Rowan Sullivan

351

Sepet – A Rom Com that Exposes Class and Race Dynamics in Malaysia

Sepet Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

If you like rom-coms you’ll love Sepet. But even if you don’t there is much more to this film then a cheesy romance. Sepet exposes the class and race dynamics of Malaysia of a society that evidently still hasn’t recovered from the effects of colonialism.

Why Watch Sepet?
  • It’s a chick flick with substance
  • You’ll learn a bit about the legacy of colonialism on Malaysia
  • Watch it here on YouTube
  • Learn about social and racial discrimination in Malaysia
The Breakdown

The romance between Jason and Orked starts after a chance encounter at Jason’s VHS stall on a busy Malay street. However, they are both from opposite ends of Malay society, Jason (or Ah-loong) is ethnically Chinese whilst Orked is ethnically Malay. As you’ll learn, this is a problem. Chinese-Malays are seen as inferior to ethnic Malays and therefore relationships between Malays and Chinese is taboo.

In case that isn’t enough to emulate Romeo and Juliet, Jason also has a much lower social standing than Orked. You might notice this from seeing each of their respective houses. Orked walks around in a big bedroom with big closets, walks up and down stairs to show that her house has two floors, and has a maid. In contrast, Jason’s house appears open to the elements with concrete floors. His family all crowd around a small table for dinner.

However, what does Jason do to help his chances of getting with Orked? He tells her his name is Jason, a ‘nice name from London.’By associating himself with Britain, he associates himself with the old rulers: British colonists. Orked doesn’t fall for this trick. She later brings up the issue of colonialism with her friend and references French colonists in Algeria. They instituted a belief that whites were superior and that the darker you were, the more inferior you were. It’s obvious that Malaysia has shared this colonial legacy the way the lighter skinned Malays treat the ‘slit-eyed’ Chinese.

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Conclusion

Sepet is a great example of a chick flick that has layers. Behind the cheesy romance is a country still dealing with the legacy of colonialism. Jason and Orked are two sweet teens trying to navigate the race and social boundaries of Malaysia.

Will they stay together? Watch it here on YouTube (although some sound is missing).

 

 

352

Free World Films: Films You Can Watch On YouTube

Free World Films

You have no excuses now. Here are a list of free world films  that you can watch on YouTube right now. Enjoy!

 

We’ve split these free world films by continent so you can target the countries that are missing from your personal film map or if you want to visit a country on film 🙂 We will keep updating this as we go along, please let me know if you’ve found more great world films on YouTube, or if any of the links below aren’t working by commenting in the comment box below or emailing me here.

Europe
Africa
North America
South America
353

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania – A Return From Exile

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Have you ever been displaced or exiled from your home? Or simply been away from home for more than a few months? Well you may sympathize with Jonas Mekas when watching this film. Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania is a walk in the shoes of a displaced person. It’s the incredibly intimate diary film of Jonas Mekas’ return to Lithuania to see his mother and family after 25 years in exile.

Here’s an example of three minutes from the film.

Why Watch Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania?
  • To see what makes a great diary film (films like a diary, often shot home video style)
  • Experience the life of a displaced person by seeing Mekas’ return from exile, shot mostly from a 1st person perspective
  • It’s one of the most intimate films you’ll see (you’ll be transported into Mekas’ life)
  • Because it was added to the U.S. National Film Registry because of it’s cultural, aesthetic, and historical significance
The Breakdown

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania is made up of three parts:

  1. Shots of Mekas and his brother in Brooklyn, New York from just after they were moved there from displacement camps in Germany
  2. Footage of their return to Lithuania after 25 years in exile
  3. Hamburg, the place they were both detained in Nazi German slave labour camps after fleeing Lithuania

The most time is spent on part 2, shooting their reunion with their mother and family after 25 years in exile. But because of the way the film is shot, it never really feels like they were home.

How the Style of the Film Emphasizes their Displacement

There are a few things you’ll notice straight away when watching Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania.

  1. There are a lot of cuts! The entire film is made up of short shots, so you never really have time to concentrate on one image.
  2. There’s no diegetic sound (ie. sound that comes directly from the film shown, apart from two singing scenes). All the sound comes from the melancholic piano soundtrack or from Mekas’ brother’s narration.
  3. As above, there’s also no dialogue. The whole film is narrated by Mekas’ brother.

When these three stylistic elements are combined in the film, it makes everything appear to be a memory from the past. Each short shot is like another memory of their former life in Lithuania.

If you’re not convinced, think of your childhood. Can you actually visualize a 3 minute long memory from your childhood with all the emotions you felt without relying on old VHS footage? If you can, you’re gifted. If not, your memory is probably composed of a load of snippets of things that made you laugh, smells, tastes, and people’s faces. This is exactly how Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania is composed, with short snippets of fresh fruit, family faces, and funny memories.

So even though the film is from the present, it looks like a distant memory that can never be relived. The style matches their inability to return home, after fleeing the country as Nazis and Soviets advanced in WW2.

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Conclusion

Because the film appears like a distant memory it’s pretty melancholic and nostalgic all the way through. The sounds of the piano and crackling film also don’t help to lift the mood.

Melancholy aside, it’s no surprise that this film was added to the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. It intimately depicts the experiences of a displaced person abroad and returning home. No other filmmaker allows the audience to get as close to the displaced person experience as Jonas Mekas. For this, and because it’s a beautifully made film, you should watch Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania.

354

Murder in Pacot (Haiti) – The Earthquake Reveals All

Murder in Pacot Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Do you want some drama? Well this film has plenty. In Murder in Pacot, Peck shines a light on all of the tensions that the earthquake revealed. You’ll hear fierce arguments from the start between Haitian’s and the NGOs, and between the middle and working classes. This is Haiti at it’s worst.

Why Watch Murder in Pacot?
  • It’s the fictional companion to Peck’s Fatal Assistance
  • There’s plenty of melodrama
  • It’s all shot in one household which becomes a microcosm for Haitian society (see La Soledad for a Venezuelan equivalent)
  • It’s a fierce attack on NGOs and Haitian society
The Breakdown

This film starts with dramatic music accompanying workers in white body suits carrying bodies pulled from the rubble. It’s 3 days since the 2010 Haiti earthquake struck and a middle-class couple are trying to get by after their house has been made almost inhabitable by officials. So they’re living in their former servants shed and need to let out their main house to try and make enough money to pay for repairs.

The person who starts renting their house is Alex, a young NGO worker from France. However, it is never clear what he does for the fictional ‘Beyond Aid’ NGO, as all he tells us is that ‘he helps’. Related imageThe only evidence of his work are of the photos he takes, featuring him with smiling kids reminiscent of your typical ‘gap-year’ pictures (see right). These pictures are his ‘trophies’. They symbolise his delusions that he is actually helping Haiti recover from the earthquake when he is really not helping at all.

Furthermore, Alex also has a Haitian girlfriend, Jennifer, who comes to live with him in the derelict house. She has escaped from the poor south of the country which has been devastated by the earthquake and is trying to use Alex as a way to get her to Europe.

Jennifer becomes a symbol of Haiti. Like many in Haiti, she lost her family and home in the earthquake and now she is temporarily enjoying the benefits of NGO support. She lets Alex (the NGO) take advantage of her in exchange for temporary shelter and food. She also lets her ‘brothers’ into the house when Alex is away to pleasure them. However, Jennifer, like Haiti is doomed to be exploited. She can never escape the society that she was born into and is doomed to be stuck in poverty.

Image result for murder in pacot

Conclusion

It’s clear that Peck (the director) doesn’t think much of the NGOs that came into Haiti following the earthquake. He makes Alex into a pathetic NGO worker who only works for the photos that he can share with his friends at home rather than actually committing to help change the country. In addition, Peck also attacks his fellow Haitians for taking advantage of Jennifer (our symbol of Haiti). She is free and beautiful, but is taken advantage of by men and the middle classes who are keen to keep her in her place in poverty.

 

 

355

Black Girl (Senegal) – One of Africa’s Must Watch Films

Black Girl Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Do you want to see one of Africa’s best films from the 20th Century? Set aside 55 minutes to watch Black Girl below (please comment if the video is not working). Don’t let film scholars be the only ones to have seen this incredible film as this should be seen by everyone.

Why Watch Black Girl?
  • It’s short: it will only take 55 minutes of your time!
  • It features a strong female character
  • The best pieces of art are completed quickly. Black Girl was made in 20 days
  • Examine the legacy of colonialism
The Breakdown

Ousmane Sembene’s Black Girl starts with a big passenger ship arriving at a port in France. A finely dressed black woman, Diouana, leaves the boat wondering if anyone will be there to pick her up. Sure enough a white man greets her, takes her bags, and drives her off. After a few jump cuts in the car ride (a style made famous in Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard) she arrives at a house on the French Riviera.

The opening suggests Diouana is here to meet her friends. Because of her nice dress and the white driver meeting her, it initially appears that she shares equal status with the white French people. However, as soon as she enters the apartment, it becomes clear that she does not share the same freedoms as her employers. She is kept in the apartment all day, every day to clean and cook and never ventures out because she never gets paid and is never introduced to anyone (which is always helpful when you don’t speak the language). As a result, she is almost a slave.

What’s the significance of the African mask?

To get to know the film a little better, look out for the African mask. It first appears in the film when Diouana buys it from a small boy from her neighbourhood in Senegal. She then gifts it to her employer who first question it’s authenticity (‘it looks like the real thing’) and then hang it on one of their blank white walls in their apartment in France.

Firstly, the mask initially signifies equality between Diouana and her employer. The act of gifting implies that you share an equal standing with the person you give to. Initially, because of the gifting, Diouana is equal to her employer. However, when her employers dismiss the mask as a fake, they imply that Diouana cannot afford a real mask and therefore she is not on the same level as them.

Secondly, the mask is a metaphor for Diouana’s isolation in France. Like the mask hanging in the middle of a blank wall, she is alone and out of place in French society.

Lastly, the mask is a symbol of the misappropriation of African culture. In Africa the mask is alive as the young boy is shot playing with it and wearing it. However, in France, the mask is dead. In France, the mask has been reduced to an ‘exotic’ artifact which sits on a wall as a trophy of Diouana’s employer’s exoticism. It allows her employers to temporarily ‘play’ their ‘connection’ to African ‘exoticism’ without experiencing any of the discrimination they perpetrate. Just like a fancy dress that they can take off whenever they want.

Narration as a symbol of post-colonialism

When watching Black Girl you’ll notice that whilst Diouana doesn’t speak French, all her thoughts are narrated in French. Her consciousness has been taken over by a language that isn’t her own. She can’t physically speak French and therefore become equal to the French speakers in France, but she can think in French. In fact, French is the only language she actually thinks in via the narration.

This is symbolic of the legacy of French colonialism in Africa (in this case, Senegal). Although Senegal achieved it’s independence from France a few years before this film was made, by restricting Diouana’s consciousness to French Sembene emphasises the parasitic legacy of colonialism. The colonisers colonised Senegal and replaced it’s native culture with it’s own and disrupted Senegalese consciousness in the process.

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Conclusion

There’s so much more to say! Simply put, Sembene’s Black Girl packs a lot into just under an hour. If it’s not being studied at schools across the world, it should be. Everyone needs to watch this film!

If you haven’t seen it, you’re in luck. Watch it here on YouTube!