The Central Park 5

  The Central Park 5 focuses on 5 young men from New York who are coerced to concede to a gang rape and beating of a white woman. The central park five case has been an iconic case in African American history, and is often compared to the notorious Scottsboro Boys case.
  These five young men,who range from the ages of 14-17, were basically in the wrong place at the wrong time. This documentary truly shows the difference of maturity and immaturity.But not in the aspect that these young boys were childish, but that they were still children. They said just about anything they could to get out of their situations, so as the police feed the made up scenario to them, they put it in their witness statement, unaware that they were convicting themselves.
  The discrepancies is this case helps highlight how prevalent racism's role was in this situation. DNA evidence didn't link the rape of the woman to any of these five suspects. More importantly, none of their stories linked to one another because each of them told a different story. According to the time line of each of their stories, it would have been impossible for them to have raped the woman in correlation to when she said she was in the park and when the rape happened.In addition, at three time of their arrest another man who was a little bit older than them had been arrested for serial sexual assault offenses but the police never even considered him being the one who raped the woman.
   What's striking to me about this case is that these young boy's freedom didn't get nor as much attention as their guilt. It wasn't until over a decade later that their cases were overturned, reasons due to that other man who had been arrested at the same time as them, confessing. Each of them, except the eldest had served their time.And to this day, the prosecuters of the case still maintains that the five has some relation to the case.Today, the central park five has a pending civil rights law suit against the New York police department. Due to our courts' ridiculous judicial system, their case still hasn't been heard. Even though the justice system says that these men got their freedom back, it's a lie. These men will forever have the stigma of the central park rape case over their head, and they will forever be known as the central park five.
   They will never get back their innocent years they spent in prison, they will never remember high school prom or graduation with their friends.Their childhood and life has forever been tainted and we all know that ain't freedom.

The Art of Documentary

A documentarian has to have a balance between reality and optimism. I guess a hope to see reality in a different light or to capture a different perspective. I don't think most of us are imaginative... that's a skill that some people have and some don't. But rather we rely on our surroundings and reality for our visions of art. I commend script writer because that's just one skill I don't have or fully have aquired yet. Documentarians also are more comfortable with mistakes and don't really have a problem with letting go of control because we want to get more unedited and raw footage. Ultimately we want our audience to connect or relate to our subjects. An actor a limit to relatability, because everyone is aware that they are doing just that, acting. We only can relate to what we are familiar with and we are familiar with the real tears, the conflict, the mispronounced words, and the drama.

Review of "Children of Heaven"

       I really enjoyed this movie, primarily because of the strong dynamic that the two main characters share. Rarely, are sister and brother relationships characterized in movies in such a positive way. Commonly, only spouse realtionships are depicted or highlighted in film. The status quo is seeing sisters and brothers argue and fight but to see them interact with one another in a form that is independent of their parents is unique. As a viewer, the subject media is quite admiring, partially because I don't have a relationship with my brother, but overall because  it is just a creative story. It's interesting to see how the role of a family plays out because of something as mundane as a pair of shoes.
    Movies that demonstrate the real struggles of families are always a plus in book. As a filmaker, personally, I enjoy realistic depictions of life instead of fantasies. What is raw is just what's more appealing in my eyes. The since of sacrafice and optimism in each character really sets the tone of the family and the film. The film does a good job of carrying that tone over to the audience. For instance, in the scene in which Ali is running the marathon, everyone is on the edge of their seat, hoping he wins the race just as he hopes he can get that pair of shoes for his sister.
    I did have a hard time understanding how the title of  the movie correlates to the story but that may be something that I just missed. I also did not like the end scene. Sometimes, I think what's predictable is what makes since. I think the story who have flowed better and made a lot more since if it had ended with their father giving them the new pair of shoes.

Logline for Rihanna Video

This video will be an interpretive narrative, detailing the journey of a high school girl who overcomes struggles with suicide through a note of encouragement that travels arounds her school.

Directors of Choice

Ernest R. Dickerson

Dikerson got his start in film at Howard University, where he majored in architecture and photography, filming operations for Howard's medical school. Later he went on to NYU, where he collaberated with Spike Lee to produce and directed several movies. He and Spike Lee's style are very similar, shining light on generally urban realistic situations. He's probably most known for his film, Juice, that stars rapper Tupac Shakur and Omar Epps.The film touches on the lives of 4 black youths growing up in harlem. It follows their day to day activities in addition to incidents of police brutality, financial struggles, and life decisions that ultimately causes their downfall. Dikerson's approach with juice really characterizes the Black Urban Culture, detailing realistic depictions of the lives of these young black men and their relation to one another.

Paul Haggis

Haggie attended Fanshawe College in Canada. He is definitely a director who's style is very distinguishable. He is probably most known for  Million Dollar Baby, the Next Three Days, and Crash. Throughout his movies, every character has some type of indirect realtion to one another. Specifically in Crash, every character interweave during these two days in LA. The subject media that he chose to approach also inspires me, even more so where he set the setting of the film. Crash is about the social and racial issues in LA,California. Setting this film in LA, a city who is all to familiar with those type of issues, is a very smart move.

I want to do a merge of two scenes from both Juice and Crash.Though the subject media isn't exactly the same I think the contrast of the two films will merge well together.

Into the Wild (Regular movie review)

Scrolling down LetMeWatchThis.com's drama genre movie list, I was slightly captivated by this movie's cover photo. Thus, I clicked on it and read the description, reluctant to watch, but I did. This movie is definitely one of those movies that you don't understand until you've watched half of it. Partly because it shifts in time and starts with a semi- frame story.  Or maybe because the plot isn't clear until you get to the end of the movie.
The main character, Chris, takes on a hidden persona in which he finds his true identity. Before doing so, you learn that he is very much interested in nature and peacefulness in the world. A world free of troubles and worries. He resents material items and is disappointed on the dependence of them in the world so he starts a new life fully dependent on the world's organic materials. Essentially, the whole movie is following his new life and shifts back and forward between his old one,his present one(in which he prepares for his voyage to Alaska), and his future one(in Alaska). The scenes of his old life explain and demonstrate his reasons of wanting to start a new life and not be found. Ultimately, Alex(his new name) burns all his records of identity, abandons his car, and family, and becomes unknown.
While interesting, this movie is bland. Most of the footage is similar, which makes it hard to distinguish then scenes and how I'm supposed to interpret it. Thus, when I got half way through the movie I was bored. At one point, I feel asleep. However, what I do admire is the raw scenes in the movie. The footage of the wildlife and snow seems true, just like you were there,experiencing it yourself. I think one has to be in touch with nature to truly enjoy this movie. In addition, to even stay focused during the movie.

Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap(Fill Festival Review)

This movie highlights Hip Hop as a movement, a culture that includes b girls, b boys, MCs, rappers etc. After watching this movie you definitely will understand that Hip Hop is not just rap but it's a revolution composed of girls, boys, women and men that portray their struggles and happy times through various forms of art.
Throughout the movie, director and retired rapper, Ice T, speaks to various popular hip hop artists.The dialogue and the style of the documentary is raw and unedited. Each artist explains their craft through and the process they go through to create masterpieces. The individual conversations gives you personal incite to the rapper's mind. Ice T also make the decision of including a rap from each of those individuals specifically about how they feel about hip hop. I appreciate the personal accounts and antidotes that contribute to the movie as a whole.
What also stood out to me about the documentary was its transitional effects. While transitioning to each artist; cityscape ,bird's eye view, footage is shown. While traveling over the cityscape, acapella rap is recited.  The spoken word without instrumental forces you to listen to the lyrics and interpret them in such the way that the artist intended.
Though a little lengthy, this is a really good view for audiences interested in the pop culture of hip hop. But just as the movie says, if you don't understand hip hop then you will not relate nor appreciate this movie.The diversity of the artists brings together their central messages about hip hop and what it takes to write a rap and what it takes to perfect its craft. I can see why it was chose to be in Sundance Film Festival.