Do you know that Chimborazo is the highest mountain in the world if measured from the center of the earth? (Higher than Everest, always considered the roof of the world) According to Geology.com, Chimborazo in Ecuador has an altitude of 6,310 meters (20,703 feet). Mount Everest has a higher altitude, and Mauna Kea is “taller.” However, Chimborazo has the distinction of being the “highest mountain above Earth’s center.” I say this because last week, I watched a documentary that mentioned the mountain. Actually it the documentary is called, “The last Ice Merchant” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAeUC0-v5x4

Twice a week for over half a century, Baltazar Ushca has climbed the slopes of Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador, to harvest the ice from the natural glaciers that cover the highest altitudes of the volcano. The last icemaker of the Chimborazo is a peasant who’s  very poor. He’s job every day is to climb the top of the Chimborazo to pick up pieces of ice and then sell them and so get ahead and survive and is the only one that still lives for that.  I feel satisfied to have been able to know something more; especially since it’s recorded in where I was born. ( I was born in Ecuador) But, i’m Sad for the circumstances of work and life in which Baltazar and his family have to face daily. In my opinion many of the times we complain about simple things because we are living modern life and practically everything is based on the material. When we should realize the humble and simple people who do an arduous job and that in the end their payment is not fair. Those people just like Baltazar make us not lack our products of daily consumption.  And I absolutely agree with the interviewer that Baltazar should be named a Living Nation of Our Nation since he is like a living book for the Ecuadorian people.

The other day in class we watched a movie called Harlan County USA. In eastern Kentucky in 1931 when mine operators locked out workers for voting to union. This movie  follows with precision and detail the development of such a long conflict, presenting the working and living conditions of the workers of Harlan, their demands, their positions, their organization to face the gunmen of the company Eastover Mining, the participation Of the police, nothing impartial, the police wouldn’t do nothing about the problem. But Barbara Kopple (the director) is not limited to this, parallel to the central action.

In my opinion, after watching the movie the strike that the miners and their families were doing, offers us three other blocks of information. First, the role of the women of the miners during the time the strike lasted. I think, seeing them stepping up and doing more action then their husbands, made me realize how much of important role this womans had  in this movie, and how would it have been if they didn’t step in. Secondly, the parallels between Harlan County’s current situation and the events of the 1930s, which earned it the name Bloody Harlan (the bloody Harlan) and, the decade-long conflict between miners and the coal operators who adamantly resisted unionization was violent miners and gun thugs lost their lives.

Finally, the role of folklore, its meaning and the mechanisms that originate it. A large  repertoire of songs, both traditional songs of mine and composed by the own protagonists of the action, serve as commentary on the film. This songs; folklore had a message behind of them. In addition, by singing the songs make them come and be together the miners and their families. These Folklore represents the past too, in what how they use to live .  It is a living folklore that has nothing to do with the prefabricated and canned country to which certain American cinema has us so accustomed. All of this makes Harlan County USA-and should-be seen for more reasons than its first and central intention.

Marvel comics has got some problems. Now what do I mean well it seems that they’ve forgotten their history and are in a pit fall of terrible writing. some of the gems of the recent marvel writing are 1) making a character write by a jewish team as an american war hero in ww2 join a nazi group 2) start the mass killing off of the team in their universe used as a place holder for any pressed group the x-men and 3) the most upsetting thing however they’ve done in my opinion the cruel treatment of a long time fan favorite villain magneto.  Some may know that in the comics he is a jewish man who survived nazi Germany. He has an infamous line in one of the films when asked why he won’t get a tattoo and shows his arm and the serial number and utters the words “Ive been marked once my dear and let me assure you no needle shall ever touch my skin again.” Now with all of this as a background and a well known one for the character they chose to have him become an agent of the fictional group hydra. Now what do hydra and being a holocaust survivor have to do with one another. Well that nazi group that I said the american war hero (Captain america) joined well it was hydra. In the comics hydra was a nazi science group that is a representation of the horrible experiments done onto those under the nazi regime. And they’ve taken a character who is not only jewish but a surviver of the holocaust and not only that but has Romani children and oh wait those Romani children he has well one of them has a mental illness oh and that Romani child he has that has a mental illness well she has a gay child. So they’ve taken someone who not only himself is a member of a group that was targeted but has a personal connection to other groups massacred by attention of his daughter and grandson. Even forgoing how insulting that is this in polar opposite to the whole reason he’s a villain. The reason he hates humans and tries to kill them is because as a surviver of the holocaust he sees the same actions and opinions he heard then being repeated and target towards the mutants in his world. So instead of trying to become peaceful he goes on the attack and has the mentality of killing what he view to be the people who will insight the death of his people. So making him bemuse a member of a group that is not only opposed to his character but ruins some of his other most iconic scenic in recent memory like oh i don’t know punching the LEADER OF HYDRA TO DEATH while uttering the words “I know my filthy abilities upset you, Schmidt don’t worry you’ll die pure  not magnetism just fists” is insulting to not only the people he represents but to the character himself. I cannot think of any long time reader that would’ve thought that this was good idea and cannot fathom why they would want to take their most loved and famous villain and drag him though the mud. And if you ask me the only thing they could do to rectify this is to have him go in yell ‘ha fooled ya didn’t I’ and kill every one in the building. But no they wanted an edgy event and instead ruined one of the most developed, well written, and respected villain in the medium.

 

Remender, Rick. “Uncanny Avengers 25.” N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

 

Living in a democracy era, we have the right to vote, which is a tremendous privilege and right. However, the Election Day is a holiday for voter can vote, but some people just enjoyed the day without voting.  I think this is a pretty bad problem when I’m facing to these days. So I personally I wondered what if would be like to take a holiday on voting day and get a proved from voting booth like doctor’s note for the student. Then there would be some people would dispute the freedom of right not to vote. But if anyone who does not care about politics that on your living world, at least people should know what kind of person or people running the campaign on their land. On my homeland, Korea and Korea’s now we have to call her a former president of the Republic of Korea she got impeached and engaged the biggest scandal. That’s why I looked up this movie again for myself. Recently, the first female president of the Republic Of Korea, she was impeached. It is very a big happening to our land and most of Koreans be in a chaotic state which included me. Off the record, I’m already in a chaotic state since after 2016 America’s Election Day. It was too embarrassing, and I cannot explain it one by one, but this movie has reached more and more this time. Also, I chose this film because I’m a feminist. Since the movie was the based on the women’s suffrage movement, some people prejudiced the film before the movie released. Unlikely men have been in power since they were born. This movie has a woman’s POV, so it brought up a lot of empathy for females. It was not a film that solely dealt with the ladies’ suffrage. The main character, she is a laundry worker belonging to the British lower class in society, as a wife who works harder than man but getting less paycheck and taking care her sick son. Other suffragette members were crushing windows and get a loud to get attention on their movement, but she doesn’t even care at the beginning because, for her, family and livelihood were more important than women’s suffrage.

But she is also a woman and mother, so she turned into a member of the suffragette. The reasons why she became a member of a suffragette were, women cannot have custody of her children, they are mere possession of their husbands, and they have no choice and to keep their mouth shut even though their daughter were sexually abused by the laundry superintendent because they have to save their jobs. Another character wanted to be a doctor, but she ended up as a pharmacist. However, she cannot open up with her name because she is a female. So she used her husband’s name, and her husband is not even a pharmacist.

We should thanks to Suffragette movement and members because of this movement, we women have the right to vote, and I am feeling grateful to those came up to this movement. I hope many people in Korea, America or the other countries that stood up the corrupt leader of their country should see this movie or why the vote is important and think about why we should vote. If you don’t agree with me, just grab a newspaper or open the news app on your phone and you will see why is so important to voting because voting is your future.

 

Last week movie we watched was Harlan County. The documentary film the coal miners going on strike for unfair wages.  The hourly pay for a coal miner was pretty low considering we get a look at for what police offers in New York witch made way less and the job was less dangerous. Another reason why coal miners went on strike was due to the poor benefits they received after retirement witch cause some workers to work until they died. Working as miner was extremely dangerous just being exposed to smoke they’ve developed black lung disease and other disparities. Protest started off like any other regular protest the men where outside with their signs standing in front of their jobs. Things quickly escalated when miners stared to get shot at and latter leaving one miner dead. Witch was the breaking point, shootings seemed to have the men shaken and defeated, but not the women. The women started fighting harder than the men they didn’t want their men coming home under paid and having them dying and leaving a child without a father because of black lungs. The woman were defiantly the backbone of the movement of the coal miners, from organizing meets waking up early in morning to getting arrested. These ladies where on a mission to get there men what they devised by any means necessary. What these ladies didn’t know was they were starting a movement around the country for all coal miners. Reason why the women were so successful because they were just a little bit more aggressive then the men for instance, when they parked there car in front of the drive way so the scrubs who were the people not on strike couldn’t drive into work. Even when the sheriff came to talk to the ladies the women held their ground until the sheriff heard there demands. If it wasn’t for these coal miners protesting and making attempt to make a change who knows where coal mining will be today.

 

 

 

Harlan county USA was a powerful documentary revolving around the coal miners strikes in Harlan County Kentucky. This film showed us the struggles these workers went through everyday and the determination they had to do something about it. I really enjoyed this film because it shows not only workers coming together but a whole town coming together. Not only did the coal miners strike but their families did also. I find it horrible how money and greed in one company resulted in one persons death every day. These people did not only work 15-20 hours a day but they were slowly dying in the process from black lung and nobody cared except their families. The director of this film wanted to capture the the violent strikes on film. She had a lot of guts to do this because in some parts of the documentary there were moments that were life threatening.  Also this documentary had no narration it conveyed its point across with just editing and moving scenes along with people talking about their experiences. Overall this film put a powerful message across saying that if you fight hard for something you want and care about in the end it’ll pay off and no fight goes unheard.

Tongues Untied: Filmmaker Interview with Marlon Riggs

The above link will take you to a short video (1 min) from an interview with Riggs when Tongues Untied was first broadcast on PBS stations across the country in 1991. He describes feeling ambivalent about describing his own experiences in this film. One such scene is when he narrates three pivotal episodes from his childhood in the south. The short clip below comes from that scene. Riggs’s autobiography is a comparatively small part of this documentary which includes many other kinds of scenes – it feels like an anthology or a variety show at times – but his story is powerful. What are your overall responses to this film, and what effect or impact do you feel his autobiography has on your reaction to the film? Respond in the comments below, and as others reply, feel free to reply to their points / questions too.

 

Just extremely hype knowing that I’ll be going to spend spring break in the Dominican Republic. Haven’t gone in about ten years and I’m celebrating my birthday during my visit as well. Escape from this snow and bipolar weather we’ve been having all winter in New York. Although I’ve been there before and lived there as a child my friends are telling me that it’s going to be a new experience since i’m an adult now. My 4 friends and I are about to go all out might rent a yacht for a day and rent 4-wheelers for our entire stay. The dollar is worth 46times what it’s worth here so I guess you can say we’ll be pretty wealthy out there. Only thing I asked my friends for my birthday was to eliminate the word “no” from their vocabulary for those 9 days. Booked this vacation since December now that it’s only 23 days away. I’m about to be LIT!

Hi Everyone, As I’m sure you’re aware by now, QCC will be closed tomorrow for snowmaggedon 2017. So this means we won’t meet, BUT, your first movie review and your blog post for tomorrow are still due, so please write away! You should post the review to the assignments area of our Blackboard page.

QCC requires that we either make up for this missed class later, or we come up with a way to replace it now. So what I propose is that you all watch our movie for tomorrow on your own (it’s online to watch via QCC’s website) and respond to a blog post that I’ll write about it tomorrow afternoon. This will be an additional post for everyone to do to make up the missed week, and you’ll get the credit for it by replying / commenting on my post.

The movie that’s on our syllabus for tomorrow is available to watch online through the QCC library databases. The movie is called Tongues Untied, and it’s available to stream online through  Kanopy. I will also share with you all the power point presentation on this film and Marlon Riggs, the filmmaker, via our Course Group – it will be a PDF file. So take a look at that for some background (you’ll find it in the Files area of the Course Group – which is accessible via “Go To Group” tab on the Blog Page.

Here’s how you locate the movie online:

1. Go to the QCC library website and choose Kanopy from the A-Z Database list: http://qcc.libguides.com/az.php?a=k
2. If you’re off campus, you’ll be required to enter your library barcode, and the screen you see will look something like the image below these instructions.
3. Once you’re in the Kanopy page, you can simply type “Tongues Untied” into the search bar at the top of the page and watch it there.

While watching Harlan County, I noticed that even though men were a big part of why this film was made in the first place, I feel that without the contribution of women this film wouldn’t have been as successful. The jobs they’ve done were as hard as the men’s job because not only did they have to take care of matters at home and the children but they poured out their souls by the power of their voice to save their husbands jobs. Of course, the men did work extremely hard to work in dangerous conditions where they’ve developed black lung disease and other disparities, but when theyve lost their job and go on strike I just expected them to have more active roles. The women held the ground strong; barely did I see any many male protestors, just some of the sons of the men who went on strike. If women have not had such an active role, would other men come in the position of what the women did? I feel if that was the last and only choice they had then they would step up to the plate. Women in the film actually made a change and pull so many strings and cross so many boundaries just to help their husbands get their jobs back and settle in to the union. When the women formed an organization, and actually had a president in charge of it that’s when I really how serious and committed they actually were. When they stood up to the sheriff their boldness stood out to me. When they went to the picket lines even when they weren’t supposed to be there it showcased their anger and driving force that without them the strike probably wouldn’t have finished. They held everything up for the men being the biggest support force. The scene when the two women were debating on each other’s mans has a comical feel to it because it would be something similar to what I’ve seen on the Maury show or Jerry springer show. Even despite that situation the women decided that arguing won’t get them anywhere and for the sake of a brighter future they must stand united.