This film is about watermelons.
I found "Art of Regret" to be extremely interesting because it approached China's history through the medium of photography. It explored the difficult idea and elements of a city rapidly changing and modernizing. Through the progress of photography and what it has become in China, it was interesting to as well watch the progress of this city in China and its inhabitants. It was fascinating to watch how the Chineese inhabitants of the city of Kunming saw photography and their viewpoints reguarding this evoloving medium. It was a question of whether photography was a medium for which older tradtions and way of lvinging are preserved permanently and as evidence, or if photography in this country was a viewpoint of progress, trasnformation, and in a sense fantasy. Judith McDougall shows how photography in this city can be easily manipulated. Old people can become young again, and the plain and even less attractive can become beautiful.
After the Cultural Revolution in China, many pesonal photographs were seized by the government. Many people did not have their "personal histories" in a sense. They are lacking the physical proof or evidence of a world that was their personal world existing before the revolution. Because of this, the average person would think that a photograph in it's physical and original form is priceless and should not be tampered with. However you see quite the opposite in this movie. For example the translator goes to a photography store in which they re-store old photographs. She restors one of her aunt that has creases in it. It then become a whole new photograph, retouched and refinsihed. This further complicates the notion of a photography in it's pureset sense. You are combinng new age techonology with an old traditional photograph.
As well what was an interesting and complex issue in the movie was when they went to the photography exhibit and interviwed the photographer. He had shot the city years and years ago. He had black and white photos which were probably developed by himself in a dark room. It shows the city as smaller and quiet. However he shoots the city again years later, and all you see is buildings upon buildings. You see the small little market on the corner turned into a massive Supermarket. This part showed as well, that not only did the cty change, but the mode of photography as well. The pictures went from being black and white and probably manually developed to large color, which were probably taken on a digital camera.
Another opposing scene between traditional vs. modern was the photography studio in which family would go and get their portraits taken. What I found to be opposing was the use of the old wooden 4x5 camera. This is a very traditional camera used in which you must develop the film in a darkroom manually. However after this process this studio would use computer technology to re-touch the image, falsifying the reality.
Another powerful scene in this is when the old man tells Judith and her translator that he has preseved photographs from his grandfather. However they show up to find this man without photographs, but with a compelling story. His grandfather worked in a political realm, therefore the grandon never wanted to write a story about him based on the fact that he might get in trouble. But he did want his grandfather's memory and legacy to live on. So what else could he do? He told Judith and the camera about the life of his Grandfather. You could see how badly he wanted to preserved and embedd the history of his grandfather in some medium.
His photographs were gone, so there had to be another way to permanently preserve him. When Judith turned off the camera because the man started to cry, I thought as we have said in class, this was more powerful than leaving the camera on. It was acknowledging the pain of a man, but to a point where you had to realize it could not be represented through a camera. This was a very Susan Sontag approach. Recently I have read Regarding the Pain of Other, and Sontag believes that you can never convey a human's pain or suffering accurately through a photo. I guess Judith felt the same way, that you can not show the pain of a man crying without somehow exploiting him or doing it innacurrately.
"The Birthday" was fascinating in that it gave the viewers a look into a world of transexuals in Iran.
It revealed contradictions and bizarre ralities that this religion in Iran holds. Unlike sodomy and homosexuality, transsexuality is not mentioned in the Koran, and so is not prohibited. Therefore the transexuals in Iran do not have to worry about being executed. There is even a speicific law permitting sex change operations.
However this film was more about the complex notion of transexuals in Iran. It also was a film about the status of women in Iran. The mother of one of the transexuals did not necessarily have a problem with him being a transexual but the idea of giving up the freedom and rights of a man in Iran to become a woman. In another part, a brother of Afshin, was almost relieved because he explains that his sister is becoming a man, meaning he will have more rights and the brother will not have to worry as much about if he were a woman. Ashfin aslo at one point explains how unapphy he was as a woman. The stares and as well the liberties not expierienced as a woman.
This movie was powerful in so many scenes. There was one scene, where one of the transexuals Saye, feels so alone and abused in the world she lives, that she asks if she is even living. At one point someone says that Iran is a paradise for Transexuals, however it is hard to fully believe that. If such a paradise why do people still name call and why are parents still so against it? The way i see it being a paradise is the sensitivity and caring the doctors treat the transexuals. From my understanding the sex change operations were government or state paid. However this was the only real way i saw Iran to be a paradise for transexuals.
