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The short film Validation, written and directed by Kurt Kuenne has won two international awards and is greatly known to be an uplifting and happy film. Validation begins with a parking attendant doing his job and validating parking passes. Soon enough the parking attendant begins to give our real validation, as in compliments to the people’s appearances and characteristics. Many people line up to be validated by the parking attendant, it even going as far that the parking attendant makes his way up the ranks and eventually validates both George W. Bush and an Iraqi official, Saddam Hussein, unifying the countries. But, the parking attendant soon meets an obstacle in the form of a DMV photographer, Victoria. Victoria does not smile, and every time the parking attendant comes in to renew his license he tries to make her smile truly, but he does not succeed. This goes on until the parking attendant has lost his will to validate, making people unhappy in the parking lot and eventually getting fired. After his life falls apart and he gives up on trying to make Victoria smile, he falls into a miserable life and succeeds in taking his license photograph. But soon after, he is asked to take a picture of a couple. As he holds up the camera lazily and photographs the couple, he becomes distraught with their fake smiles. Reprimanding the couple and telling them how much they have to smile about, the parking attendant takes a photo of the couple, this time true happiness showing through the picture. He has found a new purpose, taking photos of true happiness. One time, he takes a photo of a woman in a wheelchair, making her smile by telling her how beautiful she is. Eventually, the parking attendant goes to the dentist, and spots a man who had smiled in his license photo. He is shocked, and asks how he was able to smile. The man just said that the license photographer allowed him. The parking attendant rushed to the DMV, only to find out that Victoria had been fired for allowing people to smile during their photos. He searches high and low for her, and eventually they come face to face where she tells him about her childhood. How she couldn’t smile because of her moms sadness, but recently a man made her mother smile and it freed her. The two fell in love, and the movie ended.

This film had a variety of factors that made it what it is. I would have to say my favorite were the stylistic features. The black and white conveyed the simplicity of the film, or rather the main idea. The main idea is just simply ‘life is a give and take.’ The parking attendant gives until there’s no more, but when someone finally validates him he regains his will to validate.  The soundtrack is also very important, as it follows the characters' emotions throughout the scenes. A large part of the film was about the multiple meanings to validation. For example, validating the parking pass, giving emotional validation, and receiving validation.

This film connects to many others that we have read or watched in this class, most notably a cat in the rain. The wife is giving all of herself to her husband, but her husband is relatively non-receptive to his wife, which causes her to lose her will to try to salvage the relationship, and instead leads her to try to salvage herself. Overall, I enjoyed this short film and I look forward to seeing others like it in Mr. Knute and and.islets class.

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Hey followers! Today I went to this fun museum and saw a ton of cool pieces. My favorite would have to be “Paperman” by Disney. Here’s a photo of it above. This photograph depicts the main love interest holding a paper airplane that our main character sent to her, the very one that she ‘gave’ to him. This picture really stood out to me because it embodies the concept of fate, or connection. She received that object that she gave simply because of chance, and it brought the two together with love. I also like how this picture places emphasis on our live interest, as we mostly saw the story through the main characters eyes before. Overall, I really liked all the pieces! I’m so glad Mr. Knute and Ms. Miller set this up for me!

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Today I started reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd! When I was trying to pick a book yesterday, I was stuck between this current book and Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper. In the end I folded and chose both… but! I did decide to start with The Secret Life of Bees, and I’m glad I did. This book created by Sue Monk Kidd is, so far, quite captivating. As a historical fiction book set in the 1960’s South Carolina, it is a bit different than the books that I usually gravitate towards (high fantasy). Lily Owens, a fourteen year old girl’s life is completely changed when her stand-in mother and maid, Rosaleen, takes her and escapes to Tiburon, South Carolina after putting herself into jeopardy by unsettling racists in their home town. Lily had lost her mother early on in life, which plays a very important part in the story, and the blurred memory that her mother left behind dictates many of Lily’s own thoughts and feelings. As described by the author, this is a coming of age story of a girl just looking for a place that she belongs, and finding it somewhere much unfit for the time. This modern story of discovery is beloved by many of the book community, and had even been made into a movie in 2008. Sue Monk Kidd has written many self discovery and coming of age stories, most notably The Mermaid Chair and The Invention of Wings, both books that are currently in my very, very long wishlist. But, The Secret Life of Bees has my undivided attention at this moment, as even though I am only 14 pages in I feel incredibly connected to Lily, which goes to show how truly skilled Sue Monk Kidd is as a writer. I can’t wait to keep reading, and you better believe I’ll update you when I finish!

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1. The Secret Life of Bees
Author: Sue Monk Kidd
2. Out of My Mind
Author: Sharon M. Draper
3. The Fountains of Silence
Author: Ruta Sepetys
4. Zone One
Author: Colson Whitehead
5. The Women Can Fly
Author: Meagan Giddings
6. Parable to the Sower
Author: Octavia E. Butler
7. The Mermaid Chair
Author: Sue Monk Kidd
8. The Invention of Wings
Author: Sue Monk Kidd