Thursday, February 24, 2011

Movie Week Extravaganza!

My thoughts on the 3 movies I watched for movie week. The first movie was Born into Brothels. This movie I really did enjoy even though it made me feel sick inside. I learned a lot from this movie.

The woman photographer that went to the brothel and taught these young children that live there is an amazing person. I think she affected all of their lives - even if they did not decide to leave the brothel. It may change the cycle down the line. Though she only spent time with the young children teaching them photography, they were able to learn so much more about life. They learned so much about the potential of themselves and what this world does have to offer.

It was really neat to see the pictures the kids captured themselves- amazing work! They built confidence and dreams with their pictures!

Watching the kids take pictures with a point and shoot film camera reminded me of when I was their age. Things looked different then.

What a colorful movie it was, even though there lives were shown in detail and you could see how unpleasant it was. The kids were so smart it surprised me how they knew that this life was not good there and that a lot of it was wrong. One child said that it is best to accept that you are miserable. I might have thought that if you are raised in it that you would not know any different, but I was wrong.

The kids did have times were they did seem to have fun and be kids. They all loved photography.
I enjoyed this movie, it was hard at the end to see the decisions the kids and parents made. Not all of them wanted to stay in school. They loved their parents not matter what. This shows you how important parents are as role models. Kids will follow the parents even when they know it is wrong. They need good guidance.

One Hour Photo was the second movie I had watched. After watching this one about halfway I remembered watching it a long time ago and falling asleep halfway into it.
This was not really my kind of movie- kind of sick and twisted but not as extreme as the movie "Saw".

Looking at it now from a photographers perspective it was interesting the way they used different lighting techniques and lenses to create different moods and feelings.

I liked a quote in the movie when they said that "people never took pictures of things they wanted to forget." That is true. I actually liked the ending and was glad I watched it.

War Photographer was the last movie. The pictures this photographer took were breathtaking. Even though you new they were real it was still hard to believe. This photographer who took these pictures was using his work to try make a difference. He even risked his own life. Another woman photographer was about to cry when she said that some people who see the pictures still have doubt. I think she meant that the people could still not believe this was happening in the world. I could see that because the pictures are so extremely graphic.

The Photographer was right in the action. He had a video camera connected to his picture camera so you could see him at work. That was a big learning experience for me. You could see what he did, how he shot, how he acted to the people and how much he became a part of the people. Obviously that was a big reason why his pictures had so much authentic emotion. The people had accepted him as a photographer to give them a voice on what was happening to them.

I think the images were so good, they said more than video ever could.

The photographer wanted to help people and make a difference. I think he did. He felt that he would never be satisfied. Perhaps he feels war will never end. This was a very emotional movie. It showed humans at their best and their worst.

I would recommend watching any of these movies. Now that I have learned so much about photography movies will never look the same.