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Courses Syllabus: English through Film/The Journey: The Road to Justice

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Courses Syllabus: English through Film/The Journey: The Road to Justice

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JOSEPH CAMPBELL: … And this is the threat to our lives; we all face it, we all operate in our society in relation to a system. Now, is the system going to eat you up and relieve you of your humanity, or are you going to be able to use the system [for] human purposes?

BILL MOYERS: Would the hero with a thousand faces help us to answer that question, about how to change the system so that we are not serving it?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: I don’t think it would help you to change the system, but it would help you to live in the system as a human being…

BILL MOYERS: Unlike the classical heroes, we’re not going on our journey to save the world, but to save ourselves.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: And in doing that, you save the world. I mean, you do. The influence of a vital person vitalizes, there’s no doubt about it. ... People have the notion of saving the world by shifting it around and changing the rules and so forth. No, any world is a living world … and the thing is to bring it to life. And the way to bring it to life is to find in your own case where your life is, and be alive yourself...(Bill Moyers.com, 1988)

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Here is Katie Hui's Padlet shared with permission. I made a (wiki) Page on Canvas (bCourses) where each student posted his/her/their Padlet url, and I then linked each Padlet on the Table Tally Tool with each student's name, as well, for ease of interaction.  Students could choose to "favorite" each other's Padlets to streamline reading & replying.  On my own Padlet I modeled each assignment -- the initial video post, the mini-movie review, and final recommendation presentation.

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Bolstering Student-to-Student Engagement:  Peer Participation via Padlet,                                     University of California, Berkeley        

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Bolstering Student-to-Student Engagement:  Peer Participation via Padlet,                                     University of California, Berkeley        

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Teaching an intensive 3-week online summer course, College Writing Programs’ “English Through Film” for the first time with a wide range of students -- from local to international, first-years to seniors, I decided to combine the UC Berkeley Canvas bCourses site where I posted weekly homework modules with student-created Padlet sites where they could post their own work: an introductory video, biweekly movie reviews, and a final persuasive presentation, as well as comment on one another’s posts. Padlets enabled my diverse students with different skill sets, English proficiency levels, and familiarity with film studies to joyfully interact with one another around course material in a more vibrant student-to-student environment.

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How to Create a free Padlet website

1. Go to padlet.com and create a free account using any email address.

2. Click on "Make a Padlet" to create one of your 3 free Padlet sites now that you have an account!

3. Go to SETTINGS (click on the gear in the top right corner).

Choose the design, layout, color, background wallpaper, etc.

Under settings, turn on "allow comments."

Enable reactions, specifically "like" with a heart.

Change the second half of the url address to name your website as you'd like--the first part of your email address will be automatically the first part of the url, but then you can replace the random assortment of letters and numbers after that.  Here's mine:

https://padlet.com/michellebaptiste/CW5C_FilmESL
If you need to change your website name at all, click the avatar on the top-right corner of the page (any page is fine as long as you've logged in), then click the "Settings" and you can change your name, email and username! Note: Altering username changes the URL as well.

4. Go to SHARE --> top right corner

Click on CHANGE PRIVACY & select your choice of publishing options -- Choose "secret" (only those with the url can view it) or "public" (anyone on the Internet can search it up)

Under CHANGE PRIVACY Switch Visitor Permissions at the bottom to "CAN READ" if you don't want others "WRITING" or posting on your page (It's up to you!)

5. As soon as you create it, please paste your Blog url on  the bCourses Page for classmates and me to access
your site.

6. Get started posting: Add a text box (hit the lower left
corner "+" sign in a pink circle) and click on the 3 dots
(...) and select file type, such as a live video recording.

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Frozen River is a film that sears my soul every time I watch it.  I can never tire of watching the incredible acting performances by Melissa Leo & Misty Upham, with even supporting actors putting in impressive performances--so believably understated.  I sense that in such a cold, harsh, unforgiving climate, no one can spare too many words.  We know Ray is prejudiced against the people of the Mohawk Nation, as is her older son TJ; both use derogatory terms and sneers to describe the Mohawk people, but we see this racism transform as Ray gets to know Lila--initially calling her, dismissively, condescendingly, a "babysitter" to later describing her to the same US police trooper as a "friend".  The tribal police officer also ensures that TJ sees Irene Three Rivers face-to-face, human-to-human when he (seemingly half-heartedly) apologizes for scamming her.  Ray Eddy presents a contradiction with her seemingly masculine name and role as the gun-wielding head-of-the-family (TJ even reveals in a fight that she once shot her husband in the foot), because we also see the scenes with her face revealing a trace of tears, her body in various states of undress, and her aspirational bottles of bubble bath for when she has a proper tub and not just a rusted-out shower head to bathe in -- "Live Your Dream" the trailer brochure proclaims.  The (Dodge) Spirit, the Creator, is present amidst it all--when and where life and death so closely edge up against each other.  The closing song "Ray's Echo" is piercingly summative: "Fast as it comes, it rushes away, sometimes it takes everything with it...Leads me across, river so deep, it always leads, I always come back (4x)."  I feel hope for their future because of the friendship these two women have forged.  The baby seems to come back from the dead: Is that a sign of hope? I still have to wonder and fear what becomes of the immigrants--forced into indentured servitude or sex work, potentially deported--the ones who spent their life savings, as Ray puts it, "to get here? No f#$%ing way!"--a dream Ray cannot fathom.

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For all its awards at festivals of independent film across the world, notably the Grand Jury Award at Sundance nearly 2 years ago, Frozen River is actually a mainstream picture that comes in the guise of an 'indie'. While the plot itself, revolving around a dispossessed woman who, deserted by her do-no-good husband, decides to hook up with an on-the-skids native American woman to smuggle illegal immigrants over the Canadian border, undoubtedly has all the makings of an indie, the plot twists do not: they might as well have come straight from Paramount or Universal or both, where the screenplay might have been 'developed' by a slew of writers and subsequently gone through any number of rewrites - that, at least, is how arbitrary and, at times, hard to believe, the plot line is.

But now the good news: while Frozen River may not be your ordinary 'indie' with a non-linear narrative and so on and so forth, the film reveals its 'indie' quality - for lack of a better term - primarily in its pacing and in its gritty feel, underscored by a beautifully moody soundtrack. And this is really what makes Frozen River worth watching: its atmosphere; the constant sense of doom, which Courtney Hunt managed to sustain from start to finish. And yes, I admit, Hunt's magic worked for me, as for all its predictability - and sometimes implausibility - Frozen River had me in its grip from the very first minute. In a way, Frozen River , although not a genre piece as such, could best be described as Film-Noir-meets-Socio-Drama. Got the picture?

So while Frozen River may not have been the 'indie' I expected - which, careful!, is not meant to be a judgement - it is nevertheless a film I'd recommend you to see. If only for Melissa Leo's outstanding performance of a trailer-trash-woman struggling to keep her head above water. Just awesome!

Melissa Leo - you'd never believe a woman this beautiful could look so common until you see her in Frozen River.

Frozen River is out on DVD.

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For all its awards at festivals of independent film across the world, notably the Grand Jury Award at Sundance nearly 2 years ago, Frozen River is actually a mainstream picture that comes in the guise of an 'indie'.

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What do you wonder about me?

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Pros:

1. free

2. easy to use

3. fast to set up

4. intuitive posting

5. simple interface

6. fun design options

7. no firewall - available in China & worldwide

8. can password-protect if desired

9. timestamp for last post

10. no pop-up ads

11. promotes creative interaction

Cons:

1. fewer affordances than other websites

2. episodic structure

3. limited layout options

4. no "infinity" canvas design

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I hyperlink the names to each student's Padlet. Here students kept track of whose post they comment on to ensure that they reply to 3 peers' posts biweekly and also that they reply to each classmate at least once during the term. I collect this on the last day of class to confirm activity & assign students credit for Padlet participation.

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Though many have written--and even Director Steven Soderbergh has asserted--that the film is Julia Roberts ("[S]he’s essentially the whole film"), to me the docu-drama Erin Brockovich is  not just about Erin herself but about how she interacts with others--especially the power dynamics.  She is the one who knows how to build relationships of respect and empathy with the families in Hinkley.  And she is the one who knows how to humble the stuck-up lawyer Teresa brought in on the case.  Erin and George, as well as Erin and Ed, shift back and forth in terms of who is in power at any given moment in their rough "partnerships"--the work relationship with Ed seeming to be the one where both jockey for power but end up with a shaky but equal respect for one another. We never see enough of Erin and George to know what kind of connection they have, if any. In many ways the movie is very "Hollywood," but it does not end with Prince Charming coming to the rescue -- though she does need George (to care for her children) and Ed (to run the law firm).  Rather, the rough-around-the-edges "commoner" princess ultimately prevails largely on her own merit.

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Snapinsta - Download Instagram Videos, Reels, Stories for FREE

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Download Instagram videos in high-definition for free with our Instagram video downloader. Easily save videos from posts, reels, and stories. Better experience than Snapinsta.

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In this succinct and moving documentary, the focus is not on individual heroines but on the women's MOVEMENT for peace in Liberia during the 1999-2003 civil war that ravaged the country(side).  Though there was tension in the movement--over religious differences, tactical approaches, and power dynamics, the film focuses on unity.  Choosing not to side with one warring faction or another, the women promoted a simple yet powerful apolitical message: We want peace.  Alongside the vision of Producer Abigail Disney, USA-based Director Gini Reticker compiles archival footage and her own retroactive interviews to put the focus on what happened after the diverse leadership of the movement--including Leymay Gbowee mentored by Etweda "Sugars" Cooper--overcame all the tensions within to draw women together from across the socioeconomic spectrum... to use the one source of power they all had: their bodies.  Unlike Erin Brockovich, who also used her body to empower herself, the Liberian women--most of whom are mothers too--chose NOT to wear any make-up nor stylish clothing; instead they chose to wrap their hair in white cloth and wear white t-shirts; they prayed and fasted together; they held a sex strike to urge their husbands to do everything in their power to end the war; they created a human blockade looping arms to ensure the peace negotiations became serious--and when it was high time, activist Leymah Gbowee (who would later be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize) started to strip in front of the security guards who threatened to arrest her for the deeply ironic charge of "obstructing justice" at the peace talks.  Using tactics similar to Dolores Huerta & Cesar Chavez in organizing farmworkers for their rights, the Liberian women's powerful EMBODIED presence, solidarity, and strength in numbers--along with the culture's profound respect for mothers--finally ensured the women's nonviolent victory.

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Nobel Peace laureate Leymah Gbowee, who helped end Liberia's civil war, and Etweda 'Sugars' Cooper, who secured Gbowee's place at the head of the women's movement, are still each others' champions.

[Illustration by Jawahir Al-Naimi and Muaz Kory/Al Jazeera]

Leymah Gbowee's office is a hive of activity. At any one time, there are at least a dozen people within its bright, mural-clad walls. Sitting behind her generously proportioned desk, Gbowee commands authority, bellowing "Come!" in response to frequent knocks on the door.

But the men and women who enter are at ease and show her considerable affection. As the Liberian Nobel Peace laureate eats a hurried late lunch, she receives hugs and kisses from friends, more than one of whom proceeds to pick up her fork and swipe a mouthful of fried potato greens from her plate.

Next to Gbowee's larger-than-life demeanour, the older woman on the other side of the desk seems more docile. While Gbowee, 49, sports thick-rimmed spectacles, silver trainers and bold Bantu knots - intricate cornrows coiled into buns on her head - Etweda "Sugars" Cooper makes less of a statement, with smart leather shoes and grey hair cropped short. But at 74, she nonetheless shares her protégé's energy, gamely propelling her office chair across the floor to open a conversation on the other side of the room.

It is the end of a busy morning celebrating International Women's Day at the Gbowee Peace Foundation's headquarters near the Liberian capital, Monrovia. A ceremony attended by officials, diplomats and women's rights and peace activists culminated in the unveiling of a memorial wall bearing the names of 300 women who, led by Gbowee under the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace campaign, were instrumental in bringing Liberia's second civil war to an end nearly 20 years ago.

Dressed in white, the women became a visible presence in wartime Monrovia as they fasted, sang and prayed for peace. In torrential rain and under the scorching sun they continually turned out, even threatening a sex strike for as long as fighting continued. The number of women joining the peaceful sit-ins swelled to thousands from diverse religious and social backgrounds. In June 2003, Gbowee and her female peace warriors accompanied then-President Charles Taylor and rebel leaders to talks in Ghana; when progress stalled, they blocked the exits of the negotiating hall until a consensus was reached.

Liberia's back-to-back civil wars, from 1989 to 1997 and 1999 to 2003, killed some 250,000 people and displaced more than a million. Fighting first broke out on Christmas Eve of 1989 when Taylor led a group of rebels into Liberia from neighbouring Ivory Coast with the intention of overthrowing then-President Samuel Doe. Doe was killed in 1990, but 13 more years and multiple rebel groups came and went before the second war ended with the signing of the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Taylor was exiled and disarmament proceeded under a transitional government that ran the country until Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected president in 2005.

Early days of comradeship

Gbowee and Sugars - who was given her nickname as a child by her sisters - first met three years before their feat at the Accra peace talks. Aged 28, with little experience of women-led campaigning, Gbowee approached a group of established female activists with the idea of starting a Liberian branch of the regional Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET), which later gave birth to the Mass Action for Peace campaign.

Sugars was a founding member of the Liberian Women's Initiative which, along with several other groups, had advocated for women's rights and sought to carve out a space for women in peace efforts since the mid-1990s. Her mother was a key influence in her path into activism, through her belief that women should be recognised as individuals, rather than somebody's daughter, wife or mother. "She always said, 'a woman is never her own'," Sugars remembers, adding that she and her sisters were highly educated ahead of their time and avid readers of National Geographic, Time and Newsweek thanks to their mother's conviction.

When war broke out, Sugars carried this conviction forward: "I felt that Liberia was my home and we [the women] were the ones to do something for her." When her own children were sent to safety abroad, Sugars's agenda was to help deliver peace "to enable them to come home and be Liberians". She succeeded: Her daughter Jeanine is the serving minister of agriculture.

"Sugars was uncompromising in her activism," Gbowee recalls, as Sugars bows her head in affirmation. "President Taylor had said of her that she was the only woman he truly respected. If she said she hated you as a politician, she hated you and she would never come in the covers of darkness to ask you for a dime or anything. Others could be compromised but not her.

"She was the oracle to go to if you wanted to start a network of women's peacebuilders," Gbowee continues matter-of-factly, "so I went to her."

It was just as well she did. Gbowee was more accustomed to working with men in her role as a community social worker, providing trauma counselling to former child soldiers. She had not anticipated the tirade of abuse that would meet her proposal to lead the new group: "These women were sharks!"

Aside from Gbowee being an unknown entity, their frosty reception stemmed from deep-rooted social issues. Many of the leading female activists - Sugars included - belonged to the Americo-Liberian elite; the descendants of freed slaves who settled in Liberia in the first half of the nineteenth century. This small minority had historically dominated Liberian politics, breeding inequality and grievances among the rest of the population which were among the root causes of the civil conflict.

Sugars was uncompromising in her activism ... She was the oracle to go to if you wanted to start a network of women's peacebuilders, so I went to her.

Leymah Gbowee

In contrast, Gbowee, as a member of the Indigenous Kpelle ethnic group, was regarded by many of the women as uneducated and unworthy of the leadership role. But Sugars sensed she possessed qualities the other women did not. "I didn't know her at all but I knew the other women and my gut instinct told me that she would do a better job," she explains.

Noticing her discomfort, Sugars took Gbowee aside and instructed her to pull herself together before returning to the meeting where she presented her new protégé as the WIPNET leader. "The place went quiet, no one said anything and I was the leader," recalls Gbowee.

From then on, the two women worked closely together, cultivating a strong mother-daughter dynamic, and Sugars continued to open doors for Gbowee as the peace movement gained traction. "I was coming with a fresh idea and she knew the landscape," says Gbowee. "She was our bridge to the established women's organisations."

Their joint quest has seldom been easy. In the face of hostility and rumours continuing into peacetime, Sugars often felt compelled to defend her mentee and faced criticism for doing so. Gbowee recalls how she came across a visibly upset Sugars one morning on the sidelines of the Accra peace talks. A group of women had criticised her for masquerading as a lowly "countrywoman" by associating so closely with Gbowee: "She felt they were just reinforcing the same nonsense that brought the war in the first place."

At this, Gbowee saw red. "I think it transported me back to 2000 and being judged based on my social status and not my intellectual ability or the work I've been able to do. I barged into that room and said: 'Let me tell you old witches that the next time any one of you opens your mouth and talks to Sugars in that way, I will deal with you.' But by lunchtime, we were all friends again."

While Gbowee owes much to Sugars for installing her at the helm of WIPNET and her subsequent mentorship and loyalty, this is but one example of the mutual support in their relationship. Although known to be a fearless activist in her own right, brokering peace deals and disarming factions at the end of the first civil war, and impervious to the call of the gravy train as she focused on her cause, Sugars admits she shies from the limelight. "I like to be in the back of things," she confides.

Post-war and the co-Nobel fallout

After peace had been secured, Gbowee turned her attention to furthering her education in the United States and supporting grassroots peace movements around the world. Meanwhile, Sugars was elected mayor of the town of Edina in 2010 before becoming superintendent of Grand Bassa county two years later.

In October 2011, Gbowee was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with then-President Sirleaf and the Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman. The trio was recognised for its "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peacebuilding work".

Even as she refers to Sirleaf as "my co-Nobel sister", Gbowee does not shy away from discussing the rift that emerged between them. Barely a year after backing Sirleaf's successful bid for a second six-year presidential term and winning the Nobel award, Gbowee resigned from her post as the head of the government's peace and reconciliation commission and publicly criticised Sirleaf for corruption and nepotism.

"I was speaking up because we were trying to protect the rights of the women," she says. One of the things we said was if President Sirleaf doesn't do well, her failure will be an indictment for women's leadership in this country. And today we see it! You were there for 12 years and what did you all do?"

Gbowee recalls the betrayal she felt when members of WIPNET went to the gender ministry and declared their support for Sirleaf in the face of Gbowee's criticism. "What pained me was that some of the very women I worked with were the ones who went and signed, declaring me a disgrace to womanhood."

Nine years on, the wounds appear to have healed as the women dressed in white are out in force at Gbowee's International Women's Day reception and Sirleaf is one of the first guests to arrive, sitting quietly on the end of the VIP row waiting for the proceedings to begin. In a short address, she discloses that Gbowee had coerced her into making a speech by warning "if you don't go there and talk they'll say we're still fussing!"

Sirleaf goes on to acknowledge the crucial role played by Gbowee, Sugars and their team of women in bringing peace to Liberia, paving the way for democratic elections in 2005 and "for me to become president".

Meanwhile, the women in white deliver a call-and-response of "Sugars" and "Spice!" when Gbowee thanks her mentor "for staying in the shadows and allowing me to shine".

The future of female activism

Gbowee says she "stumbled on peacebuilding". The outbreak of war forced her to abandon a longstanding ambition to be a paediatrician and she applied for a social work programme focusing on trauma-healing. "Engaging with people has always been one of my better traits," she discloses. This, combined with her aptitude for public speaking dating back to her school days, equipped her well for the world of women's activism.

Since becoming a Nobel Peace laureate, Gbowee's life has continued to revolve around peacebuilding both at home and abroad. She provides educational support and mentorship to young Liberians through the Gbowee Peace Foundation which she founded in 2012, providing scholarships and social support to some 700 students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The foundation also organises peace camps across the country, promoting reconciliation, peaceful coexistence and educating young people about the war.

What I needed was somebody else to carry the torch and that's what Leymah is doing. And she is just getting started.

Etweda 'Sugars' Cooper

Internationally, Gbowee helps to elevate the voices and work of grassroots women's organisations and has assisted in peacebuilding efforts from Libya to Sri Lanka. In her role as adviser to the UN secretary-general on mediation, she successfully advocated for sexual and gender-based violence caused by COVID-19 lockdowns to be included in the UN's call for a global ceasefire during the pandemic.

Gbowee admits to having grown more thoughtful in her advocacy because of the weight her words now carry. "I'm not a noisy gun," she says. But that does not mean she remains silent. In July 2019, she used her platform as the national orator of the state-organised Independence Day celebration to launch a scathing attack on the performance of the ruling party and opposition as Liberians endured the effects of worsening economic hardship.

As a result of this speech, Gbowee considers her invitations from the government to have dried up for good. But she accepts this as part of the loneliness of activism; a lesson she learned early on from her mentor. "Sugars was isolated, never invited to government functions. She was too vocal for their comfort."

Sugars has now retired from front-line activism and public service. "What I needed was somebody else to carry the torch and that's what Leymah is doing," she says. "And she is just getting started. Probably if we had begun earlier and tried harder we could have prevented the civil crisis from happening, but then maybe we needed the crisis to show us that we still need to do a lot for Liberia."

Gbowee announces at the Women's Day celebration that she is looking for the woman who will one day take over from her. Yet she holds a somewhat dim view of the current generation of female activists. "When we were advocating for peace in Liberia it was not about notoriety or who got the most likes. It was about the work: we just wanted peace. But today a lot of it is about getting an award, a grant, or to travel. There's not a lot of humility with this new generation of activists."

This year, one of her priorities is to spend more time with Sugars. "To say that I've neglected her is a little bit true." Sugars smiles wryly as Gbowee recounts their trip to a nightclub in Ghana on her 60th birthday. "Sugars is a cool ma. The active role is over but the next phase of our relationship is literally sitting under the baobab tree and taking as much wisdom as I can from her, because it's always a treat."

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'Not a noisy gun': The women peacebuilders of Liberia

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Nobel Peace laureate Leymah Gbowee, who helped end Liberia's civil war, and Etweda 'Sugars' Cooper, who secured Gbowee's place at the head of the women's movement, are still each others' champions. Leymah Gbowee's office is a hive of activity. At any one time, there are at least a dozen people within its bright, mural-clad walls.