Life and Debt, directed by Stephanie Black, definitely tied in to the novel we read, Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid. Some of the narration was actually written by Kincaid herself.

In class, we viewed the Hitler Youth Rally portion of Triumph of the Will, as well as read about it. It’s hard to watch a documentary, especially when it’s something dealing with Hitler and the Holocaust, without going into it with a biased view. We have all grown up learning about the horrors that happened, and what a horrible person Hitler was. No documentary could change my views of the man. Triumph of the Will is definitely a propaganda film to try and rally more support for Hitler.

Night and Fog was most definitely a difficult film to watch. Not only because of the fact that it was French, and the English subtitles were quite difficult to read, but also because of the nature of it. It began in a nice looking field, and seemed to be positive, but slowly turned so that the background is now the remains of what used to be a concentration camp, contradicting what the narrator was saying. The film also portrays some graphic footage of camp prisoners, and the dead.

Several different editing techniques were used in the making of “The Devil’s Playground”. The text is one of the very first things encountered when viewing the documentary, and is used in different ways throughout. From the start, the text is used as a way to educate the viewer of the beginnings of the Amish religion, and the necessary background to the tradition of Rumspringa. Many people from the “English” world don’t know of, or understand a lot of what the Amish believe.

Lucy Walker’s film “The Devil’s Playground” was an intriguing film about the Amish tradition of Rumspringa. Rumspringa, literally “running around” in Pennsylvania Dutch, begins at age 16, and is the time in which the Amish youth are given to choose whether or not they want to become part of the Amish church. They believe that infants should not be baptized, rather the person should be given the chance to decide for themselves if they would like to live the Amish lifestyle.

Werner Herzog, the director who put together all of Treadwell’s footage of his exploits to Alaska, makes a lot of the things he does in this film a bit questionable. This is the most apparent in the scene when he allows Jewel to listen to the audio of Treadwell and Amie’s deaths. The first time we hear of there being any audio is during the interview with the coroner. He talks about how absolutely horrible it was, yet leaves the viewers with a strange desire to hear what he talks about, even though some may not admit to it.

Grizzly Man was a very slow documentary. Sometimes it was quite painful to just sit back and wait for something to happen. But when you find out that Timothy Treadwell was attacked and killed by a bear, you find yourself waiting for it anytime he’s in a scene with a bear. Yes, Treadwell didn’t make the greatest decision to live with the bears for long periods of time. Understandably, he wanted to help the bears, which he believed to be in dire need of outside help, but he definitely could have gone about helping them in a much different, and safer way.

Sherman's March: A Meditation on the Possibility of Romantic Love In the South During an Era of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation. The full title of this documentary may confuse someone at first. With the background I have in American history, I know of Sherman’s March, but at first had no idea how that could even relate to romantic love in the South and nuclear weapons. Sherman’s March was definitely unlike any documentary I had ever seen. Of course, the only documentaries I was previously familiar with were purely educational, for the most part.

Sexuality is a recurring theme throughout the Lucy novel. Lucy is always very open with discussing her previous sexual encounters and never shows any shame in her promiscuous life style. In ours and Mariah’s world, sex isn’t usually talked about so openly, but for Lucy, it was no big deal whatsoever. She began exploring her sexuality at a very young age with both genders. She talks about how when she was younger, her and one of her girl friends practiced kissing with each other, and acted as if it were a normal thing. Lucy also discusses her first kiss with a boy named Tanner.

After first reading Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid, I didn’t have a great first impression of the main character Lucy. She seemed very standoffish and quite critical of anything that was new to her. She came to the states expecting great new things, but quickly found reasons to dislike just about everything. But after getting to know the character a bit more, one comes to a better understanding of why Lucy is the way she is. The way she grew up in the Islands was far different than growing up in the states. Where Lucy was from, things were under British rule.