Geog/Film

Topics for M 11/11

Here are some topics for our discussion of The Florida Project on M. Feel free to suggest additional topics or start the conversation here.

• The use of color.
• Setting: how does the film show us that this place is centered on tourists and what that means for the people who actually live there?
• How the film makes the mundane beautiful.
• The use of props, costume and make-up to develop character.
• The use of editing to fragment m-e-s.
• What's up with the helicopters?

Leave No Trace on the margins

How do Will (Ben Foster) and Tom (Thomasin McKenzie) demonstrate the tension or fluidity between being marginalized by choice and marginalized because of how others identify you? How does this tension affect their relationship to each other?

Topics for M 11/4

Here are possible topics for our discussion of Leave No Trace on M. Feel free to make additional suggestions or to start the conversation here.

• Establishment of setting in the opening shots.
• A related issue is the use of light and color.
• Use of props to develop character.
• Action and performance, particularly in terms of how Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie use their faces and bodies to communicate their place in the world.
• Based on what we are shown in the first act of the film, what do you think we are supposed to think about how Will (Dad) and Tom live? How do you think these feelings are meant to change as the film progresses? Who did you identify with more, Dad or Tom? Why? Or is this a false choice? What did the filmmakers show you that persuaded you to feel this way?

Zodiac: On the Margins

How does this film show how some individuals and groups can be both centered and also marginalized socially and culturally? In particular, how do the law enforcement and media figures in the film demonstrate how wielding significant social power may or may not mean that someone is centered in other contexts? Is there a character or characters who are particularly shown to be caught in this tension?

On the other side of the story, how does the film show how marginalization (of people, of places) creates space for someone like "the Zodiac" to practice their violent compulsions and exercise power over others from those margins?

Goodfellas: On the Margins

How do you see the central characters in Goodfellas as being marginalized in ways that may be both similar to and different than the main characters in The Perez Family and Children of Men? How do these characters demonstrate the central idea that "marginality" may always be a question of perspective (how someone sees themself and their place in the world) and context (who you and where you are)? For example, is it possible for someone to be centered in the world of organized crime, but marginalized in "normal" society? Are there particular scenes from Goodfellas that demonstrate these kinds of differences?

Questions and topics for M 10/14

Here are points of discussion about Children of Men for M. Feel free to make additional suggestions or to start the conversation here.

• Uses of color and light.
• Use of multiple aspects of mise-en-scène to build the world of the film.
• The significance of animals, and, the attraction of animals to Theo.
• How the film shows different kinds of marginalization, e.g., marginalization from how a character is identified by others versus characters who are marginalized by choice, such as from their politics.

Children of Men: On The Margins

Which characters or places in Children of Men signified marginality or marginalization? Which characters particularly represented the complexities of marginalization as discussed in class on W and in the reading (go to Moodle)? How do the filmmakers use mise-en-scène to show who is centered and who is marginalized in he storyworld of the film?

Perez Family On the Margins

What did you think of the film as an example of a movie that shows what it means for people and places to be marginalized? How did the film show you the margins? Are there particular characters or visual devices that were especially effective for you on this theme?

Questions and topics for M 10/7

Here are possible topics for discussion about The Perez Family for M. Feel free to make additional suggestions or to start the conversation here:

• Showing marginalization through costume, and also character styling like with hair or make-up.
• Showing marginalization through setting.
• Action and performance as a way to show which characters have marginal identities and which do not.
• Visual symbolism, e.g., water and flowers.
• Uses of color.
• How the film shows what makes a “family.”

Twelve Monkeys ending

A number of students mentioned the end of Twelve Monkeys in the Post-Film Writing. How did the ending strike you? Did you find it hopeful? Unsettling? Ambiguous? What do you think it means? Now that you know the end, how do you think that will affect how you watch in the second screening?