ECHO - a film on perspectives

At times we make judgements on what we see based on our experience.  More often than not, our experience tends to make us skeptical and critical of what we encounter.  Only if we look closer and deeper do we uncover a new dimensions of something thrust before us.

I recently encountered the film "Echo" in a MOOC on film making.  The story revolves around a 17 year old girl, Caroline, who receives a phone call while walking on the street.  From the conversation, you  deduce that it is about her Dad getting into an accident.  Passersby notice the distraught Caroline and offer to help by getting her a cab and giving her money.  As soon as she takes the cab, her face changes and she stops the cab a few meters away from the scene.  Later you find Caroline at home with her family. Her mom upset about her being late.  In the next scene you find her having the same phone call and a passerby helping her.  This is cut short with the arrival of her brother. He asks who the guy is and how does he know about their dad.   In the final parts of the film, Caroline once again has the phone call experience with people helping her.

At the first sequence  of Caroline's phone call experience, you conclude that she is a fraud, taking advantage of the kindness of other people.  The film shots are taken from a distance, giving you the point of view of an outsider.  The middle part of the film gives you a glimpse of Caroline's family life. You get hints about an incident in the past that the family is coping.  The third part gives you an insight of how Caroline is feeling during the phone call experience.  With upclose camera shots, you find that she is highly emotional as if she were reliving the whole experience of her Dad having an accident.

The use of repetition and variation in this film gives you an insight to the same phenomenon from different angles.  By watching this film, one realizes that a story has many dimensions depending on the point of view you look at it from.  It reminds me of Akira Kurosawa's film "Rashomon" where a single storyline is told from the perspective of many witnesses with the end left for the audience to present a verdict.

I'm curious to know what you think of this film. Feel free to comment.

A Compassionate Bureaucracy: Gauchet's "The Mass of Men"

It is not uncommon to find workers in the Government Bureaucracy to act in a condescending manner upon those who seek their services.  While it is unfair to make this as a generalization towards all in  civil service, it remains a fact that rude treatment of their  clientele exists.  It is a constant challenge, therefore, for the leadership of Government agencies to drive and maintain a culture of customer orientation among their agents. 

I encountered a short film by Gabriel Gauchet depicting the plight of jobless individuals in the UK seeking assistance from Government Job Centers.  The film shows the main character showing up a bit late for his appointment.  Despite the fact that the job officer did not notice the tardiness until the main character brought it up, the job officer slaps him with a suspension of his allowance for 2 weeks.  The tension escalates as he refuses to sign the document which prompts the job officer to threaten him with a 4 week suspension of his allowance.  This comes to an end when a guy comes in an shoot the lady with a nail gun, drags her and nails her to the floor.   While this commotion escalates, our main character does what he can to delete the suspension from his records. 

 WARNING : THIS FILM IS VIOLENT!!!

What seems to be put forth here is the attitude of utter disdain the job officer has for her client, who she sees as lazy and irresponsible.  She does not see him as an individual who needs assistance during this stage in his life.  In my own experience, I benefited from the services of a Police Investigator who treated me as a client who needed assistance rather than as a source of information to do his job. By having a high sense of customer orientation ingrained in a civil servants training regimen, Government services are delivered more efficiently and effectively.

Skyborn - A short film worth watching

I recently encountered a nice short film entitled "Skyborn" in a MOOC that I was working on.  This film by Jamie Stone, supported by the National Film and Television School of the UK, shows the struggle of a Father and Son as they try to free themselves from the life they have in a post-apocalyptic smog filled world.

Our story begins with the father, Gideon, telling his son, Blue, a story of how the smog came to be.   As cities grew, the smog became thicker forcing people to build their cities even higher.  Some were left on the ground facing the challenges of a smog filled world.  Eventually, those on the surface died except for Gideon and his son Blue.  It is with this premise that Gideon casts the vision of building a flying machine so they could rejoin the other humans in the cities above the clouds.  The task of building and trying out flying machines proves daunting, driving Blue to discouragement.  Blues discouragement turns into outright resentment towards his father, thinking that Gideon loves the vision more than his son. Blue acts on his feelings by creating a tree that has plastic bags "growing" from it, in an effort to disprove his fathers idea that the bags are evidence of a city above.   The boy then has a change in conscience and eventually works towards realizing his fathers dream.

What I like about this film is that it has a clear, concise story line that has an escalating level of tension as the story goes.  When you think there is a good ending in sight a twist happens that makes the film memorable and powerful.  Skyborn has a very effective use of drama in the development of a credible emotional experience for our main character Blue.  His father also plays a consistent yet benevolent opposing character which eventually wins the young Blue by the mentioned traits.

A recurring theme in this film is examining the evidence.  Gideon has a hypothesis that there are cities above the clouds as stated by the stories passed on to him from previous generations.  The presence of plastic bags with elaborate markings are considered by him as evidence to support his belief.  Blue tries to dissuade him from his beliefs by fabricating false evidence.  Gideon is saddened at first but responds by closely examines the evidence to address his doubts. 

Watching this film was truly enriching experience for me.  Please share your insights in the comments section below.


Skyborn from Jamie Stone on Vimeo.