Post 16: Elephant, a Gus Van Sant movie (2003)

1) What struck you most in the film?

What struck me the most in the film is his reality or his fake reality, the school shooting shown in the movie happened every day in the United States and by watching this film we have the impression to witness the true reconstitution of a rampage such as Columbine in 1999 or Sandy in 2012. During all the movie we know what is going to happened but we don't know how is going to happen. This film allows us to be inside a school shooting for the first time in cinema.

2) What also impressed you?

What impress me the most were the long shots without any cut at several moments of the film. Those 10 minutes shot allow us to have a view of the event from the perspective of several characters and give to the film a slow rythm which add a sort of suspense to the plot. So I'm really impress by the great quality of the direction which don't really surprise me from a film directed by Gus Van Sant a very good director.

3) Did you find anything more particularly upsetting?
I find very upsetting the fact that sometimes the director linger on very banal activities, like in the scene with the photograph, I know that he wants to show that this day is a normal one but he insists maybe too much on it. 

4) What did you find very disturbing?
The thing that I find very disturbing is that we don't have main characters in this movie, the camera follows different characters but there is no pattern or common point between all the characters expect maybe the fact that they are all in the High School during the school shooting but the scenario can be very disturbing. 

5) What was most shocking?
The most shocking is of course the scene of the rampage where the two shooters tracked the students in the corridors of the High School. The scene in the cold chamber that end the movie is very disturbing and very scary.

6) What does the film  suggest about the two school shooters?
Firstable the film suggest that the two shooters are homosexual like the shooters of the Columbine shootings it's an other example of the similarity between the film and the true massacre in Columbine. Second the shooters are very nerdy and because of that they are being bullied in class. And finally we can say that the shooters are no monster, the director didn't want to give a manichean look on this event so we can see for example that one of the shooter has a musical sensibility.

7) What's more, what does the film director make clear about the two killers?
He makes very clear the fact that they are not mad or disturbed he avoids this scenaristic facility by saying that they doing this because of many factors and especially the easy access to weapon. The portrait of the killers is not manichean, they are not evil and the students are not completely good, this shooting is the result of many other facts like the lack of confidence, the bullying and like I said the gun industry in the United States.

8) What kind of approach to the school shooting itself did Gus Van Sant opt for?
The director opt for a very slow approach of the school shooting, we saw the killers at the very beginning but we see the shooting at the very end, it's not a chronological story. At the end where the shooting takes place, he is not shown entirely, we just see part of the shooting or important moments. Gus Van Sant avoids to show too much violence like when a student gets kill it's violent but not too much it is shown in a very realistic way.

9) Moreover, what's the main consequence of the realistic treatment he uses? What about the 'poetic' touches he instills throughout the film?

The main consequence of this realistic approach we feel a lack of empathy towards the characters that are being involved in the shooting, we are shocked of course but because the director didn't present them very well we are not sad or less sad maybe. The poetic touches is where we can find the imprint of Gus Van Sant who like to tell his story in a certain poetical way, with long shots of landscape for example, in Elephant we can see that at some moments, the director uses slow motion to captured important scenes and we have a shot of the sky at various moments in the film. 

10) As a conclusion, what must we admit about the way in which the killing and the killers are perceived by the film viewers?

To conclude I would say that in contrary with other film, at the end of the film we don't feel a strong anger against the killers of course we feel a bit of a disgust toward them but we don't see the shooters as only responsible for this massacre. And I think is what this film is all about, this film wants us to meditate on how a school shooting happen, of course we can say like many that the shooters in those events are monster and they are completely hopeless but it's a way to hide the truth. The director explains to us that a school shooter is create with different factors, and the main factor is of course the gun policy in America.

Post 15: School shootings in the USA

1) The informations that I find as most interesting in this site can be find here:
http://www.acolumbinesite.com/security.html
On this section of the website we can found all the security camera surveillance tapes from the school shouting massacre of Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. The footage were only taken in the cafeteria, where the shooters went several times during the rampage, on these we can follow the events from the beginning of the shooting with Coach Sanders running to warn the students of the threat, to the end when Dylan and Eric throw propane grenades and shoot at some students. These images, especially the one where we can see Eric Harris with his shotgun, are particularly famous and very rare, one of the reason of the Columbine massacre impact were those footage that are haunting us since. I found this section very interesting because it's always more easy to understand and to feel sorrow and anger when you are dirdy, when you see the monsters you are less frightened by them. It's also important to point out that a lot of speculation has been made on the internet on the so called security camera surveillance tapes from the library, which don't really exist. Videos has circulated on Youtube after the tragedy, where we can see two shooters in a library on surveillance tapes. It appears that those tapes were from the film Zero Days released in 2001 which follows the course of two school shooters with homemade videos.

2)

Mass shoutings that occurs since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in December 2012

Cover of Time Magazine, released in May 1999

Security camera surveillance tapes of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris entering the cafeteria 

on April 20, 1999

Pictures of deathly victims of Columbine's shootings

3) Bowling for Columbine, directed and written by Michael Moore, released in 2002
For me, this documentary deals very well with the issue of school shootings and more generally with the issue of guns in the United States. As always, taking humor and boldness as weapons, Michael Moore successfully shows the contradictions and flows of the american society. In this film, he tries to understand why shootings occurs more often in the United States than in others country. With a lot of testimony, interviews and exclusive footage, Michael Moore investigates on this american problem, guns. And for him, it is very clear that one of the guilty is of course the very powerful NRA (National Rifles Association) supported by many Americans and especially the well known actor of Ben-Hur or Planet of the Apes, Charlton Heston. This confrontation leads us to a very strong scene where Michael Moore leave the picture of a little girl killed by a gun at Charlton Heston 'house because he is the speaker of the NRA. 

4) The main and most mentioned reason for the recurrence of school shootings in the USA is revenge against bullies or the will to hurt those who have hurt them. In the United States, school harassment is far more spread than in other countries like the very close Canada for example. The social categories in American schools are very strong, we have the popular kids and the lesser ones or also called Nerds. Availing to a free access to guns, kids which are been bullied are generally those who commit school shootings by frustration or simply by revenge. But why there are more school shootings in the United States than in Canada for example where guns are also very easy to get ? People and mostly American people, will answer this question by saying that this is because of they violent history or because of the kind of music (Rock'n'roll mainly) the shooters were listening. But as Michael Moore pointed out, the American history is less violent than German or French history and they have violent movies and Rock'n'roll too. So why exactly this happens more often in America ? For Michael Moore it is very clear that the completely free merchandising of guns, by respect of the fourth amendment they said, and the sort of gun-fascination around these isn't helping, but for him the government is to blame because by launching thousands of bombs on foreign countries, they don't really give a good example for the American youth. 

POST 14: Individual Documents on 'Spaces & Exchanges' Notion


To deal with the notion of Spaces and Exchanges, I'll start by giving a definition of both terms. First of all, a space is a geographical and symbolic area that all societies occupy and exchanges could be the interactions between men and different societies.

Virtual Spaces

In the first document I'm going to talk about the movie "Matrix" released in 1999 and directed by The Wachowski brothers. The film followsThomas A. Anderson, a young informatician known in the world of hacking under the pseudonym of Neo, one day he's contacted on his computer by people that he thinks are hackers. They make him discover that the world where he lives, is just a virtual world name the Matrix in which one the humans are keep under control and slaved by the machine. Morpheus, the captain of the ship Nebuchadnezzar, contact Neo because he thinks that he is the chosen one who can liberate the human from the power of the machined take control of the Matrix.
The movie has been praised by the critic and the public, introducing special effect never seen before like "bullet time" and other impressive action scene technics. It also introduce the cyberpunk science fiction genre. 

Real Spaces

"US-Mexico border has pipeline problem" by Koterda

I think that this cartoon represents very well the notion of spaces and exchanges because it represents in a humorist way the asymmetrical exchanges between United States and Mexico, between North and South. This cartoon is dated of October 2th 2011, when Canada and United States had open a pipeline that cross  their borders, which alouded a better circulation of gaz and oil between the two countries. But in this cartoon, the cartoonist insists on the fact that meanwhile trading is increasing in the North, in the South "a different sort of pipeline" is working, an illegal one. Indeed, the USA-Mexico border is permanently cross by a unofficial sort of pipeline, illegal guns from the United States in exchange to drugs from Mexico. However this pipeline is a sort of metaphor of the cartoonist who wants to emphasize the fact that the Southern border of the United States is a place of a great illegal trade that is completely ignore by the rest of opinion or the media. To put in a nutshell we can say that spaces and exchanges can be official and legal, like the pipeline at the canadian border, or unofficial and illegal, like the illegal exchanges at the mexican border.

POST 11: SPACES & EXCHANGES: ¿Qué? A cartoon by Nate Beeler (2007)

POST 11: SPACES & EXCHANGES: ¿Qué? A cartoon by Nate Beeler (2007)

 Nate Beeler is an american cartoonist, one of the most talented of his generation, he is the true descendant to a long line of american political cartoonist. His cartoons has been published in very prestigious newspapers like Time magazine, The New York Times or Newsweek but they also appeared many times in television  on CNN or Fox News. We are going to describe and interpret one of Beeler's cartoon that talks about the illegal immigration in the United States of America related to the notion of Spaces and Exchanges.

To begin with, we can see three characters on this cartoon that we can separate in two groups, on the left there are the reporters and on the right an immigrant apparently mexican, it appears directly that they belong to two different world. First on the left, we have the cameraman, his face is covered by his camera that he carries, on the camera there is the inscription TV News it indicates that they work for them. At the very right of the cameraman there is the reporter who wears a suit and a micro, that remind that he is the reporter, he seems very confident with his white teeth and he's hand in his pocket. He asks a question to the character on his right : "We're here live with the 300millionth american! How do you feel about this milestone, Sir?" to what the immigrant responds  "Qué"  which means what in spanish. In contrary with the cameraman and the reporter, the character on the right of the cartoon seems flithy and desoriented, he looks like  he has just arrived from a long trip, he has a bag full things on one hand and a mattress on the other hand, he also has barbed wire stuck to his leg. I think this black and white cartoon is represented the immigrant situation in United States and how the media talk about it, with his drawing skills Nate Beeler tries to inform the people.

First of all and as we saw before, this cartoon talks about the immigrant situation on the border between Mexico and the United States, here we can see the opposition between two worlds. On one hand, One very clean and arrogant of the media who are supposed to cover the subject of immigration but in spite of doing that they are compleasant and takes this  hard situation more too softly. But on the other hand, we have a dirty and confused mexican immigrant who doesn't really know what is going on, he has been throw a lot of things to get in america but he is welcome by media. The Mexico- United States border is the most frequently crossed international boundary in the world. What's funny and paradoxical in this cartoon is that the reporter says that he is live with a "300millionth american" who are in fact a mexican immigrant freshly arrived, Beeler is saying that an american can be this mexican who don't even speak english. In the United States, the hispanic community is so important that they created a new language named "Spanglish" which shows the importance of immigrants in America.

We can relate this cartoon to the notion of "Spaces and exchanges" on the fact that he talks about the illegal migrants situation, and the problems that this creates so we can relate that to the "exchanges" part and for the other one we can say that this cartoon is a very good representation of the breakdown between North and South, rich and poor world.

Post 10: Tattoos & Gangs

Why do you think more and more people wear tattoos (regardless of whether they belong to gangs or not)?

People have always weared tattoos, even in the ancient Egypt people were getting tattooed for different reasons. But it's true that in the western world the art of tattoos was not very fashionable and was regarding as a foreign custom. This situation as changed during the XXth century and tattoos are omnipresent in our today society. It can be explain by the fact that popular figure (like musicians, sportsman, actors, etc...) began to wear them, and little by little people, who always want to imitate their idol, became to find tattoos "cool" and he became the fashion movement that we know today. 

David Beckham, Football player showing his tattoos

Why do young people join gangs? 

For me the main reason of why young people join gangs is that it's now become a pop culture movement. Nowadays is associated with hip-hop, that in the nineties was very active in the fight against gang, at that time street violence was a reality for rappers and music was a way to express their distress. Now hip-hop as evolved and musicians are far from the gangs or from this violence, and what was their reality became a commercial brand for their music. They now praise ganglife, guns, violence and drugs. They're spreading this vicious message in young people minds, who now think that gangs and violence are "cool" and because of that they are more attracted by them and more easily corrupted. Young people always want to look like their favorite musicians, and if this one is a "gangsta" they still want to be like him regardless of the terrible things a real gangster do.

The rap band Rich Gang, symbol of this new rappers who praise the gang lifestyle

What link can you see between both topics and the notion of power?

Those two topics illustrates very well the notion of seats and forms of power by their attraction which may be intended or not. 

On one hand we have celebrities who indisputably exercise a peer pressure on their fan who try to look like them and their fashion which is often things like tattoos, but on the other hand we have gang members  who see tattoos as a way to represented their   membership and they loyalty to the gang, so the power of the first is not wanted but the second is. 

That brings us to the second topic, gangs. Gangs have always been here and they've always exercise a counter-power, but nowadays they have became very powerful and most important, they have become popular and young people, victims of the fashion movements created around the gangster lifestyle, are more willing to join them.

POST 9: The Draw of 'Dead Town' - A Newsweek article (February 16, 2009) + GANGLAND Video

Go there for a full version of the Newsweek article given out in class.

Questions:

1) Who is Gabriel Hinojos ?

Gabriel Hinijos is a former members of the mexican gang "Florencia 13 or F13 (one of the largest in Los Angeles)". He leaves the gang life behind and he "became a kind of poster child" because of that. His street name was "Spider" and he got many tatoos each one representing his appartenance to a gang, especially the F13 "written across his neck in huge block letters and a large black spider" in reference to his street name.

2) What is "Ya 'Stuvo" ? Explain the symbolic meaning of the name ?

Ya 'Stuvo is a tattoo removal center where Gabriel Hinojos and other redempted gang members goes to remove all their tattoo refering to their former gang life. "Ya 'Stuvo" is a spanish slang word that mean "Tha's enough, I'm done with that". This name is very symbolic, first because he is in spanish and second because when he says that people who go there are done with their gang life and by removing their tattoos they want a new life.

3)"black teardrops" (line 4) Explain the meaning of this phrase n the context of the article ?

Gang members like Gabriel Hinojos often have a black teardrop tattoo or several just bellow their eyes. Each teardrops represent a person killed in jail. Gabriel got his black teardrop at Folsom State Prison. In the context of the article, the "black teardrop" is one example of the gang tattoos that Gabriel needs to take off to live a normal life.

4) The phrase "This is his 45th visit to Ya'Stuvo" tells us two things: First, it means that Gabriel Hinojos came a lot at Ya'Stuvo (45 visit is a lot for sure) so he pulls himself out of the gang a long time ago. But it also tells us that he was deeply involve in the gang life, more you have tattoo, more you have done things in this kind of gang.

5) Getting out of a gang is very hard like the article says: "a gang banger can never leave a really brutal gang like Mara Salvatrucha 13.", But escaping the pull of gang life is extremely difficult". Gabriel Hinojos left behind his gang life and for this is "became a kind of poster child".

6) It is not always possible, because even Gabriel Hinojos who is seen as a hero in the article, like the perfect example that leaving behind his gang life is possible. Even him who has met Laura Bush at the White House, "A few months later, he was back to jail". So leaving a gang is very tough and actually they not sure that this is really possible.

7) I think it is feasible if you really suffer to get out of it. For example, Gabriel Hinojos who has done terrible things and who still has tattoos to testify of this gang life. The fact that he decided to remove those tattoos is more symbolic than effective but it means a lot, it's a sort of redemption, it can be seen as a small detail in the leaving gang process but it's very important because without those tattoos Gabriel Hinojos can reintroduce the society that before saw him as a gangster.

8) "Extremely difficult" means that to get out of a gang you need to have the strong will to do it. When you leave a gang their is an enormous pressure on your shoulders because you still have a sort of attirance to your former gang life, one mistake and like Gabriel you can fall again into the criminal routine. That's why Gabriel Hinojos is seen as a hero in his neighborhood and that he is celebrated in the White House.

9) For my point of view, the last three lines of this Newsweek article are very pessimistic on the gang situation and on the question "Can you really get out of a gang ?".It begins with great news for Gabriel Hinojos, he's became a kid hero, he is celebrated at the White House for all he has done and he is drinking wine with Misses Bush. But the final article end up with the phrase, that tells us that a few months after the White House party he was back in jail.After all the achievement and the pain hundered to get out of F13, Gabriel Hinojos has failed to do so.

10) The photograph illustrates very well  the theme of this article. On it we can see a man (most certainly Gabriel Hinojos) who is in pain because he has his tattoos remove by a laser. We can also see that he has a lot of them so with this and his hispanico type he is most certainly a former gangster. So this photograph is a very good picture of the tattoo removal process.

Post 4 : Pop Art myths and the "Myths and Heroes" notion

Retroactive I (1963) by Robert Rauschenberg

It is known that a hero is a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal. Can this definition be apply for a contemporary figure? There is a sort of taboo around this notion of hero and his use that can be controversial. A fictional hero, can be a universal hero (like Superman), a character who match exactly with the definition given and who is recognize by everyone as a hero. But for a real person it's much harder because when you are a politician for example you can take measures that seems heroic to your supporters but awful to your opponents. There will is always be a man in the world to tell you that you are wrong even if you are right and fictional character do not have this problem. Nevertheless Pop art disregarding of this problem decided to represent a lot of popular figure of their times (which mean 1950' and 60').  Using those new popular culture heroes Pop art denounce once again the mass-medias who mystified those heroes by their discontinuous flows of images.

The collage Retroactive I was made by Robert Rauschenberg in 1963, two weeks before the assassination of the President John Fitzgerald Kennedy the 22th of November in Dallas. Rauschenberg was one of the Pop art precursor, even though he was never really affiliate to the movement, he influenced  it a lot for sure. Rauschenberg's fascination with popular imagery and his philosophy of "anything goes aesthetic" was certainly is biggest contribution to Pop art, which would mimic the look of popular culture as opposed to Rauschenberg's more subjective renderings. His work is sometimes called Neo-dada in reference to the 1920's movement that like him was completely free of any artistic rules. Rauschenberg used images of current events gathered from magazines and newspapers for his 1963 collage Retroactive I. A large press photograph of John F. Kennedy speaking at a televised news conference was the source for this screen print on canvas. He juxtaposed the image of Kennedy with another photo silkscreen of a parachuting astronaut. The overlapping, and seemingly disparate composition, creates a colorful visual commentary on a media-satured culture struggling to come to grips with the television era.

Pop Art has been, like surrealism in his time, a new step in art history, he revealed new form of artistic technics like collage. But most important their constant critics on mass-media reminded to everybody that art is essentially a way of expression and not just a way to make money.  Thanks to Pop Art, I think we are more aware of the consumer society that surround us, they succeed to recreate an art of contestation, very good representation of their times that we can qualified of revolutionary in many domains and not just Art. Finally, I think they successfully introduced a certain modern mythology with the help of Hollywood, or "myths-making machine", that provide them typical modern myths such as James Dean, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, and many other figure of great charisma that we can't no longer find nowadays.