Response to Triumph of the Will

Watching this was a very interesting experience.  I valued it for the sake of getting a better understanding of history, and I could really appreciate the quality of directing and camera work.  Yet on the other hand it is Nazi propaganda.  Professor Marshall told us to watch Hitler’s face as he gave his last speech so we could see a moment of hardly contained self-aggrandizement and contentedness with his position of power flash across his countenance.  This was the one moment that truly gave me chills.  The whole film was eerie and unsettling given the context, disgusting even, but only that one smug look on Hitler’s face was what moved me to anger and fear.  This alone made me feel guilty for liking the rest of the movie technically and in terms of fabrication and achieving its goal.  I decided I should not hate the film, the film is inanimate and does not possess any intention or emotion, it was simply a tool.  Instead I feel I should direct my anger and disgust toward the people who commissioned it and used it as a sort of social weapon to go on to do horrible things.

Reshad Kulenovic

I enjoyed this guest speaker very much.  Reshad had a very nice voice and some intelligent things to say, he was easy to listen to.  I learned a lot from him; he had some good practical pointers that I have yet to hear anywhere else, like to always have three projects ready, how to be prepared for a pitch, and he gave us an idea of the differences between American and European markets.  I appreciated his sound advice and his friendly, earnest delivery thereof.  I also really enjoyed seeing the clips of his documentary, they were all well shot and I liked hearing about his process from start to finish.

Jesus Camp

I have always been wary of extreme religion, blind religion, and this documentary reaffirmed that fear.  But what really made watching this difficult was a conflict of beliefs.  This film’s contents were unsettling given the blatantly dangerous agenda of the Evangelical Church, so that instills in me distaste and fear and a desire for this brainwashing to stop.  Yet I believe each parent has the right to raise their own children in accordance with their beliefs and values.  So what should be done about this situation, how should I feel?  The things we saw in the film were dramatic, but was it really child abuse? (I know there was that one pastor who was a pedophile but I’m not sure he reflected the values of the entire congregation with those actions.) Maybe one could make a case for emotional trauma but that would be a long debate.  This film was very well made and it got its points across very well while also managing to raise some moral and ethical questions.