Filtering by
- All Subjects: Film
- Creators: The Sidney Poitier New American Film School
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
- Status: Published
This paper will analyze the two films Mississippi Burning and BlacKkKlansman, as well as some of the historical contexts surrounding them, in order to unpack the various aspects of police brutality, protest culture, and ideals of reform shown within. Furthermore, it will investigate the impact of diverging from history on the perception of policing units, and the importance of more accurate narratives like BlacKkKlansman in popular culture. <br/> To find evidence that BlacKkKlansman is a much more accurate narrative regarding law enforcement and the effects that sentiments seen in Mississippi Burning have on modern day events, a comprehensive research analysis was conducted. Both films were watched multiple times and analyzed thoroughly, and further research was done to understand not only the narrative elements of the plot, but how the visual aspects strengthen the arguments both films try to make. Scholarly articles on contexts surrounding the subjects of the film were also analyzed, including topics on the FBI, Martin Luther King Jr, and police brutality. Through this, it became evident that Mississippi Burning overlooked most of the reality of the events the film is loosely based upon in order to present a white savior story, whereas BlacKkKlansman addresses the existing prejudices head on while also showing the relation the events have to a more modern context, specifically surrounding the Trump administration.
Can You Hear Me is a short documentary which seeks to give voice to the experiences of trans and nonbinary students in ASU classrooms. What I present in this project are the direct spoken accounts of the feelings, thoughts and frustrations of transgender and nonbinary students as they navigate university classrooms at Arizona State University. Can You Hear Me serves as a representational platform for trans and nonbinary students to communicate their experiences to other students, staff and faculty in the hopes that it might help make classroom spaces more inclusive.
This creative project is assembled in screenplay format, providing the blueprint for a feature film. The research consisted of reading numerous screenplays, breaking down movies scene by scene, and undergoing a rigorous revision process with Thesis Director Professor Greg Bernstein. The logline of Changing Tides is: After discovering a gold-filled shipwreck, five Floridian middle schoolers head out to claim their treasure when they learn that the largest hurricane ever recorded is heading their way.
The motion picture and television industry is more than just lights, camera, and action. This $2 trillion dollar industry would not be able to function without the business behind the camera. Everything from content distribution, media sales, marketing, accounting, and finance goes into the creation and success of a television show and movie. At Arizona State University, there are currently not enough resources for students pursuing the business behind the motion picture and television industry. With in-depth knowledge and research of the industry, we will provide background on the industry as a whole and then a structured business degree that will be integrated within the W. P. Carey school of business.
This creative project is centered around the development and pitch of a 10-hour TV series consisting of story and character documents, pitch deck and pitch script; a full length draft of the series pilot is included. Development of the series' story and characters were done alongside Thesis Director Peter Murrieta.
The cyborgs in these films, however, refuse to let categorizations like female, or even their status as human, alive, or real, restrict them so easily. As human-robot hybrids, cyborgs bridge identities that are assumed to be separate and often oppositional or mutually exclusive. Cyborgs reveal the structures and expectations reified in gender to suggest that something constructed can as easily be deconstructed. In doing so, they create loose ends that leave space for new understandings of both gender and technology. By viewing these films alongside critical theory, we can understand their cyborgs as subversive, hybrid characters. Accordingly, the cyborg as a figure subverts and fragments the coherency of narratives that present gender, technology, and identity in monolithic terms, not only helping us envision new possibilities but giving us the faculties to imagine them at all.