Filmmaker

The first experience event that I went to here at Albright, was the filmmakers event that featured Jem Cohen. I expected it to be like the typical Hollywood films, but instead it was something completely different. The films were documentaries and they captured the images and realities of everyday life.



My favorite film was called One Bright Day,which involved a guy talking about his life in the US military. He talked about what he had experienced and then I could see what his life had become as he was showed sleeping in the streets in New York. I was able to see how real his situation was and it made me feel sad to see how some people actually have to live. I think these films are interesting because I am not used to watching real people and their lives on TV. Instead, I am used to watching all of the movies that always seem to have some sort of happy ending and aren't actually the realities of most people. But for some of these people in the film, I don't know if things will ever get better for them. When watching real life films, I never know what is going to happen next. This is what makes them so interesting to watch.



During this same film, I noticed all of the advertising in the background. I don't think that Jem meant to include this in his film, it just happened to be where the guy was located at. I couldn't help but notice the signs because I thought of media literacy class when we talked about advertising. Advertising plays a huge role in our lives. I think this is proved because the film is about everyday life and since advertising is included in that it can be true.



Overall, I found my first experience to be very interesting. Now I will not only think of films as just being Hollywood movies, but I will also think about other types such as documentaries. Usually when I go to the movies, I know what to expect. I at least know a little bit about the plot and could probably guess the ending. But when I viewed the documentary films, I didn't know what to expect because anything could have happened because it showed people's real life.