Music and Images

Music is a powerful tool. It sets the scene in a movie or TV show. Imagine a killing scene in a horror movie with happy music playing or no music at all. You would probably not be scared. It can make you want to get up and dance or sit down and meditate.

Psycho Shower Scene With and Without Music

The music of Koyaanisqatsi reflects the scenes of everyday life as being repetitive and fast paced. The nature scenes usually have soft music with long notes instead of fast repetitive runs. The film opens with shots of nature and ominous music before abruptly changing to a fast tempo and repetitive runs. The faster music builds as piercing notes enter as Godfrey Reggio, the director, focuses on people’s faces. The music falls back to the slower tempo with men chanting “koyaanisqatsi” as a building falls in the middle of a city. The people are no longer being zooming by but are being slowed down by special effects.

Koyaanisqatsi means life out of balance. The music paired with the right scenes shows the viewer how different life can be. But is life really out of balance? What counts as being out of balance? The music, to me, suggests that we have increased the gap between civilization and nature. Nature seems to progress at its own pace while we must move at the pace of society. The music was more interesting to me than the actual film. The pictures seemed very random to me and did not mean much. I liked some scenes but the images were boring to me.

Over the Line

Werner Boote, the director of Plastic Planet, embarks on a quest to inform the public about plastic toxins.. Werner Boote exhibits moments of disrespect and pushiness in the film. During this quest, he interacts with people who work for plastic corporations or are advocating the dangers of plastic He crosses a line between interviewer and interviewee.

Vicky Zhang is an employee in a Chinese plastic factory that manufactures plastic globes. Werner Boote interviews Zhang until she states that her boss will not let her answer any more questions. Boote continues to root for information from her by asking why her boss will not allow her to say more. The continuation of the interview could compromise her job yet Boote insists on asking more questions.

In another scene, Boote is talking to a woman about her breast implants. He asks her how they feel and if she can tell they are there. This is a documentary about plastic and how it is toxic to the human body. He oversteps a line by asking very personal questions that some would find offensive. This scene was meant to show the viewer how comfortable we are with plastic since we have surgeries to place plastic inside our bodies. However, this scene comes across as creepy and invasive to the woman’s privacy.

Boote attended a plastic convention with a suitcase filled with studies about how plastic is dangerous to the human body. I understand that he wanted to show the viewers how secretive the heads of plastic corporations are. It makes the viewers suspicious of the companies. However, he should have turned the cameras off after the first or second time he was told to turn them off. Boote’s team continued to film which was disrespectful to the wishes of the convention leaders and rude.

There has to be a boundary that film makers and documentarians cannot cross. If this boundary is crossed too many times or ceases to exist, then what will be kept private? An understood boundary allows the interviewer and interviewee to have respect for each other. This boundary will also maintain a better relationship between the two parties. 

Beautiful Things Dance

In the Jesus Camp documentary, the children smash mugs with hammers to show their wish to purify the government. It reminded me of Montreat. The actors in the skit broke clay bowls to show that they had sin and could not stone the adulterous woman (John 8: 1-11).  The screen behind the dancer shows a potter's hands. The potter is using the broken clay to make a new bowl to show that if you are broken then you can still be beautiful.

The Presbyterian Way

As the daughter of two Presbyterian ministers, I became enraged and aggravated at the attitudes of the children and leaders in Jesus Camp. It was not the style of worship and practice that irritated me. I was angry at the message the children received and their attitudes toward other styles of worship and non-Evangelists.

I have participated in Christian conferences and “Jesus camps.” One of those camps was the Montreat Youth Conference (Montreat) that occurred every summer in Black Mountain, NC. This conference is for high school students. There were two different worship services everyday. The morning worship, or keynote, was contemporary with movie clips, videos, skits, and fun dancers. The evening worship was more traditional with singing, praying, and a sermon. I enjoy this diversity of worship styles. It is nice to attend contemporary services after weeks of traditional services. (The church I attended has traditional worship services.)

Keynote Ending from 2012 Montreat Conference

In Jesus Camp, Rachel Grady, one of the children the film follows, says that God “does not visit” churches that sing “three hymns and then have a sermon.” According to her, my church, where my dad preaches, is a “dead” church. I am not okay with this accusation. God loves all of His children. He is not going to picky over how we worship Him. I know that God is present during all types of worship because, during a traditional service at Montreat, I heard and felt His presence.

Rachel Grady

During the final hymn of a worship service at Montreat, I heard a voice in my head, that I had never heard before, say “You are loved, my precious child.” I cannot tell you whether that voice was old or young or male or female. This was during a very conflicted time of my life. I was actually thinking about leaving the Presbyterian Church. After I heard this voice, I started to hear voices of friends, family, and people I knew. Everything I heard had had some impact on my life. I was in tears because of this powerful experience. God is present everywhere even with nonbelievers.

I strongly disagree with the views the people in Jesus Camp held about different styles of worship and non-Evangelists. This blog post became a testimonial because of the strong emotions I felt after watching the documentary. People are losing interest in Christianity because of the close mindedness some Christians possess. Being open and accepting like Jesus Christ was will gain more admiration than shunning different lifestyles and beliefs. People just need to be open minded and accepting of others. 

Pictures:

http://www.thedocumentaryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/JesusCamp%20still4.jpg
http://randomthoughtsonlifeblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/acceptance.jpg

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTzOUJsA3ic