No Guff, Kerry and I like the Mockumentary

The genre that Kerry and I choose is the mockumentary - and it's what we are going to do our wiki chapter on. We have decided to focus our wiki chapter on recent movie and television comedic mockumentaries. Christopher Guest has made a series of mockumentary movies that have been quite popular, including A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, and Waiting for Guffman a. He was also in my favorite mockumentary, Rob Riener's This is Spinal Tap. Kerry is BBC's The Office freak and she also is into Curb Your Enthusiasm. Both are great examples of mockumentaries done on telelvision.

Most mockumentaries are meant to depict satire or parady and are unscripted. They typically depict lovable losers or people who take themselves too seriously. The story lines typically depict a character who is in too deep or thinks too much of himself, gets into a pickle, and ultimately resumes life - sometimes learning nothing from the lesson. Larry David of Curb Your Enthusiam makes the same mistakes over and over - it's just Larry. However, a characteristic of the mockumentary is that even though the main characters may be annoying or even pathetic, the audience sees them as human and has sympathy...even empathy for them. In these characters, we all see ourselves and our foibles.

Madden's just Mad

For my ethnography I interviewed two 15 year olds and an 11 year old about their gaming. All three of these kids like to play video games but are also involved in sports. One of the three has a job. All three prefer to play sports games. The games they play are almost exclusively sports games. Halo is the exception and they all three really like to play Halo. The reasons they like sports games are that they love sports and their mom won't let them buy war games. They might buy more war games if their mom didn't give them such a big hassle about them. They game an average of 5 to 15 hours a week, depending on whether or not their sport is in season. Two of the kids game in a room in their basement that is set up with a comfortable couch and television. They have the room to themselves and are allowed to have food and pop there. The other has a similar situation in his house where he can game seperate from the rest of the family. They all prefer to game with other people. They will play alone but it is much more fun for them to have people over to game.

Their favorite game right now is Madden Football 2007. However, they always like the latest versions of games best so when something new comes out the game will be their favorite and they'll play it almost exlusively. They like to play Madden because they can work together to draft their own team and then play a "season" against other teams. The commentator in the game gives them feedback on their draft picks and makes comments after the plays. They like to get feedback from the game. They love when one of them makes a player do something bad. They laugh really hard and give the person all kinds of grief, which in turn makes someone else flub up, which is cause for more hilarity. They are loud and raucus when they play as a group. They also will game for awhile and then go outside and try some of the plays they did during the game. When they get worn out from that they come back in and play some more.

These particular kids show a high level of engagement with Madden football because they take it from its intended use, gaming, and incorporate it into their lives, replicating "gaming" plays when they play football outside. Madden is marketed for males and to males and these males are attracted to what the marketers have offered them. There are no females in the game, and they thought it was a dumb question when asked if that bothered them. Part of the attraction of Madden to these kids is that they are trying on a different identity. In the game they are team builders, literally. They are powerful and skilled athletes, and they are in control. They have the power to make decisions beyond what they are allowed in their "real lives." When they go out to play football and mimic the game, they take their fantasy beyond the screen into the front yard. Gaming is a way they can live out the fantasy that all three have, that of becoming a pro athlete. Gaming is also a way for them to make social connections. With the game they all have something in common. Something to laugh about together, and to do together. Hierarchies do exist, with the best player as "top dog." As players become more skilled, the playing field, so to speak, becomes more level in terms of hierarchy. As the kids navagate growing maturity in their "real" lives, gaming allows them to try on being grown men without being grown men.

A different view of mother's milk

This is a very common image of a woman as a mother. She is a nurturer, she's loving, she's protective, and she is a caretaker. Her body language tells the viewer that she is all about her baby. She is completely wrapped up - almost literally in motherhood. As a mother, I identify with her but think the picture is not quite complete. If asked to define myself, being a mother would certainly be one of the first things I'd say, but I'm also a wife, student, friend, etc. I think it's dangerous for women to be defined only by and through their children because it perpetuates female stereotyping.

Mother's Milk

This is cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers album that represents a mother as both a nurturer and as a sexual being. The woman on the cover is cradling the band members in her arms, keeping them safe between her breasts and presumably nuturing her with her milk. She is also highly sexualized. Her breasts are bare and sexually depicted with the flower covering the nipple. She is looking down on a band member with an expression that is not entirely sexual, but not entirely maternal either. The juxtiposition of sexuality, rock and roll, and motherhood is jarring. I like this image because it challenges how we think about mothers. Mothers are typically depicted at nurturing and loving but never sexual. It is as if once you become a mother you lose your sexuality and sex appeal.

I chose the movie The Celebration, directed by Thomas Vinterberg, to look at through the lenses of postmodern analysis and critical discourse analysis: discourses of race.

Thomas Vinterberg along with director Lars VonTrier (Breaking the Waves, Dogville), are the founders of the Dogme 95 movement. Dogme's goal is "countering 'certain tendencies' in the cinema today" and is a "rescue action" of film and the film industry. Dogme 95 challenges the use of technology in film and by limiting technology challenge directors to rid themselves of "trickery" and "predictability." Because of the democratasation of cinema, Vinterberg and Von Trier contend, directors must preserve the avant-garde by taking a Vow of Chastity Dogme movies are shot on location, using only natural light and sound. The camera must be hand-held, the film must be in color, nothing can happen in the film that does not happen in front of the camera so no murders, and the director must not be credited.

The Celebration is the first Dogme movie and can be looked at with a post-modern lens because it challenges "progress" and "technology" in cinema. Vinterberg shoots this moving film over a 24 hour period, using only natural light and sound and a digital camera. This breaks all of the rules of "Hollywood" blockbusters that have special effects, unnatural lighting, and sound effects up the wazzoo. The action rises and falls with the sun. The constraints Vinterberg puts on himself to create the movie challenge every notion of modern movie making - and he succeeds in making a brilliant film.

The Celebration can also be looked at through the lens of discourse of race. One plot line in the movie is an interracial couple, the main characters sister and her black boyfriend. The film explores bourgeois, European racial attitudes towards blacks. Vinterberg clearly means to remind the viewer that the boyfriend is much more "civilized" and honorable than the bourgeois Europeans who populate the film. The boyfriend is accosted with racial slurs which is preposterous given the situation that is occurring in the main plot line.

Check out the Dogme web site and I highly recommend The Celebration. It's a powerfully crafted and powerful film.