Comments for 7 eyes

Comment on Mankind Is No Island. (2008) by jenny leaver

jenny leaver — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:37:27 +0000

Hi
I agree with your description of the reaction to the film by a variety of people. I have used this moving and original film and beautiful music score with several classes (high school students) and the 100% reaction is how moving it is. We study a play by Louis Nowra that raises issues of attitudes to the marginalised in our society and it has been interesting contrasting the different ways that Nowra and you use language in such different ways to communicate compassionately important ideas about a part of our lives that we do struggle with. Also we look at your film in terms of a unit we do on Voice in texts. And again the combination of the street signs and the music creating the interior monologue is such a unique and powerful – albeit very gentle – way to raise issues as it is allows the individual to have such a personal interaction. I have watched the film many times and I have been moved to tears. I especially feel that way when you remind us of our shared humanity when I read the words about father, brother and mother. Suddenly the person’s life is seen as whole not just the image of how we see them in the present. The image of you speaking to the old man is just beautiful – it’s not an easy step for many of us to take but it is a do-able one.
I loved your film.
Jenny

Comment on Mankind Is No Island. (2008) by Jason

Jason — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:09:12 +0000

Hi and thank you for your review of ‘Mankind is no Island’. I’m the writer/director of this film, and was interested in what you wrote and thought I’d post a reply in response.

To make a film about homeless people, we really didn’t want to push the constant clichéd imagery that people have become desensatized to seeing. Instead, we spent 4 days filming words on signs randomly, in the hope that we could find enough words to create a strong visual narrative so we tell the story from a unique angle. We didn’t want to be preachy, and the POV we took was that of us, the film makers – actually experiencing the very emotions and sense of disgrace that the film speaks of.

In no way was this ever intended to be “patronizing, numb or bloodless”. It certainly wasn’t a “lazy effort”, as it took us a lot of effort and energy to create. Far from it, read page after page of YouTube posts and see how a lot of people have actually been moved to change their interaction with the homeless purely because this little film opened their mind to the concept. The narrative really shouldn’t be viewed as “childish”, watch and read it again, I doubt any children would really understand the language structure or the questions raised.

I’m certainly not professing it’s a great cinematic work by any means – however I do think your reasons for not liking could benefit from some additional perspective. The composer (John Roy) was scoring this piece as we were still filming, so when it all came together in the editing session it really was an amazingly organic process. Out of 1200 words, we managed to find just enough to tell the story as we experienced it.

I think the measure of a good film is not related to literal visual content or how it’s post produced – it really is in the way it communicates a thought, emotion or message. I do value your comments though and thank you for making them.

Cheers,
Jason van Genderen
jason@treehousecreative.com

Comment on 2 years by ruiresende

ruiresende — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:36:43 +0000

Thanks a lot for you comment, it’s nice to know you follow my blog. You should always be critical about my posts in spanish, though, i still don’t have 100% control over what i write. In fact you probably noticed flaws in the english texts aswell.

i hope to keep reading you around

Comment on 2 years by Pacze Moj

Pacze Moj — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:11:06 +0000

*by “both”, I mean English and Spanish.

Comment on 2 years by Pacze Moj

Pacze Moj — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:10:50 +0000

…and it’s incredibly helpful for someone learning Spanish to be able to read similar reviews in both those languages.

Comment on Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) by Luis

Luis — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:11:11 +0000

I’m sorry for that comment in Portuguese.
I would say that all those “flaws” are in fact the core of the irony. I saw this film as a great critic of the “Catalonian national pride”. Every scene as an hidden meaning…I loved the film, it could only have been achieved by a foreigner with such a clear vision of reality…woody.

Comment on Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) by Luis

Luis — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:57:30 +0000

Acho que te passou ao lado a profunda ironia do filme…

Comment on Caper Fear (1962) by ruiresende

ruiresende — Sat, 02 May 2009 17:10:54 +0000

Thanks a lot, very useful the links you gave me, and yes, i couldn’t decipher the accent.

thank you

Comment on Caper Fear (1962) by fozzymandias

fozzymandias — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:36:03 +0000

Just realized that, as a non-native English speaker, you may not be able to decipher the creator’s Liverpool accent. Here is the text version:

http://collativelearning.com/cape%20fear%20review.html

Comment on Caper Fear (1962) by fozzymandias

fozzymandias — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:16:17 +0000

You may or not be aware of this: