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Example research essay topic: Going On Instinct Primatology In Film - 2,762 words

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Going on Instinct: Gender ing Primatology in Film Melinda Kanner dwells on popular construction of primatology by the example of the films Instinct (1999) and Gorillas in the Mist (1988). The author is concerned with the question of how cultural preoccupations and tensions are revealed in [these] creations of essentially new versions of professions (Kanner n. p. ) as the practices of medicine, scholarship, and law have been drastically changed and transformed in film and television. The scientists, for example, have suffered considerably as they were usually represented in films as absent-minded and slightly lunatic, and, in more hostile iterations as mad, dangerous, and fundamentally evil (Kanner n. p. ). The common image of an absent-minded scientist is a well-worn figure in many comedies and dramas.

At the same time, Melinda Kanner explores the way female scientists are represented in the films, and claims that they are quite retrogressive in popular media as they are more rare in films and popular culture overall (Kanner n. p. ). The female scientists are usually understood as defective in terms of their failure to understand and inhabit their femaleness first and, second, in terms of their failure to adequately mobilize their femininity in the service of maternity (Kanner n. p. ). Melinda Kanner considers that relatively neglected in film has been primatology, the field practice of behavioral and zoological science dedicated to nonhuman primates, including prosimians, monkeys, and great apes. Melinda Kanner claims that the field of primatology became quite popular in recent decades due to sponsorship and photography of numerous primatology expeditions that were widely covered at the pages of National Geographic.

As a result of this interest, the field of primatology has been particularly endowed with numbers of active and productive female scientists, and it has been particularly afflicted with dangerous and limiting stereotypes of women primatologies as motivated by the primal drives of maternity rather than cerebral drives of science (Kanner n. p. ). Further she examines two films exploring the work of field primatologies, Instinct (1999) and Gorillas in the Mist (1988). In order to grasp the idea of representation of female scientist in these films in particular and in cinematography in general, we need to have some understanding of the overall context of the films. The films Gorillas in the Mist (a film adaptation of the story of Dian Fossey, starring Sigourney Weaver as Dian Fossey) and the Instinct (starring Sir Anthony Hopkins) describe primatologies in the painstaking and tedious process of habituating the animals to the presence of human beings (Kanner n. p. ).

The main idea here, according to Kanner, is that the female scientist assumes the expected human female social role even where no understanding or assumptions of human social behavior exist (Kanner n. p. ). Powell, on contrary, abandons his human family and makes no attempts to re-create a substitute family (Kanner n. p. ). In such a way, these two films allow the viewer to make the difference between the ways in which women and men can be scientists-primatologies. Melinda Kanner tries to answer two main questions.

She tries to understand to what extent the images of scientists are gendered in popular culture and claims that the forms of gender ing of primatology and primatologies in popular culture are directed largely by the primary and enduring images of women as mothers first and then as scientists. Finally, Melinda considers that the approach of male scientists to their subjects is understood more as paternalism. Probably, Melinda Kanner had to use more substantive and academic style in order to aspire to analytic article. Instead, it is written in an easy manner and reminds the article for general interest magazine, discussing particular films in broad context. The author doesnt assume that the reader has a specialized knowledge about the particular subject and offers an easy-to-read light explanation of general representation of primatology and female scientists in popular culture. While the author tends to use many sources, there are comparatively few reviews of the films and the general coverage of the theme is extremely selective.

Nevertheless, the article is quite informative and will be a valuable addition to those who are interested in general science and communications. Abstract Film Palimpsests As the title runs, Michael Betancourt speaks about the three abstract films hand-painted by Rey Parlas. The author of the article takes the opportunity to deliver a completely new style of abstract films taking their form in the form of aerosol art, where each new writer adds and overlays their imagery and marks onto surfaces that have a history of past marks already there, giving both graffiti and his hand-painted films a clear basis in the palimpsest (Betancourt n. p. ) In such a way, the films depict the very process of their creation. Early works of Rey Parlas were a simple collection of experiment and didnt survive as their author was testing his approach to Creating abstract film imagery analogous to aerosol graffiti art (Betancourt n. p. ).

Michael Betancourt examines the first finished Parla's film, Sporadic Germination that announces itself as a graffiti film where the title itself appears letter-by-letter as spray painted letters in the immediately recognizable cursive alphabet of graffiti (Betancourt n. p. ). Betancourt discusses Rey Parla's film and examines their existential motifs and visual style. Sporadic Germination includes faded images of actual Miami graffiti paintings; also known as pieces, at unidentified and abandoned construction sites already overlaid, obscured, and re-written by the physical marks left by past writers (Betancourt n. p. ). The article also includes an interesting narration on the circumstances that caused this abstract movie.

According to Betancourt, Rey Parlas recalled from a reading that Georges Miller has used a colorization method to bleach and entire film with sepia look and these experiments developed out of discarded footage which ended up being a part of Sporadic Germination (Betancourt n. p. ). Photographic images are included in the graphic patterns of paint marks and scratches that cover the sides of the film. The film provides a viewer with a visual presence and a tangible depth due to specially created difference in depth of the field.

Some points are softened by their location on the other side of the film scrip, whereas others are crisply in focus. Such methods are very impressive as they make the film to be completely different from the others. Parla's second film, The Revolution of Super 8 Universe: a self-portrait, presents a more self-aware, complex and historically conscious approach to the process. The author masterly uses different techniques such as creating layers on celluloid by producing a history of mixed media with paint, spit, scratching, lines; rubbing strips together, using water and cloth and [my] finger nails to scratch out part of existing images so that the picture would blend seamlessly into what [I] was painting (Betancourt n. p. ). The third film, Rumba Abstract, is created in the same style.

The only difference is that is was created without a photographic substrate. Rey Parla's films seem to be the juxtaposition of abstraction and photography. The images in Sporadic Germination are used as linking parts between hand-painting and manipulation of the film strip itself and the historical layering and build-up of imagery and marks on abandoned, derelict buildings in the urban environment of Miami (Betancourt n. p. ), while the still pictures in The Revolution of Super 8 Universe: a self-portrait are closer to the pedagogic use of photography and serve to signify psychological aspects of their creator (Betancourt n. p. ). The literal destruction, the progression from photography to direct work, transformation of images and the palimpsest aspects of Rey Parla's films are described by Betancourt as a dramatization of Freud's allegory of the subconscious mind in the mystic writing-pad.

The films reflect biographical dimensions: the creation and maintenance of links between self and family presented in the form of films (Betancourt n. p. ). The article discusses photographic effects of the films with plenty of technical details. However, the wide circle of readers will be much better served by non-academic articles that give accessible and more fluent explanations by using non-academic and non-pretentious style.

God Grew Tired of Us The documentary film explores the story of three of Sudan's lost boys, John Bul Dau, Panther Bior, and Daniel Abul Pach. The author of the article calls the film as a film that can help the world change for the better. The film tries to bring in the thorough analysis of strategies for building a better world. Exploring the lives of John Bul Dau, Panther Bior, and Daniel Abul Pach, the film dwells on the basic concepts related to the safe future.

The documentary generally speaks about the civil war between the South and North in Sudan, where over two million people lost their lives. The boys had to flee their villages under threat of death. Those who managed to survive set out across the harsh terrain of Sudan to find a safe refugee. These boys, ranging in ages from three to thirteen finally became known as the Lost Boys of the Sudan. The documentary is enriched with psychological overtones, sometimes dark and gloomy, but generally shows the positive attitude to problem as it develops a meaning that allows the director of the film to exhibit his feelings. The viewer is invited to remember his own childhood, to compare and draw parallels with his own life.

Such visual technique makes the viewer to feel engaged in the documentary. It seems even that the director of the film creates a certain environment where the viewer can find out more than simple facts from the life of the lost boys of the Sudan. The viewer grasps the unspoken context, when the narrator tells something but, in fact, he doesnt tell anything except his reflections over the boys journey. Such narration increases the viewers concern in the documentary. The film is full with light and dark tones. Some lighter moments come as we are allowed to witness John, Panther and Daniels introduction to their new world.

Almost all the food is strange, everything in the apartment, including electricity, must be explained. But as they settle in, some things are familiar. The technique of narration in the documentary shows us situations that change the life of the lost boys of the Sudan as they find themselves completely exhausted and scared. As John Bul Dau, Panther Bior, and Daniel Abul Pach settle into their apartments in American cities, they encounter not only superficial differences in culture, but also isolation. The boys need to find the work not only to support themselves, but also to give the money back for their airplane tickets to the United States paid by the government. Their forced isolation and alienation from society is thought-provoking and forces us to think about the existence, aims, what is important and what is not.

The relations between the children and the environment remind us a wall. The boys, in order to survive, try to penetrate the wall with their desperate attempts. They realize that their chances to survive are merely approach to zero and gradually go through frustration, anger, and despair. Yet, the Sudan boys adapt to situation.

The documentary is, probably, supposed to be a metaphor for finding really important things in life as the author doesnt miss the opportunity to bring the viewers into a variety of psychological reflections: the boys feelings, their emotional experiences, doubts and uncertainties, the moments of desperate frustrations, isolation, hope and hopelessness, to mention a few. The documentary combines irony and seriousness in order to heighten and raise the intensity of the film and to focus attention on peculiar details. As the film runs, the children face not only problems of physical survival, but the psychological survival as well. The courage, dignity, dedication and faith make them stronger while teaching them how not to give up and not to loose hope till positive changes will come.

The author considers God Grew Tired of Us to be a profoundly moving, informative and inspiring movie and presents us an excellent film analysis ever appearing in TV/Film periodicals. The author uses short and bright words that are easy to understand. Probably, you will never find here new ideas or features in interpretation but you will be fascinated by unusual elegance and representations of eternal ideas that are common to people across the boundaries of time and place. Into Great Silence The film Into Great Silence is a documentary about the life in a Carthusian monastery, and, at the same time, it is much more than that. The director of the film, Philip Groning, lived in the monastery and shared the life of a monk in order to create the film.

He recorded 49 minutes each day as a meditation on silence and the richness of the present moment with very little speaking, no voice-over narration and music track. The film is described as exploration and experience of what time is and what time can do in cinema. Creating a space where time can be tangible. The Carthusian monastery was chosen because Philip Groning considered it to be the most iconic. The visual style of the film is a vivid example that images and plottings in documentaries are usually selected and combined in ways that manage attracting attention over sustaining narrative coherence.

Philip Groning transfers the classical way of creating documentaries into a different style and brings the life of monks closer to a viewer. The documentary powerfully depicts beauty of this life and invites the viewer to experience it. The viewer is invited to have a look at the cells that, though small, are graced with the beauty of old wood and stone. He can step into the places where a monk prays, eats, sleeps, washes his dishes, and fosters silence. The film lasts approximately three hours with only a few minutes of narration. According to Philip Groning, the silence was made intentionally and the main reason to almost entirely omit language was because language helps us to constantly form judgments, plans and goals, instead of experiencing the presence of things.

Although many people can draw parallel between Philip Groning's views and Zen Buddhism with its experiences of silence, time, awareness and presence but Philip Groning says that Western culture also has the potential to reflect on the meaning of life. The documentary is created in an impressive manner that is attractive for millions of people with different tastes and predilections. Easily recognizable Philip Groning's style doesnt demand any fantasy but exemplifies the brilliant talent to highlight the key points. He arranges the film shots in a peculiar manner as chess-men in an exciting game of chess. They appear and change each other when necessary, leaving the mixture of emotions and action. Such film shots show the viewer the interviews with fathers and monks.

These interviews consist of an individual staring straight at the camera. Such technique is quite interesting as it is strange to encounter someone on documentary who doesnt do something or speak. However, such silent interviews communicate a great deal as they create strong impression that the monks are individuals. Some do express a sense of grace or holiness in an interview, others embarrassment, mild suspicion, or amusement and position themselves as well balanced, content, and happy. The only interview with the words appears near the end of the documentary film, where a blind old monk reflects on his approaching death. He asks: Why fear death?

It is the end of our lives. For us it is a great joy. The Carthusian monks consider that in God there is no past, only the present prevails. The author of the article quotes Philip Groning's words that the viewer coming to the documentary much let go of the feeling of being a competent viewer.

All the knowledge about how cinema works will not help you. In the article the author doesnt offer us a serious meditation over the moments of absolute perception, happiness, silence, time, etc. Yet, he wisely examines the documentary and provides the reader with Philip Groning's explanations. The thoughts of the author are not constrained allowing him to express his emotions concerning the film freely, although a little rough sometimes. The use of language is quite similar to other writers and appears strong. The whole article is written in detailed and thorough language.

When you read it, you forget about everything, as the author worries about the style more than about anything and tells us the stories of the documentary and its creation.


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Research essay sample on Going On Instinct Primatology In Film

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