ipl-logo

The Devil's Miner Film Analysis

715 Words3 Pages

The Devil’s Miner is heartbreaking and heavy direct cinema documentary that can leave the viewer feeling sympathy and pity. But, if approached with the right mindset, the film can also leave the viewer with a message of human strength in the face of adversity. The film presents many themes to call people to action, such as social injustice, and the problems with child labor, but the main theme that resonates throughout the film is that strength can be found even in the darkest of places. The directors of The Devil’s Miner employ a filming style that allows the people of Potosi to have the loudest voice possible. This form of Direct Cinema documentary is highly effective and contributes to the theme of strength from within. There is no narration, interjections from film crew or directors. Since the viewer gets a direct view into Potosi citizens’ …show more content…

They can also see the strength of Basilio and his family. The filmmakers offer haunting images rather than analysis and facts, and never sentimentalize the protagonist and his issues. Because of this approach to filmmaking, Basilio can be more easily viewed as a hardworking individual who is trying to find a better life for himself and his family rather than an object of sympathy. The viewers, though affected by the haunting images of a 14 year old boy laboring in dangerous settings, are in awe of his diligence, and want to do something to make a difference. This is a far more effective strategy to truly make a difference than simply presenting Basilio and the people of Potosi as a pity story. The interviews that take place only consist of words from the people of Potosi. In this way, the people of Potosi tell the story of their own lives, rather than a director looking from the outside and recounting the story of these people’s lives. We experience firsthand the effects of child labor, of children taking on

Show More
Related
1288 Words | 6 Pages

Bad Day at Black Rock Kathryn Abbott October 29 2015 DRAMA 3030 The unexpected arrival of a stranger to a small, Midwestern town creates a feeling of scepticism and suspicion, and through this the explicit meaning is revealed: Fear of the unknown and the moral and physical deterioration of a town left to its own devices. The film exemplifies these concepts through the use of mise-en-scène, and vivid cinematographic elements. The blood red coloured train stands out against a muted background.

Read More
589 Words | 3 Pages

The documentary film “The Harvest/La Cosecha” is based on migrant agricultural child labor. In some countries, children work 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. One of those countries is the United States of America. Every year there are more than 400,000 American children who are torn away from, their friends, schools and homes to pick the food we all eat. The film has three main characters being Victor who is a 16-year- old boy, and two girls who are Zulema (age 12) and Perla (age 14).Out of those 400,000, three of them are Victor, Zulema, and Perla.

Read More
565 Words | 3 Pages

Instead of stating something as basic as “Child labor is bad, and must be stopped,” Kelley takes the reader on a journey across America, and shows them the effects of child labor. Kelley does this by utilizing rhetorical strategies and their affect on how people interpret

Read More
678 Words | 3 Pages

Numerous screenwriters and directors have often dealt in their films with the theme of borders, whether literal and officially recognised, like military ranks or state frontiers, or abstract and metaphorical, like those of morality, justice, race, and gender, along with several others. As a consequence, as John Gibbs points out, one could assemble these movies, especially those taking place on the confines between Mexico and United States, under the label of ‘border films’ (2002: 27); thus contextualising them in a very specific tradition, which includes pictures such as Touch of Evil (Orson Welles 1958) or The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones 2005). Accordingly, another notable movie belonging to the ‘border film tradition’ is Lone Star: an acclaimed 1996 hybrid of western and mystery film conventions, directed and written by independent filmmaker John Sayles. The picture recounts the story of a murder investigation, which leads the main character, Sheriff Sam

Read More
999 Words | 4 Pages

The Bronze Screen introduced both positive and negative portrayals of Latinas and Latinos in film. While there are plenty of positive Latino roles in films, Latinos and Latinas should be included in more positive roles because the negative roles Latinos have in films cause negative stereotypes. Positive and negative representations of Latinos in films has always fluctuated throughout history, however the more negative ones seem to always overpower the good ones. The film, “The Bronze Screen”, gave many examples of the negative roles Latinos played in films throughout film history. Early films included Latino actors, however they did not always have a lead role or even a positive one.

Read More
1374 Words | 6 Pages

“Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time” (Grace Abbott). The issue of child labor has been around for centuries. Its standing in our world has been irrevocably stained in our history and unfortunately, our present. Many great minds have assessed this horrific issue and its effect on our homes, societies, and ultimately, our world.

Read More
819 Words | 4 Pages

The film also lacks diversity since it only focusses on suffering of white farmers thereby neglecting stories of indigenous communities or other marginalised communities which may have played a major role in the Agricultural history of the place. The limitation of lengthy presentation is also seen in this film where some viewers may find the pacing and length of the film too slow especially in the absence of traditional narrative structure. It also becomes a limitation to those viewers who prefer faster pacing stories and films.

Read More
405 Words | 2 Pages

In the wildly popular Mexican film, Los olvidados (1950), Spanish director Luis Buñuel exposes the harsh realities of life in Mexico during the 1950’s. Luis Buñuel’s work on Los olvidados portrays a societal loss for all hope due to crime and violence as an infinitely vicious cycle, coupled with addressing the lack of reform for dilapidated living conditions throughout Mexico. In Los olvidados, Buñuel follows Pedro (Alfonso Mejía) a neglected bastard, and El Jaibo (Roberto Cobo) the leader of a gang of homeless children loitering in vacant lots. For Pedro, and the rest of the cast, a series of unfortunate outcomes have been strung together though common ignorance and a lack of self-control. Luis Buñuel’s use of focal length, editing, and dialogue

Read More
700 Words | 3 Pages

In the work, “A Worn Path, “Welty has developed a short story that uses characterization, symbolism, imagery, and conflict in a hero’s journey. Phoenix says “Thorn bushes and barbed-wire fences, log bridges and hills are major barriers for her.” (Welty, Edora 2/5) As Phoenix pursues this heroic challenge she acknowledges the temptation and fear built in her crossing a deep forest in the health condition she is found in. Welty gives the character the willingness having an ambition to conquer her journey. Upon many other Phoenix Jackson was well aware of what she was approaching making her build fear.

Read More
586 Words | 3 Pages

In addition, Singer also uses a plethora of different models such as: advocacy, testimonial, and visual anthropology. The combination of these modes and models make Dark Days a unique film in the social issue documentary space. Undoubtedly, the most unique part of Dark Days is its poetic use of imagery, lending itself nicely to the visual anthropology model. Moreover, Singer combines interviews with shots of the surrounding environment that give weight to the words being spoken.

Read More
1204 Words | 5 Pages

Today technology is an integral part of lives, the digitized age has incorporated itself into nearly every aspect of our culture. This even includes the methods by which we persuade defined specifically as rhetoric. I will discuss three examples of digital rhetoric, each example will be representative of a distinct form of digital media. I will then explain the manner in which the respective examples use the appeals of persuasion. I will follow up by describing how the various appeals are presented to persuade the target audience.

Read More
1214 Words | 5 Pages

The film Bicycle Thieves (1949) directed by Vittorio De Sica, is an Italian Neo-Realistic film set in post-war Italy. The film follows Antonio Ricci and his son Bruno on a quest to retrieve his stolen bike in an attempt to remove himself and his family from the cycle of poverty. Bicycle Thieves (1949) discusses themes of struggle and desperation causing one to sacrifice their morality and become the evil they initially fought. De Sica expresses such themes to the viewer through the culture of poverty and the continuous pain that poverty is capable of inflicting. De Sica also employs simplistic narrative, dramatic sound, and mise-en-scene that highlights the depressing nature of poverty.

Read More
718 Words | 3 Pages

"The Grave of the Fireflies" is a historic piece of anime set in World War II. This is one of the best dramas I have seen. The animations are one of the best ways to describe the series of events the protagonist go though. I don 't think there was the possibility of the same story having the same impact as a live action film. Setsuko and Seita are brother and sister living in wartime Japan.

Read More
776 Words | 4 Pages

One Missed Call by the French director Eric Valette was one of the most known films in the early 2000’s. Mostly known for the incredible thrill it gave audiences, but not a lot of people are aware that this 2008 film was a remake of a 2003 Japanese film One Missed Call by Takashi Miike. This is mostly because the original was Japanese and the remake is an American film, but if you took the two films and put them right beside each other and not taking the actors in consideration they are almost exactly the same. So why did Eric Valette remake the film?

Read More
506 Words | 3 Pages

In the process, they expose themselves to particles that can lead to lung-related illnesses, and risk getting beaten or exploited financially.” (“Is Your Cell Phone Powered by Child Labor?”). III.Poverty in the Dominican Republic of Congo leads to child labor in mines A.Background information on the Dominican Republic of Congo’s resources. 1.The DRC has enough precious mining materials to make itself rich and ensure the wellbeing of its population. Despite all of their resources, the country is facing poverty.

Read More

More about The Devil's Miner Film Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document