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I really resonated with something said in the beginning of the film, "Remembering is, above all, about understanding what happened and understanding the influence these actions have had on all of us". I agree that we shouldn't remember things to throw blame to others, but we should remember the past to help influence a better world to be achieved.

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Watching this documentry was very hard to do and helped me understand current day problems and how they haven't changed a lot. With the amount of cultural and racial tension back in that time period helps me realize, it is still happening in our current day society. Our current day society has gotten better since that time period but there are still many instances where there is a lot of cultural tension and racial tension.

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The most obvious relation between this film and modern day society is the racial and cultural tension. The French felt superior to the Tribal groups both culturally and racially and they treated them horribly. They even put them in "Human zoo's" Modern day racism and cultural biases are not near as bad but we still see cultural battles and blatant racism.

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This was heart wrenching, and put all of this into a more recent perspective. One could try and say that this was a while ago, but its on film, which was such a recent invention. These circuses were possible because of the idea of otherness, and creation of a divide, but it was also their purpose. It was a wedge that exploited a smaller crack, to create a separation that represented colonized people "the missing link" and "the closest things to apes". When they showed pictures of those who were taken, you could see the incredible sadness and isolation in their faces. I think one of the best quotes came from the comments, where a viewer wrote "Real barbarians usually wear suits" (SparkJoy). This was such a good way to say that those who called "civilized", were being the most brutal, causing the most harm to others.

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There are many themes in this documentary. One of the themes that stood out to me was Hierarchy and one being more powerful than one another. This was demonstrated throughout the whole documentary. Not only were people taken to a "circus" because of the way they were, they were taken because of their skin color also. Another main theme throughout the documentary is racism. Putting humans in "human zoos" is the epitome of racism because of the way that they looked and acted. We have learned about racism, rape, and murder that the Europeans demonstrate throughout this year. We also have learned about slavery and imperialism. These topics are very disturbing but everyone should know the real story of what happened so that this can be prevented from ever happening again. This documentary is very depressing, sad, and disturbing to watch. People need to learn about this so that this never happens again.

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The main theme that I was able to see was them vs us. What I mean is that most of the white people thought that African "cannibalistic" people need to be civilized because they could hurt other people or that. Plus a huge sense of trickery to get the people to come to America. Just to get money because they were different than the people of France or the United States etc.

This was a very disturbing film. Didn't like how things were down back then. Glad that is a lot better. Than what they used to be.

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To begin, I was absolutely horrified when watching this documentary. I gained even more appreciation for the education we are privileged to receive at Bosque School. A theme that continues to be abundant and repetitive is how history is always written by the victor or the group who had the most "power" at the times. This theme is shown in the documentary from being told of the awful story of Ota Benga as he was objectified and famous for being inferior to the colonials as well as being put in a cage with a monkey treating him as an animal, or the journey of Moliko who survived the lies told by the French explorers that they were to be well looked after and treated with respect. Where are these stories in history books? How come light is just beginning to show through on these horrific events? It is because once again, history is written by those that yield the most 'power' at the time. It also depicts how colonials need to feel that sense of superiority. They take people from around the globe that have different ways of living and cultures and label them uncivilized so in order to make themselves feel better they display them as "freaks", "barbaric" , "cannibalistic", etc. its a way from them to show how much "greater" they are. Just as in the case that western civilization wrote history as if they were the first to come up with rebelling against their rulers as if no one in the entire world had done this before. While watching the documentary I was angered, I was furious and outraged, because I think back to how some of my family members still can't refer to Native Americans as Native Americans! How simple is that? Had they ever been put on display in zoos or exhibits? Were they ever stripped of their humanity and dignity? Why are people today still struggling with acknowledging the horrific crimes of the past?

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A very strong theme in this documentary was the idea of the "white man's burden" which we have discussed many times in this class. The human zoos painted the picture / reinforced the idea that the nations that were being colonized were "primitive" or "barbaric." In their eyes, this justified colonization because the imperial force was "civilized" and they would civilize or modernize their colonies. At the very end of the documentary they say "To abandon the zoos was to abandon colonial domination." Without being able to reinforce the narrative that the colonized peoples were subhuman, the whole structure began to fall apart. It was very interesting to me how places like France made the very sudden switch during the war to saying that the indigenous peoples of their colonies were civilized and would fight as soldiers or be workers alongside the colonizers. The state could so easily shift their position in order to use people as tools for more power. That shows how colonization can evolve into imperialism as a way for powerful states to retain power. For me, the documentary was very sad to watch, it is always distressing to find out a facet of regular life has such an insidious history behind it.

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There was an interview during the film that basically said that for Human Zoos, colonization, and and for there to be a group that is viewed as superior to another. The group who is considered as uncivilized has to accept this position in society as reality. I thought this was really interesting and was a new idea that we had not seen. We have learned about slavery and imperialism through a white superiority complex that allowed europeans to  murder, rape, and in prison millions of Africans and Indigenous people. However, we haven't really looked at how this originally happens, how one group can become dominant or superior to another. I think this person who was interviewed would argue that this happens through the group considered as unsophisticated, accepting this position and reality that they are uncivilized therefore giving the other group power and dominance. I think it is horrible to learn about the history of Zoos and then see what they have become. Everyone has been to a zoo and they are glorified so people go and see and exotic animal or special show, but why is this acceptable after the pain they cause thousands of people?