Ending Scene Analysis - The Graduate (1967)

Having been released in the midst of counter-culture exuberance and the rebellious free love era of the 1960's, The Graduate is well known as a cultural American staple with themes well fitting for the decade it was made. With a young college graduate with his whole life ahead of him as our protagonist, we follow Benjamin Braddock as he goes through a series of crazy events all stemming from his desire to be different and rebel from the carefully cut out expectations of his over-the-top parents and other authority figures. This hidden desire for rebellion leads him through a rather clumsy sexual affair with Mrs. Robinson, a married older friend of his parents, before he eventually focuses his attention on Elaine, Mrs. Robinson's daughter. Though, Mrs. Robinson very strongly forbids Ben from seeing Elaine, in a fit of rebellion, he does so anyway. This eventually trickles down to the unfortunate circumstances that lead to Elaine finally finding out about Ben's affair with her mother and the eventual falling out of the Robinson family. Despite this, Ben continues to press for the controversial and problematic as he pursues Elaine and attempts to convince her into a rushed marriage. Ben finds out a little too late that the Robinsons have already arranged a marriage for Elaine with a young man with a suitable future and income. In a fit, Ben seeks out Elaine at the church where the marriage is happening, successfully crashes it, fights off the families of both Elaine and her groom with a cross and whisks away Elaine to a public bus, laughing all through out.

However, the very last shots of the film are no doubt, the absolute most important. Within the last couple of runs of the camera, we see the laughing couple sitting at the back of the bus slowly calm themselves, their smiles fading as they look around awkwardly and then to each other with a tension that seems too uncomfortable to be suited for a happy ending of a quirky comedy. The sad tune of Simon and Garfunkle's "The Sound of Silence" plays as they force themselves to smile once more, but fail, falling into a pair of sullen melancholy looks that avoid the camera's gaze with a sense of 'what have we done' and 'what now' forcing themselves into the minds of the audience without a single word of dialogue, It speaks volumes on the decisions made by the protagonist and his supposed new found love through out the film, on whether the paths they have chosen were truly what they wanted at the end of the day, or if they were all just impulsive instances of rebellion against the authority figures in their lives; both Ben's and Elaine's parents that were hardly ever truly thought or fleshed out. It's bizarre because an intelligent adult viewer would be fully aware of the bizarreness of Ben and Elaine's decision making, Ben's stubborness in persuing a girl that hardly wants anything to do with him, his self imposed need to marry her only after one date, Elaine's acceptance of Ben's marriage proposal despite his affair with her own mother; it all seems very rushed and backwards, yet it isn't until the last few seconds of the film that we become aware that it was all purposefully written to be that bizarre and clumsy (not just a fault of bad writing), because the protagonists do finally become self aware of it all with the solemn wordless looks they give to each other, a silent solidarity that clearly reads 'we screwed up, didn't we?'.

Extra Credit : Evaporating Boarders

On Monday evening, I swung by the MOMA and attended the screening for Evaporating Boarders. I sat in the darkness of the theatre, not exactly sure of what to expect, but as the film went on, I was honestly surprised as to what I was seeing, considering its subject on racial tensions half way across the world that is not unlike the racial divide that is going on within U.S. boarders today.

In the city of Cyprus, immigrants travel into its boarders with the hopes to escape war, violence and extreme poverty. According to a number of interviews shown in the film, even while in the city, these immigrants still find extreme difficulties getting by as jobs are terribly scarce and money is hard to come by. As a default, these immigrants are forced to rely on money funded by the government, which by what can be seen in their home life is hardly enough, but better than living out on the streets with nothing at all. However, there is a huge conflict in which the citizens of Cyprus have taken notice of the big wave of immigrants coming into the city and have thus created a huge outcry of defiance against the so called 'foreigners' and their government funded welfare. The film shows that a lot of the opinions of these conservative protesters are hugely based on ignorance and the spread of false information, but it doesn't appear to slow down the strength of the anti-immigrant movement.

It was shocking just how similar the opinions of the conservative groups of people in Cyprus mirrored the opinions of many Republicans and Tea Party members here in the U.S. who seem to be very against the immigration of peoples, particular from Latin America, claiming to have taken jobs away from 'struggling Americans who can't find jobs for themselves'. There is also a defiance against the welfare system, all hugely based on ignorance.

It's just surprising simply because while the racial tensions within the United States do stem largely from an overall racist history, xenophobia does not seem to be something that is apparent within the U.S. alone.  It is rather eye opening and it gives Americans a much broader view in racial politics across the globe.

Final Project: Short Film

The Calling from Samantha Bonnet on Vimeo.

DOC NYC: Enquiring Minds

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending DOC NYC, an annual documentary film festival hosted in three separate theaters in Manhattan. Coming across the SVA theatre, I came across the poster for Ric Burns' "Enquiring Minds: An Untold Story of the Man Behind National Enquirer".

It was probably mere coincidence that just a few days before that, I was talking to a friend while inside a local walgreens and spotted a copy of national enquirer on the magazine rack. I laughed, wondering if any one even bought the magazine anymore, knowing nothing more than the  fact that it had been hatefully called "false tabloid trash" by many. Considering that it is a well known long time staple of journalistic controversy, I figured that a documentary on the man behind the magazine would be interesting. I was right.

The documentary told the story of Generoso (Gene) Pope, Jr., an intelligent business savvy media mogul that came from not so humble beginnings, bred from birth to be a pioneer in the business of selling papers. His father, Generoso Pope, had come to the United States in the early 1900's as an Italian immigrant and while he had to claw his way up from proverty, going from working at construction sites to owning the largest sand and gravel company in the world. He'd bought an Italian newspaper that eventually became extremely successful, and once his children were born. He had the youngest, Gene, learn everything he knew from a young age, so that he'd be ready to take over the company by the time he reached 18.

Once his father died, however, Gene's resentful mother and older brothers had denied him any money from his father's estate and Gene was left to fend for himself and start from the ground up. Using possible mafia ties from connections through his late father, he bought the "New York Enquirer" newspaper with the idealistic dream for it to be the 'best selling paper' in the world. While, it sold rather poorly at first, radical changes to the contents of the paper itself over the years pushed by Gene himself, including shock stories, violence, gore, sexy spreads and then eventually celebrity gossip columns, had shot rocketed the paper's popularity by the 1950's and 60's. Then later changed to "The National Enquirer", it's staff was infamous for going to major and at most times, immoral extremes just to get a prize winning shot, in which they were usually successful. The film later goes into his later life, his work ethic and over all quirky character that had gained him all his riches and success until his death in 1988.

The film uses a lot of old video footage and pictures of Gene and his staff along with voice over narration. The footage is also interlaced with interviews of some key members of his staff and others who him well enough to speak in his behalf. According to the documentary, the headquarters for the National Enquirer had all of their archives destroyed during the anthrax scare of the early 2000's. A questionnaire had with the director and the son of Gene himself after the viewing answered the question of how he was able to get so much footage and newspapers if it was all destroyed, to which Burns laughed, simply stating 'ebay'.

In general, I think it was a very informative and entertaining film. Considering the lack of materials due to so much lost archival footage, it was very well put together and kept my attention through out. It's a film I would highly recommend.

Assignment # 2 - Audio Project

Assignment # 2 - Audio Project from Samantha Bonnet on Vimeo.

Assignment #1: Define Your Space

Always Watching from Samantha Bonnet on Vimeo.

Artist Statement

To be very frank, my every day interests, those seemingly unimportant thoughts that seem to whirlwind in my head at the convenient time of 2 AM on a Tuesday school night, seem to stratch across too many mediums and are much too much to count. Television, video games, film, animation, music (to name a few); I’ve come to realize much media I've come to consume on a daily basis, chraacters, story lines and morals I've come to obsess over, to derive inspiration from.

 I’ve often found myself, like many others, speaking non stop about an actor’s amazing performance in a television show, or the laughable writing in a major summer block buster. How wonderfully feminist a story's main heroine had turned out to be or how I can go on and on about the senseless white washing of an adapted work that was (quite clearly) meant to have a more Asian cast. (Avatar the Last Airbender, anyone?)  I realize that love to praise as much as I love to critique and gradually, it had dawned to me, that as silly as it might has sounded at the time, film and media in general, has become one of my biggest strongest passions.

At the time, however, I wasn’t sure what to do with that information as I felt absolutely devoid of talent and skill to attempt anything productive in the field. The only experience that would come close to it were the amateur music videos I used to create in Windows Movie Maker when I was still in high school. Though they were somewhat mediocre in quality (in my overly critical opinion), I held a high sense of pride in the work I did whilst creating it. I became entranced in the process of editing the animation footage over music, cutting and splicing frames, and blending it together in a way that made sense and seemed clever in my mind. Sure, my work didn't match up to any of the awe inspiring work I often found myself rewatching relentlessly, the clever syncing and editing effects on videos I saw on the web, but I tried my best to emulate it and I felt rather happy with my efforts.

Those videos were simply a side project, yes, but I never would have realized that I would seriously attempt dabbling in the world of video and film once more in a more professional sense until now.

I strive to create imaginitive and inspiring works, for those in the world who too often find themselves uninspired by the repetitive and mundane sources of entertainment we are forced to consume on a daily basis. I want to create a world of heros and heroines that represent groups of people in this world that do not get the proper representation they deserve; to paint and mold stories that a petite shy Dominican girl growing up in the shade of broken down apartment apartment buildings in Washington Heights, would one day draw strength and self confidence from.

Video editing, cinematic make up, story writing are the tools I've chosen to make these dreams a reality, the mediums of creation that I feel I have the most potential. I still have so much to learn, a proper more sophisticated grounding to create for myself, but I know that once I find my niche, I will create things of strength and beauty that even my quiet small 13 year old self would be proud of.