it's in the eye of the beholder...

I feel that we all have similar, natural feelings toward certain features of a person. We all subconsciously are looking for specific things in a mate. Whether it is for child baring purposes or simply sexual satisfaction we have similar wants. We are all born with that natural attraction so that we can procreate. I believe that these natural feelings are mixed in with social learning. Every culture is has different social surroundings that can shape their beliefs or in this case their feelings of attraction. Things such as wealth can shape what a person finds attractive. Women in Europe used to be seen as attractive if they had a fuller figure as apposed to American standards now with our stick figured models. It was believed that the more plump women ate more and therefore were wealthier. They were a part of a higher social class making them more desirable. I do find it interesting what we find attractive and what we find repulsive. What I touched on was very broad. I can not even begin to imagine why one guy may be attracted to blondes and one guy is attracted to brunettes. It could be because God made us all different and we can not all be attracted to one thing. I really do feel though that attraction is based on a mixture of natural and social leaning. We are born with one and bombarded with another so how could it not be.

representation in narratives...

I just have a short blog about representation. I watched an Italian film the other day in one of my film classes. It was about the oppression of Italians from the Nazis. The entire film was very realistic. It was in fact a neorealist film. It was a fiction film based on historical events. The only thing that was not truly based in reality was the portrayal of the Nazis. Now don’t get me wrong. I would probably portray the Nazis this way had I made this film. I am not saying that they are being portrayed poorly, but it is a little more caricature than it is reality. Every character in this film seemed like maybe they could have existed. The Nazis, however, were portrayed as these almost over the top villains. They were very one dimensional characters. They almost seemed like villains from a comic book which I thought was interesting. Their leader in the film was very flamboyant. There was a very visible contrast between the Nazis and the freedom fighters when they were in the same scenes. When they were separated it was almost like watching two different films based on which characters were in the scene. I find interesting that even this film that was supposed to portray a gritty reality made the Nazis look like these very unreal characters. It is just another way that people portray things the way they see them even when it may not be the whole truth. I do want to stress though that I am not sticking up for the Nazis. This is simply an observation in the subject of representation.

African documentaries and documentaries about Africa...

It is hard to establish what is and is not actually an African documentary film. I believe that if the film is made by an African then it is an African documentary. This is also the case if a narrative film is made by an African. If it is made by an African filmmaker then it is an African film regardless of what the content is. If an American makes a documentary about Africa then it makes sense to call it an American film about Africa. Now of course any documentary about Africa regardless of who makes it can be thought of as an African film. I would just call a film about Africa. The content of the film or what the film is about is a completely different category from what who made the film.
It starts to get really complicated if you ask whether or not the film is African depending on how it represents Africa. A film about Africa that is made by an African may represent Africa untruly if they are trying to make a propaganda type film. They may want people to see things a certain way which are not necessarily true. It also works the other way because a filmmaker from another country could portray Africa just as it is to the African people.
I will break it down now because I am almost starting to loose myself. What I am basically saying is that there are two major categories that a film fits into. It can be categorized by who made it or what it is about. Now whether or not the content is accurate it does not matter based on these two categories. However, I do not want to sound like I do not care how a subject is presented so I will end with this. I believe that it is the responsibility of the filmmaker to represent a person or a culture accurately as best they can. They must research as much as they can and try very hard to not fall into biases and stereotypes.