Zach Wahls, a 19-year-old University of Iowa student spoke about the strength of his family during a public forum on House Joint Resolution 6 in the Iowa House of Representatives. Wahls has two mothers, and came to oppose House Joint Resolution 6 which would end civil unions in Iowa.
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Friday, February 04, 2011
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Kristina Radford: The Return
Response to The Return
by Kristina Radford
ENG 282
This movie struck me as a dark tale of miscommunication and misunderstanding between parent and child. The father in this film reappears after twelve years of absence with no explanation of his adventures away from home. The youngest son Ivan is distraught over the father’s reappearance and seeks answers to what took his father away from their family for so long. Without an explanation Ivan finds it difficult to honor his father's commands and shows blatant disrespect for the man he was told to abide by. The older brother, Andre on the other hand is delighted to have his father back and wants to please the man by following his every order. Without proper explanation of his wants and actions the father has isolated Ivan and alienated him from wanting to be a good son. Ivan feels as if his father is a dangerous mystery man and uses caution when dealing with his antics. The father shows a need to be supportive of his children and you get the idea he wants to teach them everything he knows about being a man. However he has little patience or compassion for either of the boys and I feel his expectations for their behaviors were much too high. I feel a strong relation to Ivan’s actions toward his father. If placed in the same situation I would not want to be managed by this man I did not know anything about a man who I felt had abandoned me my entire life and could not feel the importance and necessity of an honest explanation of what he had been doing.
I felt a lot of symbolism being used in this movie especially in the use of the tower in the beginning and the end. It reminds me The Tower card used in a tarot deck. The Tower card depicts a large tower that has suddenly been struck by a powerful bolt of lightening. The lightening strike is so powerful it has knocked the towers two occupants out of its open windows and they are forever suspended in the air seemingly falling toward dangerous and deadly sharp rocks. When examining The Tower card one can only assume impending misfortune for the two people falling. If they reach the jagged rocks below their bodies will surely break from the brute force. This concept of The Tower tarot card mirrors the story of Ivan and Andre with the return of their father. Out of the blue their father strikes back into their lives with no warning and given no ideas as to why they are sent on a thrilling and dangerous voyage partly filled with excitement and dread. The boys are given little time to think about what this sudden change means for their lives before they are isolated with this unknown patriarchal force. The boys are uncertain of what their fishing trip with their father will hold much like the people falling from the tower are unable to know weather their fall will be the end of their lives or a crippling start to a new life. The tower seems to imply destruction and uncertainty as does the fathers attitude toward his children.
Perhaps his long absence from home has hardened the father's heart or maybe there is a cultural gap I do not understand about the way Russian people deal with their children. I do feel that much of the complications in this movie could have been avoided if the father could have shown a little bit of compassion. His lack of empathy facilitated his demise as he fell from the tower and the two boys are left with further ambivalent feelings toward the man they were expected to respect and adore with no solid explanation to his actions.
by Kristina Radford
ENG 282
This movie struck me as a dark tale of miscommunication and misunderstanding between parent and child. The father in this film reappears after twelve years of absence with no explanation of his adventures away from home. The youngest son Ivan is distraught over the father’s reappearance and seeks answers to what took his father away from their family for so long. Without an explanation Ivan finds it difficult to honor his father's commands and shows blatant disrespect for the man he was told to abide by. The older brother, Andre on the other hand is delighted to have his father back and wants to please the man by following his every order. Without proper explanation of his wants and actions the father has isolated Ivan and alienated him from wanting to be a good son. Ivan feels as if his father is a dangerous mystery man and uses caution when dealing with his antics. The father shows a need to be supportive of his children and you get the idea he wants to teach them everything he knows about being a man. However he has little patience or compassion for either of the boys and I feel his expectations for their behaviors were much too high. I feel a strong relation to Ivan’s actions toward his father. If placed in the same situation I would not want to be managed by this man I did not know anything about a man who I felt had abandoned me my entire life and could not feel the importance and necessity of an honest explanation of what he had been doing.
I felt a lot of symbolism being used in this movie especially in the use of the tower in the beginning and the end. It reminds me The Tower card used in a tarot deck. The Tower card depicts a large tower that has suddenly been struck by a powerful bolt of lightening. The lightening strike is so powerful it has knocked the towers two occupants out of its open windows and they are forever suspended in the air seemingly falling toward dangerous and deadly sharp rocks. When examining The Tower card one can only assume impending misfortune for the two people falling. If they reach the jagged rocks below their bodies will surely break from the brute force. This concept of The Tower tarot card mirrors the story of Ivan and Andre with the return of their father. Out of the blue their father strikes back into their lives with no warning and given no ideas as to why they are sent on a thrilling and dangerous voyage partly filled with excitement and dread. The boys are given little time to think about what this sudden change means for their lives before they are isolated with this unknown patriarchal force. The boys are uncertain of what their fishing trip with their father will hold much like the people falling from the tower are unable to know weather their fall will be the end of their lives or a crippling start to a new life. The tower seems to imply destruction and uncertainty as does the fathers attitude toward his children.
Perhaps his long absence from home has hardened the father's heart or maybe there is a cultural gap I do not understand about the way Russian people deal with their children. I do feel that much of the complications in this movie could have been avoided if the father could have shown a little bit of compassion. His lack of empathy facilitated his demise as he fell from the tower and the two boys are left with further ambivalent feelings toward the man they were expected to respect and adore with no solid explanation to his actions.
Thursday, November 04, 2010
Alex Sanders: Response to the The Return
'THE RETURN'
ENG 282 Response
Okay, this is honestly one of the best movies I've ever seen!
I'm not going to review the film from a filmmaker's point of view because I didn't watch it from a filmmaker's point of view and I ALWAYS, ALWAYS watch movies through a filmmaker's eyes!
The way the film looked was sort of low-budget but that didn't take anything away from the story nor the film itself! It just made it seem more impressive because it lookeded like a film that my friends and me could've made. Omigod - I haven't stopped thinking about it since I saw it. The ending of the film hurt to watch because I think I know what was in the box. I grew up never knowing my mother so the relationship between him and Ivan was sort of like mine and my father. The soundtrack of the film, which I think was only several instrumentals is absolutely captivating and at the end of the film, the music helped make the ending as superb as it was! It was odd that that THE FATHER never really showed love but some fathers are like that - they love their children but have a hard time showing it. Especially fathers to sons. But I could see the love in the father's eyes sometimes - like for instance, when IVAN told him he was nothing and he said you're wrong, son (I THINK WHATEVER WAS IN THE BOX had something to do with the father replying to this like he did).
I think also what was in the box was something that he wanted to SHARE with his sons - something that described me or was something that maybe his father gave him. Something that would help his sons figure him out since they didn't know him.
But all in all, man, such a great film, it made me want to BE a father for some reason and have sons and just
love them. I will buy this movie and watch it probably watch a month - it's like The Shawshank Redemption - a movie that I will watch over and over and share with others!
The theme of the film to me has to do with the universal tales of fathers and sons, meaning a lot of times in life with everyone, there is this sort of rebellion we have against our fathers. Either we don't want to be like them or we feel compelled to BECOME SOMETHING because they put high expectations on it. But with this one, I think it has to do with never getting a chance to say what you want to someone you love or need to say. But it's strange because some people believe that there never was a father so if that's the case, the theme of the movie is letting go of their father and moving on. If that's the case, it has to do with them going on this trip to become men and grow up and leave behind the need of a father.
ENG 282 Response
Okay, this is honestly one of the best movies I've ever seen!
I'm not going to review the film from a filmmaker's point of view because I didn't watch it from a filmmaker's point of view and I ALWAYS, ALWAYS watch movies through a filmmaker's eyes!
The way the film looked was sort of low-budget but that didn't take anything away from the story nor the film itself! It just made it seem more impressive because it lookeded like a film that my friends and me could've made. Omigod - I haven't stopped thinking about it since I saw it. The ending of the film hurt to watch because I think I know what was in the box. I grew up never knowing my mother so the relationship between him and Ivan was sort of like mine and my father. The soundtrack of the film, which I think was only several instrumentals is absolutely captivating and at the end of the film, the music helped make the ending as superb as it was! It was odd that that THE FATHER never really showed love but some fathers are like that - they love their children but have a hard time showing it. Especially fathers to sons. But I could see the love in the father's eyes sometimes - like for instance, when IVAN told him he was nothing and he said you're wrong, son (I THINK WHATEVER WAS IN THE BOX had something to do with the father replying to this like he did).
I think also what was in the box was something that he wanted to SHARE with his sons - something that described me or was something that maybe his father gave him. Something that would help his sons figure him out since they didn't know him.
But all in all, man, such a great film, it made me want to BE a father for some reason and have sons and just
love them. I will buy this movie and watch it probably watch a month - it's like The Shawshank Redemption - a movie that I will watch over and over and share with others!
The theme of the film to me has to do with the universal tales of fathers and sons, meaning a lot of times in life with everyone, there is this sort of rebellion we have against our fathers. Either we don't want to be like them or we feel compelled to BECOME SOMETHING because they put high expectations on it. But with this one, I think it has to do with never getting a chance to say what you want to someone you love or need to say. But it's strange because some people believe that there never was a father so if that's the case, the theme of the movie is letting go of their father and moving on. If that's the case, it has to do with them going on this trip to become men and grow up and leave behind the need of a father.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Caroline Koebel: Torture, maternity, and truth in Jasmila Zbanic’s Grbavica: Land of My Dreams
Torture, maternity, and truth in Jasmila Zbanic’s Grbavica: Land of My Dreams
by Caroline Koebel
Jump Cut
Set some ten years into the aftermath of Slobodan Milosevic’s onslaught in former Yugoslavia, Jasmila Zbanic’s Grbavica: Land of My Dreams (2005)[3] does not examine how Esma (Mirjana Karanovic), the narrative’s protagonist, coped with life in a prisoner of war camp for Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks).
It does not account for how she was able to sustain herself day after day of multiple gang rapes, to continue indefinitely, and lasting well into her pregnancy with the “bastard Chetnik”[5] daughter to whom she eventually gave birth. It does not detail Esma’s liberation from the camp. Rather, Grbavica follows Esma as mother of a now pubescent daughter as she confronts her struggle to exist in the present. The film proposes that for Esma to have the possibility of a future, she must speak the truth of her past in all its inexorable trauma. And in the process, the film hoes the battleground between ethics and truth.
Should a mother protect her child from knowledge of its identity as product of rape by the enemy? How does deceit once conceived take on a life of its own? Can internal conflict be represented so as to evoke sympathy while resisting sentimentality and sensationalism?
Jump Cut
by Caroline Koebel
Jump Cut
Set some ten years into the aftermath of Slobodan Milosevic’s onslaught in former Yugoslavia, Jasmila Zbanic’s Grbavica: Land of My Dreams (2005)[3] does not examine how Esma (Mirjana Karanovic), the narrative’s protagonist, coped with life in a prisoner of war camp for Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks).
“My belly grew. With her inside. Even then they came….In twos, threes, every day.”[4]
It does not account for how she was able to sustain herself day after day of multiple gang rapes, to continue indefinitely, and lasting well into her pregnancy with the “bastard Chetnik”[5] daughter to whom she eventually gave birth. It does not detail Esma’s liberation from the camp. Rather, Grbavica follows Esma as mother of a now pubescent daughter as she confronts her struggle to exist in the present. The film proposes that for Esma to have the possibility of a future, she must speak the truth of her past in all its inexorable trauma. And in the process, the film hoes the battleground between ethics and truth.
Should a mother protect her child from knowledge of its identity as product of rape by the enemy? How does deceit once conceived take on a life of its own? Can internal conflict be represented so as to evoke sympathy while resisting sentimentality and sensationalism?
Jump Cut
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