Film Humanizes Immigration
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Author Archives: salyersaa
My Streaming Habits
Before COVID-19 I consumed around an average of 4 hours of media daily. I normally watch a specific show on Netflix or Hulu or I watch Youtube videos from the Youtubers that I am subscribed to. If I don’t have a lot of time to watch like when I go home in between classes for lunch then I will watch Youtube because I can watch more than just one video. Then I watch Hulu or Netflix whenever I am done with homework, home from work, and need to relax. Whatever I watch is for the purpose of entertainment and to just relax while I watch it. Since COVID-19 hit my streaming time has increased tremendously, I still watch Youtube, Netflix, and Hulu, but now I watch shows or videos as I am doing my school work which can at times be distracting. I also have more free time to watch shows because I work for the College of Charleston as a peer tutor and as part of the front desk staff at the Center for Student learning, where I normally sit and wait for students who need help but I am not allowed to watch things, but now I still work but I work online so I can watch shows while I work.
The internet is an amazing thing during this time because even though we are not allowed to physically be together, we can still be together. During this time of quarantining my best friend and I watched one of the newest Netflix originals that everyone was raving about “Love is Blind,” we were able to watch it together through a browser extension called Netflix Party. Netflix Party allows the people that are watching it to watch it at the same exact time and there is a chat feature. I have also used Zoom to talk to my classes and my friends so that we can feel like we are together even when we are not.
Stuck Between Two Worlds
This film from the scene where Joy is watching her daughter play on the playground shows the struggle of being stuck between two worlds, the world of being a prostitute in Germany and the life that she used to have when she lived in Nigeria. Joy is currently on the outside of the fence because she is stuck in the world of being a prostitute in order to pay off her debt and earn money. However, there is this part of her that misses what she has had to give up in order to have a better life than she did in Nigeria, such as her daughter and not being able to return to Nigeria for the fear that she might be deported because she does not have a visa. This can be related as a common theme for immigrants because they are stuck with having to adapt and immigrate into a new country but there is a longing to maintain their identity from their country of origin. I think that Joy may not like the job as a prostitute however she understands that because of where she comes from this is something that she must do in order to have a better life, pay off her debt and help her family.
The Power of Music
The inclusion of the song, sung by the refugee humanizes the refugees. The song clarifies the reasons that the refugees had to leave their home countries. This song brings clarity to the fact that most refugees feel like there is no other option but then to leave their home countries, in the song it refers to them getting bombed. In the cases of most refugees even though they risk dying in the journey to this new land, they are also risking dying in their home country because of the political situations that their countries are going through. Typically when there are large amounts of refugees coming to a country such as the Syrian refugees in Germany, there are people that welcome the refugees with open arms. An example of this is in the videos that went viral of Germans standing in the airports and such as refugees arrived, they welcomed them into Germany. However, there are often people that are not welcoming of the refugees arriving into a new country. I believe that often this is because people assume that seeking asylum is a choice that is easy and that it is as simple as wanting a better life, and they forget about the fact that many of these people are persecuted. Songs like this one show the reality that many refugees face in their countries of origin and it explains the reason that they must seek asylum elsewhere.
Humans in Nature
The scenes that chose represent the theme of nature shown through the film “Encounters at the End of the World”. More specifically, I think the film really touches on how humans interact with nature and these scenes contribute to this theme. Herzog uses camera angles, lighting, and plots throughout the film to show us what is the right way that humans should interact with nature and what is the wrong way to interact with nature. In the first screenshot, the base that researchers live at. The scenes from the base seem gray and deary, I think this conveys that infiltrating nature is not something that we as humans should be doing. Other scenes in the film that are filmed at the base, the scenery all seem gray and drab. This is contrasted by the screenshot from the other scene at the very beginning of the film, where the researchers are looking at the ice in Antarctica, where the scene is vibrant and light. There are other moments where they are observing nature and there is a usage of color and light that contrasts the scenes from the base, such as when Herzog was interviewing the penguin researcher. This shows how humans should interact with nature, we as humans should observe and preserve nature, not try to infiltrate it or change it.
Yeter’s Identity
Language and Identity
My gif comes from the beginning of the family’s immigration in Germany when the mother is trying to buy milk and bread for the family but she can not because of the language barrier. Because the story is being told in German the mother speaks German when she is actually speaking Turkish and the store clerk speaks German but it sounds like jibberish just as it would to someone who does not speak the language. At the beginning of the film the family’s inability to speak this jibberish shows that they still strongly rooted in their Turkish identities. As the movie progresses we see that the children begin to speak this jibberish thus creating the idea that their identity is no longer just Turkish but being of Turkish and German identity.
Can’t escape being a Nazi
The meme translates to “The first cut is the deepest and hard to forget”. This meme is similar to the article “Collective Memory and Cultural Identity” by J. Assmann because it shows communicative memory. The Nazi was branded with the swastika by the Basterds and he goes back to tell Hitler of what had happened to him. This is an example of communicative memory because the story of how he was branded is being told. The memory of being branded by the Basterds, unless documented such as photograph or writing, will only live as long as the people, who were alive to experience it, are still living.
Promise of a New World
The scene that I chose is the opening scene from Casablanca. In the section of the opening scene that I chose the audience is shown the route in which the refugees take to get to Casablanca. Starting from France and finally ending in Casablanca. Then we learn that the refugees with money and status are able to use this in order to get Visas into Lisbon or the New World, and the clip goes onto to say that the other people just wait and wait in Casablanca. This particular scene gives the audience a perspective into the movement that the refugees take in order to escape the situation in their country. Because through the movement of the lines on the screen, we see that the refugees start in Paris then go to Marseille and then across the Mediterranean Sea into Africa. Meanwhile, there are images of the refugees leaving so that we can fully see the struggle that goes into leaving for a new country. Finally, once they arrive in Casablanca we learn that the ones with more power and money than the others are more likely to be able to leave to Lisbon or the New World before the other people who have to wait and wait in Casablanca. This scene shows the movement and the struggles that the refugees face when escaping to a new country.
Champagne and Caviar
The image that I chose is from the scene where Maria Tura goes to see Professor Siletsky for the second time. This scene is an example of Maria performing gender. When Maria walks into the room we can see that she is wearing a fancy dress, which is the same dress from the beginning of the movie that Maria wants to wear when she is acting in the play about a concentration camp, which is an indication that she is performing with Professor Siletsky. In this scene, it seems as though, Maria is allowing herself to be bribed into spying for the Nazis because of the promise of the finer things that the Nazis can provide, such as Caviar and Champagne. However, the audience can see that she is acting by the things that she says. Such as when she says that she is scared of Professor Siletsky and he says that she shouldn’t be. She proceeds to say, “Yes, I think you might have a boyish quality”. She is almost undermining his power over her with her words, but her tone makes it seems as though it can be taken as a compliment. The camera angles show both characters straight on which shows that Professor Siletsky is not more powerful than Maria.