Identity, Race and Essentialism in “Hair Love”

 

The film is about a girl who is in conflict with accepting a single part of her identity by the struggles of her hair and conflict with her environment by the world built around her which is at odds with her family. The girl is an innocent and enthusiastic child who is quite impatient, she is accompanied by her father who seems to be trying to help but fails at first, and her mother who is suffering from cancer and unable to help. The girl is conflicted against herself in terms of a part of her identity, the father is also in conflict with himself with his own identity and his environment in terms of essentialism as the role of being a man and helping his daughter with her hair which is uncommon for men. The concept of gender roles as a man is to be a breadwinner and when it comes to black men the media generally pictures them as absent and not involved, which is not how the father here is. The social expectations the world has for him are what he fights against as his own identity and the way he views himself is not based on them. They overcame their conflict by remembering that they have each other, this realisation made them understand that whatever role or look they have, they can make it through. The heart of the story is love and acceptance, identity plays a part in how we can see ourselves, where their race is sometimes misrepresented in media and essentialism on how certain groups should act.

Kennedy - jokzd2003

Elika - amied2003

Ariman - abdad2102

Jiayi - xuj8d1803

 

 

 

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

 

The story is about a legend, if people make a thousand paper cranes, the Gods will heal them and they can achieve their dream. When Sadako understands this story, she tried to make a thousand paper cranes. Although she suffers from her disease, she makes a few paper cranes every day. Then, she succeeds and made 1000 of them. Unfortunately, Sadako gets weaker and died in the end.

Moral: Putting effort into everything and doing things continuously every day for achieving goals is important.

 

Updated Story

● She is diagnosed with lung cancer from smoking and the use of drugs.

● She wants to win a writing competition to go to Disneyland as one of her last activities in life.

● She writes every day, but she gets weaker at the same time.

● Eventually, she dies before she could submit her writings, but her family submit it and they win.

 

 

 

Instructions:

Below is a set of questions designed to guide you through the process of composing your final group project. These questions/tasks are intended to follow up on the ones you worked on previously.

As you work through these questions, keep notes about the group discussion and decisions. A completed copy of these questions MUST be uploaded to your Padlet by the end of class today. If your group runs into issues where you don’t have an answer, haven’t made a decision or simply aren’t sure…work through it, get it done! Don’t just list some tasks and move on. We want to see that your group has really tried to work through the tasks and ideas. Follow through on some of your ideas and see what happens.

You have been given a lot of class time to work on this project. Our expectations are high. Remember, you’ve acquired a lot of new academic skills, vocabulary, and theory this semester; your analysis and presentation need to reflect that. And, when in doubt…ask! We’re here to help you.

 

Complete the Following:

 

Step 1: Now that you have the basic ideas mapped out, refine your argument and analysis; identify the crucial evidence you need to support your points (i.e.: theory, case studies, clips, etc).

 

Step 2: Revisit your analysis. Do you see any vague or misleading assumptions concerning your analysis and argument? How can you add detail to your argument and presentation to make sure you are going beyond the surface? (Identify potential weakness and how you might fix them)

 

Step 3: Identify what would be the most effective way to present your points (i.e.: power point slides, images, video clips etc.). Discuss how you will break up the elements of the presentation and the speaking parts. Why is this the most effective way to do it?

 

 

Step 4: Revisit and adjust your timeline. Make any additions or adjustments that are necessary – making sure to assign roles and due dates.

 

 

Step 1:

1. For each analysis:

a. Semiotic -

i. shapes

ii. symbols

b. Narrative -

i. Script

ii. Translation from script to acting

c. Cultural/Historical -

i. Connection to real world

ii. physical features

iii. stories

d. Mise-en-scéne -

i. lighting/VFX

ii. sound/music

iii. animation style

Using images, clips and journals that will relate to course theory.

 

 

Step 2:

Some idea seems to be same in the surface but the inner idea is different such as women, anti-war etc. I will list the all-important idea which I think can provide the trait that most infects people. For example, note the difference between metaphor and hyperbole, explain different meanings under the atmosphere. such as hyperbole means irony but metaphor means good side.

● find relations between the story of Parvana and the story of Sulayman as told by Parvana

● How does Parvana find courage and strength to find her father, who helped her? who assisted her during her journey?

● Who sets things in motion, who is the root cause of the conflict for Parvana and her struggles?

● How does Fattema try to help her family? How does this affect Soraya?

● How women and men are treated differently

● Why Parvana does not go to school?

● Who controls the city they live in?

● What role does Zaki play? his purpose symbolism

● The roles each character plays and their addition to the main plot

● Oppression and violence towards women,

● Warlords in control

● Orange/yellow lighting/VFX

 

Now that your group has selected a movie, complete the following steps:

 

Step 1: Brainstorm a list of questions about the analysis that your group needs to explore. Focus on the movie, the story being told and how you might start framing your analysis and approach. As a group, you might want to consider: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the story being told? Are there key characters or plotlines that should be analyzed? Is there a historical issue or context that should be considered? Note: Your goal here is to start brainstorming what elements of the movie are going to be part of your analysis and why those elements are the most important.

Step 2: Discuss if there is there a central topic or idea that you will focus on in your analysis? What connections might you explore between the movie and course material? For example: depictions of race, depictions of gender, depictions of the future etc. Why are you focusing on these ideas? Are there secondary ideas to consider?

 

Step3: Identify what kind of information the group needs to know/have before starting the analysis.

 

Step4: As a group, think about what types of theories and course material will be helpful in your analysis. What are the strengths and weaknesses of using these theories and approaches?

 

Step 5:

As a group, map out a list of tasks that need to be done in order to get started on your analysis and presentation. With each task assign a deadline and indicate who is responsible for the task. 

 

1. What are the main characters and their features?

2. What are the plot, summary of story and conflicts?

3. Are there any analogies?

4. What are the strengths of the story? 

5. What are the weakness of the story?

6. Does the story consist of gender inequality?

7. Is music suitable for the animation and what feelings it can make?

8. How are the colors and animating method in the movie?

9. Is there any historical issues which are related to the story?

10. How the main character (Parvana) and other females in the story are represented?

 

1. The hard situations which females face to in the world (Gender inequality)

2. Orientalism

3. Hegemony

4. Features which show dystopian world in the animation

 

1. What is the representation meaning?

2. Stereotypes which people face in the real world

3. Knowing the differences between the movie and book

4. History of Afghanistan and middle east 

5. Culture industry

 

 

 

 

1. Finding academic sources

2. Knowing enough about media and its elements

3. Stereotypes about gender inequality 

4. Encoding and decoding knowledge

 

Watching the animation |  Friday - July 16^th, 2021 |  All the members
Searching about Afghanistan history and culture | Sunday - July 18^th |  All the members
Finding 4 strength of the movie  |  Friday - July 23^st |  Jiayi Xu
Finding 4 weakness of the movie | Friday - July 23^st |  Ariman
Encoding and decoding the elements and dialogues |  Friday - July 23^st |  Elika
Finding the relationship between animation and course material (Gender inequality & orientalism and ...) | Friday - July 23^st | Kennedy
Gathering information for introduction of the presentation (Summary of the story and characters) | Friday - July 23^st | Kennedy
Creating presentation Powerpoint template  | Monday - July 26st  |  Elika
Placing the information on the Powerpoint slide | Saturday - July 31st | All the members
Practicing the presentation together  | Monday - August 2^nd | All the members