Additional information about Trailers
In the seminar with Dudley Andrew, a variety of representative foreign films were shown and analyzed, making them more familiar to me. Therefore, I have selected from some of the ones that we discussed in class and that I can also find on the internet for inclusion in this unit. Many of the comments that follow are from our class discussions. You are welcome to use any or all of these films or research your own. Only you can determine what you want your students to get out of the trailers you select. I will also look at the students in my targeted classes and possibly research films and posters from their countries for inclusion or ask them for suggestions. After each of these trailers is watched, the accompanying movie poster(s) will be shown. Foreign films give a sense of other styles and exposure to a range of ideas that often differ significantly from our own. The films are different and so are the graphics. I can not find trailers for some of the African films so I may show memorable film scenes instead.
Chinese Films
Included in the trailers that I want to show are two from China. The King of Masks is the touching story about a young girl who has been disguised as a boy so that she can be "adopted" by the King of Masks, an extraordinary performer/illusionist. He has no son to whom he can pass on his art. The poster for it is among my favorites. It captures the visual lushness, the heartening ending that bodes well for the empowerment of females in China, and the tone of the film. The other Chinese film is Not One Less and involves the struggles of an inexperienced 13 year old girl who has been hired as a substitute teacher in a rural village. The title refers to the bonus that she will receive if the teacher returns to "not one less" student in the class. It also refers to modern China's mission to not leave behind any citizen. We enjoy her journey as she becomes a better teacher and as she uses her resources and determination to hunt down an elementary student who has been forced to travel to a big city to find work.
Irish Films
Ireland is a society that still relies on the storytelling of old Irish tales. The oral memory helps keep their rich heritage alive. Both of the following films were influenced by British rule. The British tried to suppress their language and civilization. Included in both of the following films is a theme about the return to nature and roots.
Into the West is a story about travelers and a family that becomes dysfunctional with the death of the mother. The father abandoned the more organic living of the travelers for gritty city life. The boys go on a journey to save their mystical horse who is really leading them into the west, reuniting their family. The Secret of Roan Inish is a magical tale that also looks to the west (referencing the oppression by the British and the return to the more natural and untamed world of the west). This tale involves a mystical Selkie seal ancestor who gets captured when she sheds her skin, animals, a feral brother who lives on the island and the perseverance of his sister to be reunited with him. These two films and their posters are discussed more extensively elsewhere in this unit.
African Films
The film industry did not start in West Africa until the 1960s because the French did not allow them to make their own films before then. They are making approximately 50 films a year now and the filmmakers tend to be intellectuals who are making films for their own people.
The African films are quite different than films from other countries and they are made for different reasons. Kirikou and the Sorceress is a French animated traditional tale of origin whose posters successfully reflect the highly stylized designs, color, patterns and flavor of the film. The director's inspirations from the artist Rousseau and Egyptian art are reflected in the animation and posters. The Little Girl who Stole the Sun from Senegal is an allegory of Africa itself. Like the main character of the handicapped Sili, it implies that Africa is crippled but can take care of itself. It is a complicated tale that uses newspapers to reflect problems with control by the French government. Sili, the girl who can only sign her name as a sun symbol, succeeds as a scrappy seller of the Soliel (Sun) newspaper and emerges as a strong, dignified figure in the face of adversity.
Students should be alerted to look for the use of color in this film.
The complex Mali film Yeelen (The Light) will serve as an example of a radically different film that takes a lot of background knowledge to even begin to understand. The point of discussing this film is that it will raise the level of consciousness for my students who have been raised on uncomplicated Hollywood blockbusters. This traditional story of origin from around 1300 AD involves a spiritual and physical journey across Mali to the symbolic cliffs by the young hero who is being hunted by his evil father and uncle. It involves the importance of ancestral knowledge, families, secret societies and rites, and contains some extremely abstract elements. This story reaches back into the past for what has saved Africans. It symbolically can be projecting an eventual positive future for the enslaved Mali. The filmmaker purposefully used people who were not actors. Some of the visual images are poetically stunning.
Abouna, the Chad film that celebrates family, is also a journey film about two brothers who seek their father who has left them. It is full of gentle, subtle touches and surreal images. The filmmaker has carefully crafted exquisitely arranged scenes that could be paintings. Students will be forewarned to be aware of the use of color and composition. There is a story within a story and it deals with loss and growing up. It is also a fairy tale about the brothers being trapped in a Koranic school.
Keita, Heritage of the Griot, also uses the device of telling a story within a story via a griot, the oral storyteller who has had his craft handed down to him through the generations. The griot starts to teach the young boy about his heritage. The mother opposes this teaching and wants her son to concentrate on school. The griot tells part of Sundiata: an Epic Tale of Old Mali which deals with the origins of Mali. In that book the griot Mamadou Kouyate explains about griots, "...we are vessels of speech, we are the repositories which harbor secrets many centuries old... we are the memory of mankind; ..."15 Many of these West African films deal with keeping native traditions alive.
Japanese Films
The Family Game is a comedy satire that revolves around an underachieving son whose family hires a tutor for him so that he can gain admittance to a desirable high school. The discussion of this film will include the style, the use of geometry and lines, nature versus the industrial for a crowded island nation, the impact of a homogeneous population, and the jokes on the issue of personal space. Nobody Knows is a haunting fictional tale that was inspired by real events about the survival of the sweet children of a mother who has neglected and abandoned them.
Iranian Films
Iran has a rich and ancient artistic tradition that will I share with some examples of repeating patterns used in Persian tiles, rugs and textiles. As students watch the trailers, they can look for scenes containing artistic images and graphic designs. In general, Iranian films have a tremendous simplicity and are quite creative. Because of the culture, there is a lot of censorship so violence and sex are omitted. Women are veiled. Family life is portrayed similarly in some of these films. In Children of Heaven, The Apple, Where is the Friend's House? and The White Balloon, the families live in areas with high walls and small enclosed courtyards that look very similar and even clothes are washed in the same fashion. Children are expected to do homework first, study hard and obey their families. Life is very family-oriented.
The Color of Paradise is a touching tale that revolves around a blind boy who returns from a school for the blind into the unwelcome arms of his father. There are multiple beautiful scenes involving symbolic imagery with feathers, fog, sounds and lastly, hands when the boy is dead. The concepts of color and blindness can be explored.
Children of Heaven is a beautiful story about a brother and sister who have to share one pair of sneakers for school when the brother Ali looses Zahra's shoes. The brother feels that he can not tell the father who can not afford another pair. He enters a race so that he can win the third place prize of shoes but is stunned with disappointment when he wins first instead. This film explores the children's journey.
The Apple is a story of the dynamics of a family with a blind mother and elderly unemployed father. They keep their sheltered twin daughters locked in until a social worker demands freedom for them. A young girl wheedles money from her mother to buy a goldfish for the New Year in The White Balloon. The film follows her adventures with loosing and finally recovering the money.
The return of a notebook and friendship provide the plot for Where is the Friend's House? It also involves a journey/quest by the boy Ahmadpoor in the film. Underlying themes include a motif about handmade wooden doors being replaced by the metal doors (signifying change in Iran). The visual look and texture of the film are not surprising when one learns that the famed director, Abbas Kiarostami, was formerly an illustrator and graphic designer. The poster sums up the film quite well with a close-up photo of the charming son on the left with a large red question mark superimposed over a village scene on the right.
American Films
I will show trailers that will match the movie posters that I have collected. Some posters that I already have are Jaws, Corpse Bride, and Disney's re-release of Fantasia. Trailers of some of the films that are currently playing at the time that I present the unit will be shown. Included will be the newest Harry Potter film along with the previous five. All six trailers and the accompanying posters will be examined by the students to see if there is any change in tone as the series progresses through time and also through a change in directors. Representative examples of different genres will be shown.
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