This week we have a discussion period for working through Storytelling as well as Hamlet.
In order to make that discussion productive, I've put together a few remarks about Storytelling for you to read before we talk at length about it. I have a few things to say, but most of the remarks you will read here are culled from the student logs generated by earlier versions of this course. I thought you might find the perspectives of other students on this film to be useful and interesting and I also thought it might be productive for you to look at how other students have used the space afforded by the student logs.
There have been some interesting logs on Storytelling from this class, too. Please look at them (and respond!) before our discussion.
Now on to Storytelling:
I like using Storytelling in this course because I think it makes for a good discussion in its juxtaposition of oppositions (fact v. fiction, truth v. lie, white v. black, female v. male, student v. teacher, powerful v. powerless, written vs. visual text...I could go on and on). Once you have things set up so starkly like that you pretty much have to address them. The two-fold nature of the film's structure also formally frames the film in terms of opposition, comparison and contrast: two things set side by side and labeled as opposites ("fiction" and "nonfiction") opens up an examination of "binary oppositions" and their hidden and not-so-hidden connections.
The film sets up not only a discussion of "true" and "false" but also focuses on how these categories can be manipulated. On the one hand everyone has their own "reality," their own "truth." But not everyone's "truth" is granted the same kind of value. Whose "truth" gets granted the status of The Truth?
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Student logs from other courses:
1) I've been focusing on the title of the film we viewed and how it's significant. Storytelling, isn't it all fiction in a way? We all view things differently and when we retell stories they always come out different. So isn't it all fiction? Unless the action is occurring at the moment how could it be nonfiction.
I think I enjoyed the class discussion after the film more than the film itself, it brought me to a better understanding. If we are now looking at "truth" which is what I think of when viewing documentaries or autobiographies, I was surprised at the satiric feeling of the film. I enjoyed the diptych style of the film much like Distant Voices Still Lives but I'm still working on the contrast.
The first part or "Fiction" seemed more like truth, the main character's short story was about her reality about the shame and guilt felt after the manipulation from the cocky professor. Her reality was shadowed by the classes reaction to the story. Her truth was questioned, but how can your own reactions be questioned? It happened to you.
The second part "Non Fiction" was so over the top. This family was so strange and extreme, each character was so exaggerated and puppet-like. The evil character of the young boy Mikey was so disturbing, the extreme long, close-up shots when this kid was speaking just enough to hate him more. Within this exaggerated family story was the core story of the loser documentary-maker. I didn't expect the the Scooby story to be so misunderstood by the viewers, actually I felt his pain and couldn't believe the audience was laughing. Once again his truth was distorted or manipulated by another's point of view.
Getting back to "truth" (the state of being accurate) is the meaning in the eyes of the beholder?
Our reality is our own. So the details in telling a story or creating our narrative is different and the reality is our alone? Kinda like the blogs.
2) Since everyone's perception is unique and created differently, all stories and truths that are told aren't always true to the listener. In the first half of the film, if the professor had told the story it probably would have come out completely different to VI's account. Would his version be a lie? Would his version be the truth in his eyes? I think it would be the truth because it would come from his feelings and how he perceived it. Just as I think her version of the story is the truth because she felt victimized and there's no arguing with emotions. With the second half of the film, I personally found Scooby to be an irritating snob, but when the audience was viewing the documentary and laughing I felt sorry for him that he didn't realize how his life seemed outside his own perception.
3) I think that Storytelling is just what it says, telling a story. Everyone has his own version of the same story, just as everyone in the room last Tuesday would tell of what happened in the class that night. Some stories may be similar, but I believe everyone would have their own twist to the story.
In the first half of Storytelling, the use of the dark bar, cigarettes are typical to show a person in emotional distress. She went there on a mission, maybe not consciously, but she went there for a reason. How she could tell her story, where did her story start? From the beginning of the movie when her boyfriend told his story. That was his version of who she was. Then she went to the bar to find out exactly who she really was. The use of the handicap guy, tells me the film maker wanted us to believe that she was a sort of live and let live kind of person. That she could look beyond a person's disabilities. Then the use of the African American teacher extended us to believe that she saw him as a man not a African American man. I think she went with him for validation of herself. But the use of verbal abuse during sex, and the pictures in the bathroom make her aware that she was being used. It also gives the audience the possibility that the girl and the man were using each both, yet for different reasons.
When she went into the classroom the next day, we had no warning that her story was about the incident (was it rape? I am not sure) At that point we see that the other students that were also involved with the teacher, maybe not so proud of their involvement, turn their back on her. They claim she is lying. But that is what she saw and felt. So how could it be a lie? As this is being portrayed there are more facets to the story that may or not change the viewers perspective, but it did not change the girl story. Just like in a polygraph test, nothing is a lie if you believe it.
4) This was a fantastic movie the fiction, non-fiction parts of the movie to use a visual mind play on the fact that the non-fiction parts were played to such an extreme that it made to seem fiction. The fiction part was so true to life in feeling that when you watch you felt uncomfortable watching it. Also, the simple play on the roles that every character was played so strong in non-fiction that it was a great story to tell and that when each person is played like that they all seem to be a raciest person. Every character also showed a human side that broke them away from there genre except for the young boy. His youngest brother was a devilish little prick the entire time and never showed a bit of sympathy or remorse to anyone and just looked to screw them all over for what he wanted.
The story also had a aspect of truth in how people are all a bit racist in there own ways and if not racist then judgmental. Everyone at the table in the fiction portion who commented on her story as being nothing more than a sick cry for attention and a whore's story to degrade everyone when she was telling the truth. Also how she herself was such a big racist that she allowed her self to be used by both a crippled man and a black man just so she could feel better about herself and not feel so much like a racist.
5) When I was watching this movie in class I was trying to figure out why the pieces were titled the way they were. I thought fiction was going to convey the truth about ignorant/non-believed issues such as racism/teacher+student relationships/cp relationships, and nonfiction was going to be events so obscure that there's no way they could be true, or something to that effect... I can't really word it on here in a way that I want, but in any case I found out after wards what these titles mean from the people in class. So from my notes I've gathered that Fiction was meant to deliver a message of how sometimes no matter how true a strange or scary story is, people are skeptical and believe it to be false, aka fiction. As shown in the line "once you start writing it all becomes fiction." And then with nonfiction, well I'm still unsure about that. I thought a lot of that was ridiculous at the end. But not in a negative way, I know its suppose to be like that, an exaggerated satire. Well maybe nonfiction means that through documentary videos, that when they are edited in a certain way by a director, it still is the truth, but shown in a way to obscure it. I was looking at it through a grand scale rather then a specific one, grand being life, specific being art. So instead of Scooby being portrayed as a serious person in a serious situation, it becomes the total opposite through the warped editing of the footage. I didn't even notice how the use of the quotes effected the whole message of them too. A way to show sarcasm I suppose you could say.
At the end I was trying to figure out what these two stories had in common. I thought midway through that maybe the director was going to cut back and forth and finally blend together the two. But he didn't so I learned that what they both in common was that they were about art (creative writing and film). Using the medium to talk about the medium.
6) Last class we saw Storytelling, I don’t even know where to begin. Fiction was shocking but at the same time amusing with the red box editing. I felt like the girl in the film, Vi was only interested in dating people that she felt like she hand the upper hand over. Yet when it came to her Professor it was almost like she wanted to sleep with him because she had to prove to herself that she wasn’t racist. The Professor’s character makes me sick. I don’t understand how he could tie up that one girl and then have sex with the other while he made her scream out foul things and then be able to sit face to face with them in group discussions in class. As far Vi's character is concerned, I don’t feel bad for her, she knowingly put herself in that position.
When she left her apartment that night she specifically said she was going to go have sex with some one. I don’t know what she was hoping the outcome to be, but I couldn’t believe that she had the nerve to read it out loud to her classmates and in front of her ex boyfriend who she has run to right after the incident. Her Professor didn’t even seem fazed by her story as if he knew that it was something that her classmates would disagree with therefore leaving him in the clear.
In Nonfiction the character Scooby who belonged to an upper class Jewish family was chosen by Toby to write a documentary about him and his family. I feel like Toby was just looking for any claim to fame at this point in his life, and he didn’t care who he hurt or offended. Scooby pushed his parents limits to a certain point and then did things half ass just so that his parents would leave him alone. Night after night the family tried to pretend to be normal and have dinner together but each night a new thing would happen and someone was either walking away or being told to leave. The dinner scenes seemed so forced and unnatural. To be honest once the youngest brother was introduced I really could concentrate on anyone else. I don’t know why that kid bothered me so much I just remember over and over again in my head saying, "If that was my child I would beat his ass." The way he spoke to others irritated me, he seemed so sheltered to what other peoples lives may be like. He constantly wanted to be the center of attention. I felt so bad for their maid Consuela, at one point in the film you could see the sweat dripping off of her and then the little brother has the nerve to say she’s lazy. He doesn’t even clean up after himself when his spills something. Both the parents were completely ignorant to what their children were doing.
7) I thought Storytelling was a really interesting film. I really felt sympathy for both Vi and Scooby in a way. Their situations were completely different but they both went through something very traumatic. I could kind of see where they were both coming from. I thought Vi seemed very concerned with what everyone thought of her because she didn't want to look like a racist, but at the same time she ended up in a bad situation. The entire time that she had been with her professor, she looked uneasy, like she wasn't too sure of what she was doing. I think she stayed because maybe she felt that if she walked out of there, then she was a bad person.
I felt bad for Scooby too. It was like he had an idea of what he wanted to do, but was still at that point in his life where he wasn't ready to really think about the future and go to college. I think he was used in a small way by Toby for the documentary.
8) Well, From what I can see, there is too much sympathy for two characters who don't deserve a bit of sympathy. To analyze Vi first, lets all realize that she isn't a child anymore; she is an adult that is in college and should be able to make adult decisions. She should also be able to deal with the consequences of her actions as well. As I had mentioned in class, the scene before she went to the bar she had it in her mind to do what she was going to do and did what she set out to do, nothing less, nothing more.
I also think that she wasn't a mentally stable person. Who in their right mind would get up off the bar, physically walk to the table where the professor is and think your not going to be getting laid, when thats what you set out to do! Give me a break! Sorry, I just can't give a living, breathing, thinking, and conscious human being a free pass. Lots of decisions were made to do what she did. She could have cut and run at any time, instead she knew what she was doing and felt it was right because she wanted to do it.
As for Scooby, I also have no sympathy for this one at all. I think that around the age of reason, when you can tell between right and wrong is when you begin to grow up and see the world for what it is. In Scoob's case, I feel that he just was as lazy as a days long. I really can't understand why anyone would have any sympathy for him.
Many people have it much worse then he had it; they rise above all that surrounds them and become successful. He decided to take the lazy/easy route and just let life come to him and what ever happens will happen. His character was definitely not a go-getter and was really just silly and a pore excuse for a young male adolescence. Satire--satire---satire....every way you look at this film, its all satire! From the titles to the characters, they all were so against what was supposed to be the norm.
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