4:20pm: Life-Altering Experience
It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.
~Graham, Crash (2004)
Monday, July 10th, was a life-changing point of my life, directly altering my views of society and the world. I watched two films that made me think about my place and responsibility to others.
First, I watched Crash, a movie that speaks with brutal honesty of the duality and universal mentality of racism and stereotypes in America. It deservedly won the Oscar for Best Picture, upsetting the favored Brokeback Mountain, and for Best Screenplay. Few films have succeeded with what Crash accomplished perfectly. It focuses on several main characters (played by many amazing actors/actresses), flawlessly displaying their connections to each other and creating a suspense that prompts the viewer to analyze the action in depth. The script and cinematography were amazingly done, allowing the movie to flow and resemble the message. The soundtrack is probably one of my favorites, especially the song at the end, “In the Deep.”
However, the technicalities were not the best part of the piece, but additional benefits to the whole. It is an amazing film (not a feel good flick), but it is emotionally moving and eye-opening. I cried several times not because of usual sadness, but actual grief, overwhelming sympathy and the realization that the movie was completely accurate in its analysis of society. Starting and ending with a car accident, the movie shows the vicious cycle of racism in America, a land that was founded under the flag of tolerance. Each character in the movie plays a significant role and has his/her own stereotypical image of people of other races (African American, Caucasian, Arab, Asian, Mexican, Latino, etc.). These images and the sentiments that they create prompt every event in the film.
For example, the scene that begins the flashback in the film portrays the duality of racism perfectly. Two Black males are walking around a high-class White area talking about how they are constantly being type-cast as gangsters and thieves when a young White couple walks by. The woman pulls herself closer to her husband as they pass the Black men and avoid eye contact as they go to their car. The two men seem angry that they have been stereotyped, stating that in a White area, Black people are the ones who should be afraid. Suddenly, however, the two men ambush the White couple and steal their car at gun-point, therefore reinforcing the stereotype that had been placed upon them. This is a complicated scene that can be interpreted in many different ways, but it shows that the origin of racism is not an easy issue to explain.
The film is a tangled web of different instances like this one that reinforce, break, create, reassemble, and modify a person's views on racism as it plays out. I don't want to analyze the film because I think that each person should discover the meaning of the film for his/herself. I hate to say that the film does not leave you with one opinion or a resolution to the race issue, but I can promise that it will prompt you to think, discuss and discover your own. It is an unbelievable conversation-starter and radically changed my views on society as a whole. The points, comments and actions made by the characters are unforgettable and crave to be discussed.
If I could, I would make every person in the USA (or the World) watch this film in its entirety. Since I cannot, I will highly recommend it to anyone who wished to expand his/her horizons and challenge his/her beliefs. Some things I found particularly interesting about this film are listed below.
Tag line: “You think you know who you are. You have no idea.”
Plot Summary: Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters, a police detective with a drugged out mother and a thieving younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the white district attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist white veteran cop (caring for a sick father at home) who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a successful Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his shop, a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter who is afraid of bullets, and more.
Quotes: "They think we're Arab. When did Persian become Arab?"
"It's just black people demeaning other black people, using that word over and over. You ever hear white people callin' each other "honky" all the time? "Hey, honky, how's work?" "Not bad, cracker, we're diversifying!""
"Fuck you very much. Thanks for thinking of me."
"Anthony: Look around! You couldn't find a whiter, safer or better lit part of this city. But this white woman sees two black guys, who look like UCLA students, strolling down the sidewalk and her reaction is blind fear. I mean, look at us! Are we dressed like gang bangers? Do we look threatening? No. Fact, if anybody should be scared, it's us: the only two black faces surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people, patrolled by the trigger-happy LAPD. So, why aren't we scared?
Peter: Because we have guns?
Anthony: You could be right.”
“Mom, I can't talk right now, I'm having sex with a white woman.”
“Cameron: It's about time you realize what it's like to be black.
Christine: Oh, and you're talking about being black? The closest you ever came to being black, Cameron, was watching the Cosby Show.
Cameron: Well, at least I didn't watch it with the rest of the equestrian team.”
Only a couple hours after watching Crash, I watched the documentary Invisible Children. This is a documentary made by three college guys who went to Sudan in search of the truth about the civil wars and other conflicts. What they ended up finding was a story of children who cannot sleep in their homes for fear of being kidnapped and turned into brainwashed killing machines.
Following the Sudanese refugees into Northern Uganda, the guys happened upon several characters that directed their journey. One woman took them to a bus terminal that was filled with thousands of children sleeping in the damp and dark with almost no food or clothing. Through various interviews with the children, the guys found out that the children are from rural areas and come to the city every night to escape abduction by the LRA.
The LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) is an extremist rebel faction that sends messages through violence. Though the governments of Sudan and Uganda do not support the rebels, LRA leader Joseph Kony maintains followers through religious rituals and fear. Some higher-ranking commanders have separated from him to engage in peace talks, but many fighters who've grown up in the LRA are hesitant to lay down arms because they fear reprisals from the community, and are uncertain of life in mainstream society. "The Bush" is all they know. Civilian and government negotiators have worked hard to assure the rebels that they will be welcomed home.
The LRA is fighting what a lot of people would consider a civil war against a government that has committed atrocities against the Acholi, Teso, and Langi, which are all tribes that make up a majority of Northern Uganda. The confusion begins here because the LRA is committing atrocities against the same people they are claiming to be liberating. They even use force to make impressionable young children become soldiers for their own cause. These children have no voice, no lives, and no independence. The purpose of Invisible Children was to make the public aware of this atrocity, so that they will help out this cause.
After watching the documentary and listening to the children's stories, I had mixed emotions. I was despaired to know that there were children forced to live in fear while Americans live in luxury. I was angry that the plight of the children is being overlooked by the news and other media. I grieved with a young boy who had lost his older brother to the LRA and had been forced to suppress his emotions by fear for his own life. When he cried, I cried. When he said that his heart will continue beeping, I was inspired.
In the face of life-threatening adversity, these children amazingly remained spirited and praised God every chance that they got. Their hope has made me appreciate all that I have been given and made me want to give back. To begin, I am doing my part to spread awareness of this issue and that there are places you can go to help out too. The website www.invisiblechildren.com is dedicated to spreading this message and provides DVDs and awareness ideas for the public. You can also make donations to the site to help the children. The owners of the site allow the public to freely use any graphics or stories to spread awareness by not copyrighting the material.
I and my peers plan to start an awareness campaign in my hometown to help the Invisible Children. We plan to provide showings of the documentary, to get our school/church involved and to raise money to send to the organization. I strongly urge everyone to help spread the word by writing mass emails, blogs, anything to let others know. If you want, copy this information and send it to everyone on your friends/buddies/email list or send them a link to it. You can contact Invisible Children by visiting the above website or going to their myspace page at www.myspace.com/invisiblechildren. Thank you so much for your time and for speaking on behalf of children who do not have voices of their own.
Rachel
Current Mood: 
contemplative
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=88.8){kind=small}
calm
crazy
content
happy
tired
mellow