Its movie week!

So it's movie week here at PrairieView, all of us have the choice of 6 movies to watch. My choices were Manufactured Landscapes, One Hour Photo and Born Into Brothels.

Manufactured Landscapes

First off, the photography in this film is phenomenal. I liked how the videographer showed how  the photographer, Edward Burtynsky, lined up some of his shots and waited until everything seemed to be in perfect place in the frame before he took the shot. I was however disappointed that they didn't show more of Burtynsky's photographic process. The visual content while showing the industry's the workers and their environment was slightly dull. It seemed like they could have shot the workers in a more interesting way to keep you intrigued while hearing about how they live and work. 

One Hour Photo

This movie was quite interesting. The content itself is pretty crazy, but the way in which it was filmed really added to the entire feel of the movie. The lighting especially helped, the white balance is off in a good portion of the movie and how bright and white the grocery store and photo lab are compared to the outside world, which is dark and grimy. It really helps you to see the characters point of view of how he believes the world is.

Born Into Brothels

This movie was flat out amazing. It was inspiring how these children with nothing to look forward to in their futures can find something like photography and completely change how they think. Looking at their photographs and how they see the world, it really gives you such a perspective on how much worse our lives could be. We are truly blessed, we have roofs over our heads, food in out kitchens and we don't have people selling themselves on the corner of every street. The way in which this movie was shot definitely added to the whole feel of the movie. Low angles and not too many scenes with bright colours or bright skies. Contrary to some of the photography by these children. Lots of smiles and pictures of happy people, but then you look at their surroundings. These kids have learnt how to make the best of crappy situations and (some) came out thriving. Going to school and getting out of the brothels is all that they had and Zana Briski helped them achieve this. All in all this movie was inspiring and beautiful. I recommend everyone reading this who has not yet seen it to stop and watch it right now.

- Hayley F