http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/
Ongoing Self-Study Programme
Part 1
Each week our lessons will begin with a short presentation from one of the students.
This presentation will last only a few minutes and will tell the group about a documentary that you have chosen and watched from the above website.
The presentation should include...
What it was called.
What it was about.
Where it was from / who made it.
Your reactions to it.
How reliable you think it is.
Whether you think it is biased.
and...
Questions that it raises in your mind.
You have to type what you are going to say and present it to the class.
You also have to copy and paste this text into a comment to this post.
Simples.
Enjoy.
Zazen
ReplyDeleteJapanese people live their whole life following the principles of Zazen; It is the philosophy of realism. In 1592, a school was built for students who were interested in practising zazen and growing in its principles. Currently there are over 1700 students attending the school.
Zazen applies to every aspect of the Japanese culture as they believe it is by following its laws that you can achieve success in all your endeavours. In addition, the religion practiced in Japan - budhism actually revolves around Zazen, however the zazen master say you don’t have to be religious to practice zazen.
From my point of view, zazen is a pretty reliable philosophy and it seems to work for the Japanese people however some people or religion might argue that it is biased for example Christianity states that as long as you have the bible you have all the guidance you’ll ever need in life and as a result christians would disagree with zazen.
Victoria Arogundade
The Coka-Cola Case
ReplyDeleteAbout the Documentary
The documentary was filmed by Germán Gutérrez and Carmen Garcia.
Follows the foot steps of Daniel Kovalik and Terry Collingsworth and an activist for the Stop Killer-Coke! campaign, Ray Rogers
It was filmed in 2006 and was co-produced by the national film board of Canada.
What is it about?
The Coca-Cola Case is about a series of law suits that have been filed against the Coca-Cola company for over 20 years. They have been accused of funding kidnappings, assassinations and the torture of Coca-Cola workers. Since 2002 470 union workers have died.
The documentary mainly follows the steps of Daniel Kovalik who is a human rights activist as he takes on Coca-Cola in order to see that the union workers get a fair trial.
My reaction
At first I was quite shocked by some of the allegations that were made almost thinking to my self that “no that can’t be right, why would a corporation like Coke do that?” but as the documentary went on there just seemed to be so much evidence of Cokes corruption in other countries.
How reliable is it?
Due to the amount of evidence that was show I think I can say that I think that the documentary is very reliable. The fact that this hasn't just happened in just one country also makes it reliable because it shows that this is an occurrence all around the world.
How biased was it?
To begin with it seemed to be completely biased towards Coca-Cola but as it progressed I realised that it wasn’t biased it was just the fact that even though there was some solid evidence that Coca-Cola had funded for an assassination. They seemed to refuse to comment under any circumstances or when asked any questions.
Andrew Griffiths
Rize
ReplyDeleteDavid LaChapelle a debut director focuses on a new facet of street culture in Los Angeles. In 1992, after long simmering racial tensions in Los Angeles erupted in riots following the verdict in Rodney King trial. A man named Tommy Johnson sought to spread a new message in a new way to the city's African-Americans. Rize follows the birth of a clown dancing and krumping in South Central and records how many young people have adopted the dance as a style of competition, offering a safer and healthier alternative to the gang culture that has long dominated Los Angeles. Krumping, a wildly athletic style in which arms, legs and bodies fly with a frenzied abandon that moves at almost inhuman speeds. This is a way for the troubled youth to chanel their anger in their dance.
I was fascinated by the way they were moving showing all their strength and chanelling all of their anger as it was expressed on their faces. emotions were set loose from their minds as they could end in teary moments.
It is very reliable as some of the youths end up going back to school and having a disciplined nature from their dance as they are often occupied by practising their dance routines.
It is not biased as the krumping and clowning youths are the very people who were telling their life story in the documentary.
The Boy Who sees Without Eyes
ReplyDeleteThis Documentary was filmed in the Suburbs of Sacremento, California and it was all about Ben Underwood who was born with perfect health but at the age of 2 his mother, Aquanetta saw that he had a luminous light in his eyes like a cat if you shine a light at them.
After 3 days since this happened, Ben's pupils went completely white and so Aquanetta took him to the local hospital where the surgeon told Ben's mother that he had a rapidly growing malignant tumour (Retsina Blastomer) which is only found in 6 of a million children. When Ben was 7 at a summer camp, he discovered that he had a talent to get a mental image by clicking his tongue. He has been practising since then until the point where he can freely move without having to touch, use a walking stick or a guide dog for blind people.
Although the Echolocation technique that he taught himself was one of the World's first, it also made him deny the fact that he is blind and so he thought that using a walking stick would be a handicap for him while he just wants people to treat and know him as someone with no handicap.
My reaction to the documentary was that i found it to be very harsh because Ben lost his eyesight at the age of 2 and that because he can see without eyes that he doesnt want to be treated any differently.
I think that this was reliable as it was filmed on channel Five and that Ben was tested by a researcher and worked with Dan Kish who was also another blind person but could also use echolocation but not as well as Ben.
Questions that raised up in my mind:
1. How would he have found out what kind of frequency clicks he would have to make if any ordinary clicks wouldn't work?
2. How can he play on a Nintendo DS if the screen doesn't adjust to the game's surface?
2012: science or superstition
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't say where the documentary is from expect that its from 2012dvd.com but I assumed that it was filmed in America as the Maya they talk about throughout was American and so are all the accents.
The end date of the Long Count Calendar created by the Maya in Central America, this documentary states that there has been countless articles written about what this means, and that will we experience an apocalypse, will it be the end of the world?
The documentary starts by showing recent natural disasters like the Tsunami and other earthquakes and tornadoes, which it then goes on to say how many scientists believe that these are all signs of the end of the world being near.
The documentary states that the Maya people believed in world ages, and not linear life. It says that they believed in a beginning and that there would be an end, which they said was December 21st 2012.
Daniel Pinchbeck the author of a book based on 2012 says that people all around the world have coherent views of this being the transformation of the 4th world becoming the 5th.
The documentary states that the background of stars we see today behind the sun is changing 1 degree every 72 years. Mainstream astronomists have hypothesised that there is a cyclical wobble which is like a spinning top which has been spinning very fast when it begins to slow down. They believe that it will be 26000 years before from earth, the stars we see behind the sun will look exactly the same again from our view on planet earth.
Scientists believe that this is what is happening to our planet, and will be the cause of an apocalypse
I don't think that the documentary is 100% true, because there wasn't much scientific proof throughout they talk about ancient theories and what people believed in, and what scientists ‘think’ is going to happen but they don't actually know.
How do these people know what other people though in ancient times and what they believed in?
How far can you trust the documentary because it doesn't give much scientific evidence?
What it is about
ReplyDeleteThis documentary is about the paranormal activities which workers of the London Underground Tube system have encountered when they’ve been working late when the tube system is closed for the night. Apparently the tube station is haunted by so many spirits as many people were killed during construction of the tunnels, killed by accidents but also because of hundreds of graves being disturbed during the construction. The documentary shows who the ghosts are, why they are there and how they died.
Where it is from / who made it.
This documentary seems to be from the UK, as it is centred on the London Underground System, all the people who appeared on the documentary were from the UK. I did not find how had made the documentary.
Your reactions to it
I enjoyed the documentary and found it very interesting. I was shocked at some of the stories which were told by the workers. I thought the workers were brave and I admire when they were going through dark tunnels alone with only a torch for light.
How reliable is it
I think the workers stories are not very reliable as we don’t know if they are telling the truth, but the information shown by the programme back up their stories as they matched what the workers description of what the ghost looked like.
Whether you think it is biased
This documentary was not biased as they show two sides to seeing ghosts; the side of the sightings having no explanation and showing how the seeing a ghost could of just been a trick of the mind.
Two questions:
How true is it to say that there are actually ghost in the London Underground?
How far can we say that the workers are telling the truth about what they’ve seen?