hoop dreams is more of a traditional documentary because it is much longer than most modern documentaries, and the filmmaker never makes an appearance in their film. Traditional documentaries tend to have these aspects whereas Bowling for Columbine shows the filmmaker and is a much shorter documentary. The aspects of Bowling for Columbine show more modern day documentary components.