Tag Archives: Joy

She is made of money

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The last scene of Joy showed her selling bands of bills to people to throw on dancing women. The people shown dropping money on the dancing women are men and other well-dressed women who we can assume are Madam type since they hold power. This shows the cyclic nature of the livelihood Joy has to make for herself which we discussed on the voice thread. In the screencap, one of the ladies is lines up with the money in Joy’s hand symbolizing their connection. Money and the role that woman throwing money play in society trickle down money to the ones who dance or do sex work. These women and men literally dropping money on the dancers is a closer look to the broader scale of oppression. And Joy is there, trying to sell the money that is used to be thrown at women. She is forced to be a part of this economy because of patriarchal structures that exist in societies, not to mention globalism in general. Since the opprotunity for lucrative sex work exists in these other countries.

Power Imbalance and Camera in Joy

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In this scene from Joy, a power imbalance is depicted using the positioning of the camera which explicitly involves the viewer. To the audience, the camera is the lens with which they view the world created and presented before them. To that degree, the positioning of a camera on set can also be used to position the viewer inside the world itself and become immersed. By placing the camera at eye level, the film adds to an immersive effect and the viewer may feel as if they are actually behind the counter.

This positioning is done intentionally to compare Joy’s situation with the viewer’s own, demonstrating an imbalance of power which calls to attention the issues and themes of the movie while drawing in sympathy for the character from the viewer. As she sends what little money she has left to her family, it draws nearer to the camera and makes the audience feel as if they are taking it themselves, implicating them in a balance of power and involving themselves in the scene a little more personally.

I Thought He Had Cancer

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This was one of the most impactful scenes to me in the movie that truly shows how this system works. Not only are these women being used by the Madame and the whole system but these women are made to believe that they have to take on the burden of sending tons of money to their families.  Joy was made out to believe that she had to send tons of money for her Father’s cancer treatment but upon Madame’s return from Nigeria, she learns that her father is healthy and her brother has a new shiny car.  Joy is being used by her family so that they can live comfortably in Nigeria while she has to do all the work and be used in order to scrape by with all that she owes every week.  In Joy’s case if her family was in fact lying to her, she could of taken the man’s money to live with him and gotten out of this situation sooner.  This aspect plays into why it is so hard to break out of the system.  Joy is sending all of her extra money to her family, who claims they are in such need of it, when in reality they have luxurious things that Joy does not have herself, which causes her to not have money stored away for when she is finally free. This causes the women in her situation to be more attracted to becoming a madame themselves because it’s a business that they know and can make a lot of money doing.

 

Moment of Realization and Understanding

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This film did a good job of emphasizing; without glamorizing, the real life moment in everyone’s lives where one is faced head on with a reality that they cannot change or easily change without a lot of work that one necessarily does not want to do for a multitude of reasons. In this case the work was prostitution and extortion for a better life in the end far away from their homeland. The fact that they know what they are coming to Austria and other countries in Europe and choose this path because of how bad it is where they are originally from also magnifies this scenario. The film and the expressions on the actors face really did a good job capturing that emotion and moment of realization that in order to get out of this situation,  they must also accept it as reality for now and bear the weight of the struggle until the goal is reached. In this shot, the mirror and the reflection shows us; vaguely, the other side of the conversation and how serious her delivery is. This effect gives the viewer a more well rounded insight to the scene and the feelings the director is trying to convey.

Behind Open Bars

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This still from Joy shows a visceral scene of a woman trapped out in the public, unable to partake in the basic human right and experience of playing with your child. The longing to want that sense of normalcy is unimaginable at this moment. The iron bars trapping her on the outside of the children’s world show us that even in broad daylight, where all can see, we do not know the serious situations people can be entrapped in.

The camera has placed her in the very middle of the screen forcing us to bear witness to her sadness as a barrier separates not only her from the real world but also the viewer. From this screenshot, without context, we see simply a woman of color staring defeated at something we cannot see. This is very much what all of the other people in the scene also see. Just a woman. Both us and them truly have not experienced the hardships and humiliation that this person has faced.

As we see later in the film, she returns to her home. I think to some degree this might be the case of wanting some familiarity, even if it is for a temporary amount of time. At times it is comforting to be in a place in which you understand. You know the rules and how you can go back to Europe. All of this. This horrendous system all exists without the majority of people even knowing it exists. Many will never know. As cliche as it sounds, we simply need to realize that for every situation there is more than meets the eye. Implementing that into your life is harder than it sounds…

Greed is Green

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In the film Joy, money is a major theme. It’s the driving force of the decision to go to Europe and it’s the reason madame’s exist. The women in the film go to Europe to find jobs that pay well in order to send money back for their families, but they are extorted by the system set up that the madame’s run. The madame’s take part in this in order to make their own small fortune, some even though they were brought through the system itself and know the difficulties and pain these young women go through, but do it anyway to make good money. This scene in particular along with a few others in the film use close up shots of money and exchanges of money to reinforce this theme. The money is of such significance that there are no faces in frame and all the focus is on it.  The close up of the money gives it power in the shot, and the two exchanging the money are at its will, for Joy it is getting back to Europe, as for the other lady it is not explained. Another part of the film that helps reinforce the power of money in the film is when Joy earns her freedom from the madame, she has earned enough money to pay off her debt and now has free will again.

Family Burden

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While watching Joy this scene stuck with me more than most. The Madame just came back from Nigeria after Joy had been assaulted and found out that her Father was very sick. She brings news of how great her family is doing back in Nigeria because she’s rich. These women travel to other countries to work as prostitutes and live in a house with multiple women sleeping in each room. These women are being mentally twisted to think that they have to bear the load for their families back home. The Madame mentions that Joy’s brother has a brand new shiny car but Joy doesn’t have a car from what I could tell. Why must their families enjoy all of the rewards but share none of the burden. Women like Joy are indentured servants to their madames and the rest of the money they make they send back home to support their families. Scenes like this one really show that these women are conditioned to believe that this is normal by everyone around them. At one point in the movie Precious’ mom is yelling at her because she isn’t making enough money. That she needs to sleep with more random men because it’s easy. All so that they can live luxurious lives back in Nigeria.

Real Struggles

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The movie Joy is overall a large eye-opening experience for anyone, like me, who does not fully understand the world of sex trafficking. Of course, the majority of us have heard of sex trafficking but it is more common than not for individuals to not understand the scary and life-threatening world that it is.  For me, this movie changed my whole understanding and perspective of the safe trafficking industry. The moment that really spoke to me and made me realize what horror this industry is was the scene I show above. This particular scene shows that many of these women who “sign up” for this in fact really do not know what they are getting into when they agree to move to another country “for a better life”. Many people are so desperate to go to places like Europe to make more money to help out families they left behind in their homeland that they become such an easy target for sex traffickers to take advantage of. Through this scene, we are able to see the blindness that goes along with it because Precious is stating that this is not the job she thought she would be doing here. I think this movie serves as a good learning tool for people who don’t understand the full circumstances surrounding sex trafficking and can be used to educate many.

Attempted Understanding

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This scene is when Joy’s “boyfriend” at the time took her to see this women who is working with some sort of organization towards resolving the sex trade. Joy is expressing her concerns about not being allowed to stay in Germany if she where to give more information. She expresses how she is worried that they will be sent back to their home countries where they will be in a lot of danger for themselves, their families, their madame’s families, and the Juju Priest. It’s hard for these two Germans to understand the situation Joy is in and actually be able to help her.

During this scene I recognized the camera angles as trying to help tell the story. Joy is trying to explain what could potentially happen and is trying to find a way to get help without getting anyone hurt. The camera is held from behind or to the side of Joy when she is talking in order to accentuate that this is about her. The two Germans are seen trying to understand by being shown from an angle behind Joy like in the still above. They also do the same thing with Joy’s “boyfriend” as he is listening and trying to understand what a Juju Priest is.

I think this scene is all about trying to understand the culture in which Joy and this industry has come from. Later in the film when Joy’s “boyfriend” offers her money to come live with him and pay off her debt, he still doesn’t understand that it is not that easy and she has other people to worry about.

Freedom Means I’m Free Right?

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In this clip, Joy has paid her debt to her madame and is now free. She is given her passport symbolizing her freedom from the madame and will no longer be a prostitute. However, there is still a problem, Joy does not have a visa. Therefore, she cannot stay and work legally in Germany. This presents a problem because Joy needs to make money in order to take care of her and her daughter. However, one way to make money without having a visa is to become a madame. In this clip the madames at the party are encouraging Joy to become a madame. They paint being a madame as a source of income and independence, telling Joy that if she becomes a madame she will be able to make money and would not have to be subservient to a man who would spend her money. It is because of this that Joy entertains the idea of becoming a madame. She even goes to a place where madames can buy girls. This demonstrates that even when a woman is “free” from the cycle of prostitution and sex trafficking she is never truly free because the circumstances that she faces after leaving give her very few if any options to make a living other than continue selling herself or becoming the one who sells other girls and either way the cycle continues.