Betrayal Research

The Betrayal was relased in 2008 and documented the lives of a Laotian family who are refugees in America after leaving Laos during the war.

This critical documentary shows how war had destroyed a family and their culture. It shows how the Americans did not take into consideration the repricutions of their actions after recruiting Laotian people to fight against their country's government.

Laos is a country located in Southeast Asia and declared its independence from France in 1945. However, by 1950 France had repositioned its control and stated that Laos was an "associated state" within the French Union. Laos has a long history of involved foreign countries and slowly they were drawn into the difficulties and war with North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Their intereference with the War cased the U.S. to become invovled with the country in order to prevent a communist governement from taking control. While the U.S. fought to maintain peace and democracy in Southeast Asia, their efforts were useless when a civil war developed in Laos and a communist government was established.

Gran Torino Reflection

Gran Torino is about a secluded elderly man who watches as his once beautiful neighborhood disintegrates as a new culture arrives. Walt who loses his wife and has no familial connection with his sons, develops a complicated relationship with his Hmong neighbors. He grows attached to the family as their family faces numerous threats from the Hmong gang in the local area. Walt goes to protect the teens and gets shot as he attempts to bring peace into his once quiet neighborhood.

Through the connection that is developed between walt and his neighbors, we are given insight into the Hmong culture. The Hmong culture is not always recognized, because they only live in certain areas throughout the united States. The Hmong peoples originated from China. As Walt becomes apart of their culture, they belive in respect of the elders and quality family relationships. In contrast to Walt's relationship with his family, his neighbors are his closest thing to family. My family believes it is important to respect one's elders and spend time with the family. Many Americans like Walt resent new cultures that they do not understand or have previous knowldge about. This film made me recognize the importance of learning about new cultures and taking the time to help others.

Gran Torino Research

Gran Torino is about an elderly man whose wife has recently died and he becomes mroe secluded after her death. He works to fight against a Hmong gang that terrorizes his neighbos who he becomes close with. The film was released in 2009 and shows the relationship between Hmong's and the american peoples.

This movie reveals direct insight the Hmong culture in the United States. We see their culture and customs up close.

Taare Zameen Par Reflection

Taare Zameen Par is a touching film about a young boy living in India who has dyslexia, but no one could diagnose it. He struggles through grade three multiple times, until his parents send him to boarding school where he makes new friends and recevies special attention from the art teacher who sees a lot of potential in Ishaan artisitically. The art teacher can relate to this young boy, because like Ishaan he is dyslexic and makes the boy his project and helps him overcome his learning disability.

Watching the children in the film and the vairous parents, we see the close relationship between success in school and success in a family. Parents place an abundant amount of pressure upon their children for them to excel not only academically but athletically as well. These children must be the best in their class and receive high test scores, otherwise their parents are displeased. Their is a great contrast between the Indian school system and the United States school system. Unlike India, they go to school for a longer of period of time than American children do. The success of a child in school within India is vital, because if they fail to make it past a certain point in the educational system they will live a very simple and poor life, most likely on the streets. Children are competing against one another for an important place in the business world when they have completeed all of their required schooling.

While I do not have a learning disability like Ishaan, I can share his severe feeling of fustration when something in school does not make sense. When I was in elementary school I struggled with math and it was upsetting and frustrating to try so hard and still remain confused in the class. It feels overwhelming because you are unable to complete the homework and it feels as if you are all alone in the situation. It was empowering to see how Ishaan worked extra hard in order to overcome his obstacle.

The translation of the title of the film is: a star among us. This title accurately reflects the unrecognized talents of Ishaan. He is a powerful artist who uses his disability in a way that helps him. He views the world in a different light than most people and has a different perception of everyday sights than the average person. He takes his observations and transforms them into his paitnings and creatings that reveals insights into his mind and his feelings that he is unable to express to his parents and teachers. All kids can relate to Ishaan's problem's of parents that expect you to be perfect and the pressure. However, it is important to devise a method that will help you cope with the stress like Ishaan's gift of painting.

Taare Zameen Par Research

This film is about a young boy who struggles in school and is later discovered to be dyslexic. In India excelling in education and other activities is very important to be successful and a lot of pressure is placed upon young children to be perfect in every aspect. When an art teacher takes the time out to teach Ishaan how to read and write the young boy becomes successful in his new boarding school.

Chak De India Reflection

In the film Chak de India, it is about a group of girls from various states in India who are the best players in their states. In this film we see the group of girls become a team that plays for their entire country. Their team is coached by the former captain of the men's field hockey team, but missed the penalty shot and was accused of secretly working with the Pakistan's team. It was a motivational film that inspires everyone to pursue their dreams.

Through this film there were a lot of new cultural aspects represented in this film. Women do not play a significant role in their Indian society. They only have one main purpose which is to become married and raise a family. We see this team move past their cultural obstacles and dominate in a sport where they had previouslt not excelled at.

In India they have different traditions than other countries. Before they competed in the Field Hockey World Championships, they participated in a ritual that was used for good luck in their match. While some teams may pray before an important match, they have different rituals that give them power and strength. Before the penalty shot the coach prays for strength to help his team win in the world championships. In their culture, rituals and higher powers are more important.

Their traditional clothing is different from the average American dress. Their Saris that they wear are worn upon important events and demonstrate their culture. They have a lot of pride for their country and culture. In the film we see how their culture differs from state to state. Living closer to the Chinese border resulted in several girls having a Chinese influence in their appearance compared to other girls. In addition, some of the girls spoke different languages and were forced to learn English in order to compete in the World Championships.

The girls represented in the teams faced imilar issues that any team can experience when people are from different areas in a country. However, we see the team unite in order to win against the six time World Champs, Australia.

Chak De India

Chak De India is a film produced in 2007 and is about a girls field hockey team. The team comprises of girls from all of the states within India. Within in each, there are significant differences in their cultures and the way they communicate with one another. This diversity amongst the team causes rivalries and arguments. While all of the girls have a common goal, to go to the World Championships, their separation and obstacles will cause them to overcome their differences and unite to compete against the most experienced and successful teams throughout the world.