Well this is the final entry in the blog assignment. It has been an interesting journey none the less to watch films from different time periods and learn new things.
1) Newsmagazine Documentary :
CTV WFive “Chilling Insight”
This documentary on WFive shows the interrogation of convicted sex killer Russell Williams. It has been condensed from the 10 hour interrogation which was able to get a confession from him rendering him guilty. We see two people throughout this documentary ,Williams and OPP Detective Sgt.Jim Smyth the veteran investigator. It is quite interesting to learn just what was going on in William’s mind as he killed these women and just how mentally ill he really is. What is made really shocking to the views to learn is that how did psychiatric tests not show that something was not right with Williams. Did the screening tests fail? How did he get past the system? How was he able to do this for so long without being caught?
Link: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/WFive/20101022/russell-williams-interrogation-101022/
2)
1990-Present
Born Into Brothels 2004-Zana Briski
This is a film documenting the red light district in Calcutta. Briski originally went to Calcutta to just photograph the prostitutes but ended up befriending the children there. She ended up teaching them photography so they could improve their lives.The children took pictures of their classes and daily life in the red light district. Many of the images were somewhat disturbing but really spoke to the viewers and made them aware of things going on outside of their “little bubble”. It brough attention to the problem of child prostitutes in Calcutta and just how horribly impoverished these children and their families are. It was sending a strong message to viewers that we need to care about people all around the world not just where we live. The children’s photography ended up being exhibited. Briski recorded herself also in an effort to put the children in boarding schools.I extremely enjoyed this film and the way it was presented ,thought some of the images were hard to look at ,it was an interesting educational tool.
3) Secrets of The Dead: The Silver Pharaoh :
This documentary was chilling and extremely fascinating. I am not a huge fan of historical documentaries but this one was extremely interesting. French archaeologist Pierre Monte had in fact unearthed an intact royal burial chamber in Tanis,Egypt containing treasures which were far greater then those found in King Tut’s 2 decades earlier. in a tomb .First we see pictures from 1939 when the first excavated it. Though the Tut discovery caused an international sensation the opening of Tanis was virtually ignored. This is probably due to the fact that the world was on the brink of war. I really enjoyed a re-visit to this tomb and to see just what was discovered. The most spectacular discovery was the silver sarcophagus of Phaaroh Psusennes I. He governed Egypt’s more than 3000 years ago during one of the hardest periods in Egypt’s history. This was a very interesting documentary to watch. Some historical documentaries can be a tad boring and tedious at times but this one really captured my interest and it made it interesting to learn about the past.
