Invisible City (2009) is a documentary directed by Hubert Davis that follows two teenage boys journey as their community in Toronto's Regent Park undergoes a housing revitalization project. Davis followed the lives of Mickey and Kendall for three years exploring how they are individually affected by structural changes within their neighborhood. The boys are African-Canadian and due to their ethnicity experienced racial discrimination and segregation (Davis, 2009). Regent Park was a community that consisted of a vast number of people that are lower income and living in poverty (Davis, 2009). The communities geographical location placed Mickey and Kendall at a greater risk of engaging in law-violating behaviors (Davis, 2009).
Hidden Figures is a film that tells the story of three African American women who played essential roles at NASA during the 1960s. Katherine, the main character, is a scientist at NASA working to do the math required to launch a rocket into space. She struggles because as an African American woman trying to get people to give her the respect she deserves. Many scenes show the hardships that she had to go through in order through a normal day. This essay will be exploring three main communication concepts found in the film:
On July 10th 1985 an alluring African-American woman by the name of Mary Jane McLeod was born . She was born in Mayesville South Carolina. Although she was the 15th out of 17 children her parents loved her very much. Her parent was formally slaves. All throughout her childhood she would help her mother at work.
The film Girl’s Trip has been applauded for being a celebration of blackness in the primarily white film industry. The majority of the cast and the writers for Girl’s Trip are people of color. The film was much more successful than its “white counterpart” Rough Night in box office revenue and reviews. However, most of the black characters in Girl’s Trip shift through various controlling images throughout the movie. The reason these stereotypes are less obvious than they are in some other films is because each characters portrays multiple stereotypes and different times throughout the film.
Have you ever imagined living through life without a steady job, no money, or no food? Both of the characters in these stories endured all of those things. Jurgis and James had many different experiences and many similar experiences throughout their lifetimes. Upton Sinclair wrote a book, The Jungle, describing a young, late teen’s man named Jurgis Rudkus and his family. His family and he moved to America in the early 1900’s looking for a better life.
Temple Grandin can be quoted saying this in respond to whether she wishes she was not autistic “If I could snap my fingers and be non-autistic, I would not. Autism is part of what I am.” The Australian film “The Black Balloon” directed and written by Elissa Down, effectively portrays a family struggling with marginalisation and discrimination in a suburban Australia context. As Down clearly suggests to the viewer that it is the result of the actions performed by disabled 17 year old Charlie Mollison (Luke Ford), who is diagnosed with autism and ADHD. In addition, she has successfully done this by utilizing his younger brother Thomas (Rhys Wakefield) as the focal point.
“One thing I’m very concerned about is that as African-Americans, as women, we do not feel that we have the power to change the world and society as a whole.” With her life and accomplishments, she proves that idea very, very wrong. (Mae C. Jemison Biography, 2015) Mae C. Jemison was the first female African-American to become an astronaut and go to space. On June 4, 1987 she was the first African-American women admitted into the astronaut training program.
Citizen Kane (1941) made significant contributions and cinematic advances on many fronts. It challenged traditional narratives as well as various technical elements of classic Hollywood cinema in its use of deep focus technique. Deep focus is a technique whereby everything has been incorporated in the frame as opposed to focusing only at the foreground. “Combination of lighting, type of camera lens, and composition, all designed to come up with the most desired focus, are the major focus of the cinematographer” (Cameron, 2008, p 218). This allows filmmakers to showcase several overlapping actions.
Through all the obstacles life gave Mary Jackson, she still stood out and achieved things that were only a fantasy for some colored women at the time. In the 1940’s Virginia was a segregated place, Black people were stereotyped, mistreated, and treated as if they were a whole different species of people, and to be a woman was even harder. Until recently women were still treated as if they were a rank under men and had very little expectation from the people around them. When WWII took place and all the men were off at war, women were needed to take the place of the men who had left in jobs no one would have imagined a woman could do. Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (LMAL) started recruiting women to take jobs as mathematicians.
The Thin Blue Line" is a 1988 documentary film directed by Errol Morris, which investigates the case of Randall Dale Adams, a man who was sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer in Dallas, Texas. The film presents evidence that suggests Adams was wrongfully convicted and that another man, David Harris, was actually responsible for the crime. The thesis of "The Thin Blue Line" is that the criminal justice system can make mistakes and that the power of the law can sometimes be abused by those who are supposed to uphold it. Morris argues that the investigation and trial of Adams were flawed and biased, and that Harris, who had a history of violence and had been stopped by the police on the night of the murder, was the real perpetrator.
Hidden Figures is an inordinate movie that gives us the lesson that everybody has the potential to do great things if they work hard towards those things. In this movie, an exceptional girl named Katherine is given the chance to go to an extraordinary school so that she can get the education that she needs to fulfill her dream and become an engineer at NASA. The movie showcases the struggles, hard-work, and discrimination that she has to go through while working at NASA. Although some examples of racism are more easily noticeable than others in the movie, all of them show that many Americans did not particularly approve of African-Americans in the mid-1900s.
Taraji P. Henson plays Johnson, Vaughn is played by Octavia Spencer and Jackson is portrayed by Janelle Monae. Vaughn would become the first African-American supervisor at NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Vaughn was a pioneer in computing at the agency. Jackson became NASA’s first Black female aerospace engineer. Johnson was even awarded a medal in 2016 by barack obama.
In Hidden Figures there were many examples of racism with colored bathrooms, coffee pots, the colored people couldn’t use the bikes, the only colored bathroom was in a different building, and many more examples. In this movie they didn’t just focus on African-Americans, but female African-Americans. One of the biggest things in the movie was when Al Harrison went to take down the colored bathroom sign. After he hit down the sign he said “Here at NASA we all pee the same color.” This was a huge symbol that everyone was equal and that everyone should be treated fairly.
In the film, the three African American females was not portrayed as someone who would be working at NASA because they were women. For instance, Katherine’s
Black women are treated less than because of their ascribed traits, their gender and race, and are often dehumanized and belittled throughout the movie. They are treated like slaves and are seen as easily disposable. There are several moments throughout the film that show the racial, gender, and class inequalities. These moments also show exploitation and opportunity hoarding. The Help also explains historical context of the inequality that occurred during that time period.
