Tag Archives: film

Art, college, entertainment, television

Quarantine Watch: The Social Network

[4 minute read]

Run-time: 2h1m

By Natalie Grace Sipula

While on my phone the other day, I accidentally scrolled to the menu that records my daily screen time. To put it lightly, I was shocked by the amount of time I have been spending on my phone lately. I think most of us can relate to an increase in screen time occurring in our daily lives since quarantine began. Technology and social media have connected us in ways that were never thought to be possible, and they allow us to stay contributing members of society even from home. It makes me wonder how we would have reacted to quarantine 15 or 20 years ago, but then, one doesn’t miss something which is unknown to them. That transition to global interconnectedness through technology is truly unique to this generation, and social media has played a large role in that transition. If you are looking for a film to watch at home that explores this very topic, look no further than The Social Network.

Photo by William Iven on Unsplash

Academy award nominated film The Social Network, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, and many others, directed by David Fincher, traces the development of Facebook from its humble beginnings: Mark Zuckerberg’s college dorm room at Harvard. The film employs a variety of timelines to chronicle the story of Facebook’s creation, the personal lives of its founders, and the ensuing intellectual property lawsuits that plagued Zuckerberg’s young career. It is fast-paced, exciting, and rife with witty banter.

The first time I watched this movie I was struck by the impressive dialogue and pacing. The director shot this film in a way that moves almost as fast as the connections millions of people make on Facebook every day. The dialogue is rapid, the interpersonal relationships between the characters are complex, and the story weaves between the business and personal narratives of its subjects, which are as intense and messy as anyone would expect from college students finding themselves at the forefront of a multi-million dollar idea. Prior to watching, I expected the movie to be more similar to a biopic of Mark Zuckerberg’s life, but it focused on the narrative of his life objectively from multiple perspectives, leaving the viewer to draw their own conclusions about the series of events. This, along with the variety of short scenes taking place in different locations in a non time-sequential order, truly makes you feel like you are piecing together Zuckerberg’s story from pieces of information found in various places on the Internet. It surely leaves a strong impression on the viewer along with questions about the influence media has on our lives.

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash
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Asian American, Cultural Exchange, culture, entertainment, Language

Exploring East Asian Culture through Film

By Gina Samec

“Ugh, I hate subtitles!”

Each time I encounter someone with this attitude, I’m disappointed because the scope of great film extends far beyond what is churned out of Hollywood. While the disliking of subtitles is understandable, I encourage anyone who has this sentiment to go outside their comfort zone and watch some foreign films. Watching a movie is an easy way to explore another culture. This is not to say that movies are representative of real life, but they are often a reflection of society. These movies are not for everyone but here are some recommendations of East Asian films I have enjoyed watching!

Memories of Murder

This Korean film from 2003 starts out as a murder mystery but the plot unfolds in an unconventional way. Apart from the main conflict of finding a loose serial killer, a side conflict between the protagonist, Park, and a volunteer detective, Seo, keeps the story interesting. However, one of the best aspects of this film is the cinematography. The thoughtfulness of how the movie was shot adds another layer of depth to it. So any fans of the crime genre or anyone who has an appreciation for brilliant cinematography should give this film a shot.

Secret Sunshine

This 2007 Korean film centers around a widow, Shin-ae, who moves back to the town where her husband lived. While this already sounds like a rough start, Shine-ae’s life dives into a downward spiral from there. What makes this film different from anything I’ve seen, is the exploration of religion. Most movies are too afraid to do so because it is a touchy subject but Secret Sunshine takes this risk. This film depicts the journey of a woman who is not religious in the slightest, encountering Christianity for the first time. I should put a disclaimer that there is some critique of religion so it is not for everyone. However, it is quite refreshing to see a female-led film showing someone trying to overcome a low point in their life without pretending to have all the answers.

Sweet Bean

This Japanese film from 2015 is much more sentimental and family friendly than the previous two. This film is about a symbolic family: the bond that is formed between three generations centered around a dorayaki pancake shop. These three people, an old woman, a middle aged man, and a young teenage girl are all somewhat outcasts from society. Together, they find purpose through their shared love of dorayaki. The film has breathtaking cinematography and brings out the beauty in the simple things. If you enjoy heartfelt movies then this is a good go-to.

A Touch of Sin

This Chinese film from 2013 follows four different characters each in a different storyline. On the surface, this film seems to be mostly about violence but there is much more going on than there appears to be. Each character is being oppressed by society in different forms and protest against it through different methods. What makes this film stand apart is the complexity of the characters. Usually protagonists are righteous and principled. However, these characters are a mixture of good and bad and often their actions are questionable. This film is full of symbolism so for me, it was fun to watch with friends because we all had different interpretations of certain scenes. If you enjoy action-packed movies and don’t mind violence, this is a riveting film that is surprisingly meaningful.

Featured image from Pxfuel

Gina is a sophomore studying Communication at the USC School of Annenberg.  She attended five schools but mostly grew up in Piedmont, California. Although she only attended a French bilingual school for two years, she has continued to pursue fluency in the language. She loves playing volleyball, watching movies, and thrift shopping. Never having left the country has fueled her love for learning about other cultures and meeting people from different backgrounds.

New Experience

The Art of People

By Dimitris Tzoytzoyrakos

Though he probably wasn’t the first to think so, filmmaker Woody Allen is known to have said “Showing up is 80 percent of life.” Others since have gone on to say “90% of success is just showing up” and other variations of the same idea.  My brother and I found this out to be true when we created a short film together and submitted it to an LA film festival, even though neither of us had any experience in the field. A couple weeks after doing so, we receive a phone call notifying us that our short was accepted to premiere at the film festival. Being the naive filmmakers we were, we thought getting accepted would get our foot in the door of the film industry but, as it turned out, getting a film to premiere at the festival only played a minor role in our exposure to the industry. Getting “our foot through the door” was actually much simpler than we had ever thought.

The first day at the film festival was absolutely packed. You had to squeeze your way through a tight crowd of strangers, and occasionally a celebrity, just to get a cup of water. Soon enough, my brother and I began to chat with other filmmakers and fill up our contact lists in our phones. Just on the first day, my brother and I made a vast network of connections with very hard working artists who carried the same love and passion for cinema as we did, all while not having seen a single film yet at the festival.

This having just been the first day, we were so eager to see what would become of the rest of the week. Oddly enough, every single day between opening and closing night had a only a minuscule fraction of the attendees show up. This puzzled me at first because the in between days were when all the films were screening. I had thought that the entire point of a film festival was to watch films and network with people whose work you admired and vice versa. It turned out that one didn’t even need to have a film screen at the event, so long as one was present and engaging with the people around them. There were, in fact, many people at the festival who hadn’t worked on any projects; they just came to increase their network.

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