"Losing Isaiah"

The movie that I will discuss is called Losing Isaiah, directed by Stephen Gyllenhall. This film focuses on the controversial battle between a African American, played by

Halle Berry

and her fight to win back her son Isaiah from his adoptive white mother, played by

Jessica Lange

. From the six approaches to writing about film, I will focus on the ideological approach of this movie. In an article titled

Beyond `Losing Isaiah': Truth in shades of gray

, written by Lena Williams she discusses the issue of trans racial adoptions. In her article she states,

Experts in child psychology and racial identity differ widely on whether black children are harmed by being adopted by white families.

. This issue fall under the ideological approach because this film focuses on the beliefs and values of black and white in the sense of race and class. The fact that Halle Berry plays a young African American, who was an ex drug addict who is now fighting for the custody of her son who was taken in by a white mother and her family caused a huge racial custody battle of whether it was more appropriate to send the child to his natural black mother or stay with the white mother.

Zhang Yimou "Hero"

This article, 'Hero': Easy on the eyes but a little too plodding written by Mike Clark focuses on the movie Hero. In this article the writer discusses the characters in the movie and how the movie was the most successful foreign film and also how it made a big hit in the United States.

ZHANG Yimou Film "Not One Less"

This article discusses the film,

Not One Less

, directed by Zhang Yimou. This movie discusses children in a remote village who are ram shackled in a one-room school. They are starved of government funding,and struggle to survive in the harsh environment of contemporary capitalist China. The themes of Yimou generally deal with Chinese people in face with hardships and adversities.

"Three Kings"

This critical article, written by David Edelstein discusses the film

Three Kings

. It focuses on the plot of the story and also the context of the Iraqi War.

JON BRION: 'I &heart; Huckabee's'

This article written by Jon Brion discusses the music used for the soundtrack of I Love Huckabees, directed by David Russell. In this article Brion talks about how much of an important role music plays in a film. Brion stated,

David and I had a conversation about how disgustingly gratuitous song placement in the movies has become, and how most soundtrack music doesn't have a sense of song to it.

Dustin Hoffman plays an "existential detective" who probes coincidences in his clients' lives and raves like an aging acidhead about how everything is connected to everything else.

Because, the movie had many tension points, Brion agreed with Russell on how he focused his music on the most emotional tension points.

Tony Kaye's "Lake of Fire"

In this article written by Richard Porton, he discusses movies including Tony Kaye's "Lake if Fire" movie. In this article he discusses some of the apparent styles of directing that Kaye seems to use throughout his movie productions. He states how this production by Kaye was considered to be a challenge to him because it was difficult to classify into a specific genre.

Although nothing approaching the stature of Thom Andersen's Los Angeles Plays Itself emerged this year, one nonfiction film, Tony Kaye's Lake of Fire, could only be labeled an unclassifiable conundrum since Unraveling its frequently opaque argument posed a real challenge.

Historical Events that Relate to American History X

This article discusses the life of Neo-Nazi's including symbols, beliefs, and organizations. This article also includes background information and a brief history of the Neo-Nazi movement.This article relates to American History X, because the main focus of the movie deals with and ex Neo-Nazi and how he tries to reconnect with his family after serving time in prison. Also he tries to save his brother who is beginning to follow in his past footsteps.

Ideological Analysis on Hotel Rwanda

The article Peasant Ideology and Genocide in Rwanda Under Habyarimana , was written by Phillip Verwimp who is an Economics professor at Yale University. This article appeared in Center for Economics Study and focuses on the developmental processes that took place in Rwanda before the Genocide and the neglect that soon came later after the horrible massacre. In this article Verwimp discusses the economy of Rwanda after the genocide. Verwimp stated,

Some societies have, in the past, opposed manual and intellectual labor with the latter giving in general more prestige to its performer. Such a concept not only seems outdated but also unacceptable because it is not realistic. In fact, manual labor, especially agricultural labor is the basis of our economy. We want to repeat that agriculture will stay the essential base of our economic system for years to come.

Theme "Crash"

http://www.ithaca.edu/ithacan/articles/0510/06/accent/8lsquocr.htm

This website focuses on the movie "Crash." The movie discusses various scenes throughout the movie that deal with racial issues. This is all part of Haggis’ plan in a film he describes as a "passion piece."
"He simply takes each of these characters, places them in intense circumstances and captures the results, leaving the reasons for certain actions open to the viewer’s interpretation."(Josh Mellman)
In this website the writer John Mellman
focuses on the five families and how each of their issues with race tie into one.

Formalist Film Terms

This website gives numerous film terms along with there definitions. These terms are drawn from Film Art or How to Read a Film

One Useful fFilm for Major Writing Project

In this website you are able to find information about the actual history of Rosewood and the events that took place. Interviews of the actual characters of this movie are available on this website. Also information on the director John Singleton is available on this website. These and many other sources of information are available on this movie website.