Companion Resource: Crossing Boundaries

Which Way Home (Rebecca Camissa, USA, 90 Mins)

Which Way Home, referenced in Thursday's lecture, was an Oscar Nominee for Best Documentary directed by Rebecca Camissa. The film follows several unaccompanied child migrants as they journey through Mexico en route to the U.S. on a freight train they call “ The Beast.”

On Sontag: Regarding the Pain of Others

Sontag's overall statement is that she rejects the idea, one posed by herself and others in the past, that the over saturation of images reduce their power. Instead she posits that it is not the amount of imagery, or the horror of those images but the lack of agency around how to respond.

Instead she argues for the ethics of looking - Asking Questions, such as

Who caused what the picture shows?
Who is responsible?
Was it inevitable?
Is it excusable?
Is there some state of affairs which we have accepted up to now that ought to be challenged?

She goes on to say that these questions and what they raise, do not in themselves provide courses of "action." Just as empathy or compassion in themselves do not result in knowing how to respond.

Therefore, I would ask,

What is the role of empathy as it pertains to the construction of the image?

-Holen Sabrina Kahn

In This World

In This World (Michael Winterbottom, UK, 2003, 88min)

On day four of the Institute, we focused on Crossing Boundaries: Migration/Immigration; Constructions of geography and difference; Identity and reflections on self;  Agency of subject and viewer; and Narratives of desire with Holen Sabrina Kahn.

Also included in these discussions were ideas around war, displacement, asylum, and refuge.

Bonus Material: Sugar & Zidane

Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck on Sugar

Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (Anna Lena Films, France, 2006, 90 min)

Companion Resource: Process & Labor

These micro-documentary films by Laura Kissel focus on ideas around labor, encounter and humanity in contemporary China; while primarily about process, they are useful for class discussions concerning themes of labor and livelihood.

-Window Cleaning
-Heddling
-Cotton Road

Bonus Material: Last Train Home

Last Train Home (Lixin Fan, Canada/ China, 85 min)

For more information on the film, check out these sites:

-Last Train Home Official Website
-AVClub
-NPR
-NYTimes

Still Life (Shania Haoren, China, 2006, 111min)

Also referenced in Wednesday's class were the films Still Life (Sanxia Haoren)







and





Up the Yangtze (Yung Chang, Canada, 2007, 93min)

Up the Yangtze (Yung Chang).You can find clips of these films here.

Manufactured Landscapes (NFB, Canada, 2006, 80min)

Additionally, we've added a clip of Manufactured Landscapes, a documentary on Edward Burtynsky's photography, also referenced in today's discussion.

Watch This: The Danger of a Single Story

Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story (19 min)