French Film Festival – Human – PLSC 359: Global Governance

At the weekend of the French Film Festival, a three hour film titled Human had its North American premier. This film provided an insight into the lives of others. While there was no true way to prove their truth, the movie was touching nonetheless.

The movie was a constant stream of interviews, occasionally interrupted by a quick view of a cultural event or beautiful site. Each person interviewed had their own history and their own story to tell. Placed directly in front of the camera, the viewer had the illusion of staring directly into the eyes of the speaker. Many spoke different languages and as a result, every single person, even those that spoke English, had subtitles. However, instead of detracting from the words spoken, the subtitles were right next to the speaker’s eyes, continuing the illusion that “the eyes are the window to the soul”.

The film started with a man who told his story using sign language, and the second told the story of how he never truly understood love, until he was forgiven by the mother and grandmother of the woman and her son that he had murdered. The interviews that followed were arranged into categories of love, hate, war, and many others.

Each person had their own beliefs and sometimes those were different from the fellow countrymen. This film introduced many experiences from all around the world and truly showed how differently people could live simply based on their own stories and how they chose to style themselves above their shoulders.

In a touching manner people explained their lives in a matter of moments, without any interruption from a background or an interviewer’s voice. While it is impossible to truly know every culture out in the world, this film helped to expand my views by teaching me how other people viewed both current and historical issues using what life had taught them.

Link to Human trailer : http://www.frenchfilmrichmond.com/2016-human

Ivana Marshall says:

April 14, 2016 at 1:56 am

Hi!

I really really wanted to see this movie, I am so glad that you made a post about it.

After reading, I have come to the conclusion that hearing people’s stories is a vital way of understanding other cultures. That seems pretty obvious but I feel like people simply do not take the time to think outside of their normal realms of comfort.

I have a new appreciation for subtitles. I used to watch Bollywood films but I only speak English, so subtitles were the best way for me to keep up. I’d never considered people who may not speak/hear English well and may also need to see the words on the screen.

This movie seems to have captured a lot. I wish it weren’t impossible to know every single culture around the world, that’s always been my dream; to always be able to communicate with people, across language barriers, culture, and traditions.

Life is funny that way, I guess, all of us are currently inhabiting this world but all of us have different perspectives about our habits and habitats.

Naomi Sand says:

April 18, 2016 at 2:10 pm

I wish I could’ve seen this movie!! I really liked what you said, Ivana, about everyone having different perspectives on our habits and habitats. This notion is very important to keep in mind during discussions of human rights and cultural relativism – even though you may feel as though your culture or society operates from a position of moral superiority, there may be another society in the world whose views are directly antithetical to you and who think the same about you.

Natalie Larsen-Palomino says:

April 23, 2016 at 1:44 pm

Although I wrote that I should have went to the French Film Festival on your other post, I just wanted to say that this post intensifies my desire to go next year! Sometimes we are so absorbed in our own little worlds that we forget that there are other people out there with their own stories. Not only do our neighbors who live down the road from us have experiences that we can learn from, but our fellow “neighbors” that live across the world have stories. This is an awesome idea for making a film. It demonstrates that although we may have different experiences in our lives, we are all experiencing life which. In that way, we are all humanized and can relate to each other. In a way, this reminds me of the “Humans of New York” concept but with an even wider scope, which is pretty awesome!