7-49 and Up: First reality program
I came away extremely impressed with the 7 and up series and felt the guest speaker asked some interesting questions, such as whether this could be achieved in the united states. I personally think there is no way this could happen in the united states because our society tends to vault reality cast memebers to a celebrity status. I am constantly amazed at the staying power of some of these reality "stars" and it seems like many of them have been able to bounce from reality show to reality show. This makes me ask, just what heck do these people do for a living besides appear on reality shows? Mtv is a prime example imo, if you get selected to road rules or real world you are almost guaranteed to appear on the gauntlet or the inferno. Virtually all of these shows shower cast members with luxurious accomadations and gifts, again reinforcing that the viewer is watching anything but reality. People may argue that it is still reality, but I think its more like watching someone who has just won the lottery rather than watching someone function in society without any assistance from the reality show itself. Perhaps what I liked the most about the 7 and up series is that the people were left to live their lives without any assistance. Some of the people said they had gained popularity and their appearance on the show did open some doors, but it seemed minimal compared to what happens to our reality stars.
Salesman
Yesterday in class it was brought up that this film could have brought the ire of the catholic church. While I'm sure the catholic church wouldn't be thrilled about the film, I'm not sure what they could really do about it. The aim was to display that these bible salesman were no different than any other salesman and the bottom line was making a profit. The salesman were visibly stressed and often depressed when they struck out on sales. If this job was purley about the joyful endeavor of selling bibles and spreading the word of god, then why were so many people incredibly stressed out? When the Badger said he sold zero bibles you would have thought someone just died by the reactions in the room. I was amazed by the tone of the meetings/briefings with all of the churchs bible salesman present. If I didn't know they were selling bibles I would swear I was watching a police chief talking tough to his beat cops. The red headed bible salesman/manager commented on getting rid of sour apples and essentially threatened his coworkers. The documentary did have some humorous parts, such as that crazy florida couple who busted out some beatles jams in the middle of a sale, but there was a lot of depressing moments as well. Regardless of Maysles "making ammends" comment I felt the film stayed objective to showing the reality of bible salesman being no different than regular salesman. Do you think this film was objective and showed the truth?
Label Shmabel
As we can all tell by the previous posts, many view American Nightmare as a poetic mode. Honestly I could sit here and tell you why I agree with this but my classmates have already done that many times over. So instead, I will just throw in my two cents about these modes in the first place.
I agree with my classmate Palmer in saying that I don't really "buy" Nichol's categories in the first place. Why it is humans feel compelled to label and organize everything is beyond me. I am almost against classifying all documentaries because I think that takes away from there original beauty. I'm fairly confident when I say that I doubt many documentary film directors set out to make a "poetic mode" documentary or any mode for that matter. No, they don't... they set out to tell the truth (as they see it) on a topic and hopefully enlighten the masses. I don't think there is any reason to try to classify these documentaries. Art is not meant to be confined or classified, that almost goes against everything creativity stands for, therefore, if filmmaking is truly considered art then let it be and quit trying to label it. Thank you and goodnight!
