Director Spike Lee was aware of what he was doing when he produced this documentary, through the use of audio voice overs, news clips, video clips, pictures along with personal and expert testimony, Lee brought attention to the horrific 16th Street Church Bombing. The aptly named documentary, 4 Little Girls, follows the lives of the friends and families of the Cynthia Wesley, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins, who lost their lives in the 16th Street Church Bombing. Lee’s purpose was wholesome in producing this documentary, to recall the events that occurred on September 15th, 1963, the extreme levels of racism in the mid nineteen hundreds, and to shed a light on this tragedy. The audience of 4 Little Girls is anyone …show more content…
Through the usage of the three appeals, Lee was able to inform the viewers of the bombing, those who lost their lives, and the history surrounding the area through credible, logical and emotional means. Lee showed ethos through newspaper clips, pictures, the expert testimony of those who were interviewed, use of KKK pictures and the mugshot of Robert Chambliss. The outcome of this film was for viewers to be informed of the fateful day and how it changed what some families in particular felt forever. This bombing was one of many that occurred in Birmingham and its effects are still felt throughout the area. Pathos was shown through the interviews with the friends and the family members were still raw and emotional even after thirty years, the film techniques used, the news clips of the church after it burnt down and while it was burning, videos of the girls, the introduction song that describes the event and the girls who died. Lastly, logos was shown through the various usage of the phrase “the girls would never experience this because they were taken too young.” This entails what they could have been, what they could have achieved, where they could have attended college,
Michael Patrick MacDonald saw hatred animated on a Friday in the early days of October. Some people were reading the newspaper in brightly lit kitchens. Some children were coloring with brightly hued crayons. Some fathers were getting into cars in front of their beautiful homes. But there were no crayons, bright kitchens, or fathers in nice cars on Dorchester Street in Southie that day. Only the cruelest manifestation of blind hatred. Michael Patrick MacDonald was an innocent child when he stood only feet away from a black man who was having the life literally beaten from his body, one kick, one punch, one rock at a time.
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011) is a 1 hour and 40 minute documentary that observes the black power movement in American history. This film is directed by Swedish director Goran Hugo Olson and has detailed footage that was shot during the 1960s and 1970s by Swedish journalists. The footage largely focuses on the black power movements. The film allows viewers to not only grasp a better understanding of this movement but allows us to understand why this movement appealed to Swedish journalists. The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 includes vintage interviews with Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, and other prominent leaders during the Black Power Movement. The documentary also contains contemporary audio interviews and commentaries from various entertainers, artists, activists, and scholars, including but not limited to: Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli, Melvin Van Peebles, Erykah Badu, Abiodun Oyewele, and Questlove from The Roots.
The first social issue portrayed through the film is racial inequality. The audience witnesses the inequality in the film when justice is not properly served to the police officer who executed Oscar Grant. As shown through the film, the ind...
This shows us how white people thought of African Americans as inferior, and they just wanted to dominate the society making no place for other races to express themselves. Even though African Americans were citizens of the state of Mississippi they were still discriminated against. This documentary does a great job of showing us the suffering of these people in hopes to remind everyone, especially the government, to not make the same mistakes and discriminate against citizens no matter what their race is because this will only cause a division to our nation when everyone should be
Throughout, the documentary one can come to the conclusion that most of these African- Americans who live in this area are being judged as violent and bad people. However this is not the case, many of them are just normal people who are try...
Pathos was use often in this story to show his compassion to those affected victims, and his disagreement toward the opposing individuals of the death penalty. In the article, the writer put sentences that had emotion that the writer convoke to the audience. For example, in the last two paragraphs he mentions the case of a murder victim that is not help. At the beginning, Koch showed sadness, then toward the end, he displayed the madness he felt toward those who did not do something to help. He believes that the opposing group toward death penalty are the same as the people that did not do anything to help. With this emotion, the author was able to make the reader thoughtful whether not supporting death penalty makes justice of the inoffensive victim. Although the writer uses a considerable amount of emotion, he does not go to an extreme, which would made his argument emotional for the reader to lost interest of
Touching upon one specific case of this growing problem, she incorporates “Michael Brown,” who was an “18-year old unarmed black man shot down by a white police officer.” As heartbreaking as it sounds, it has happened on several occasions to men similar to “Michael Brown.” Accordingly, Myers formulates that it “is the same story. It is just different names.” Myers logically lists the other names of several black men who unfortunately fell victim to hate crimes, (Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin), as well as flashing their images on the screen. Not only does Verna Myers use imagery in order to show that there is an evident issue with brutality and racism, but she knows it will tug on her viewers heartstrings. Likewise, this makes her audience become wary and sympathetic towards the situation at
The film observes and analyzes the origins and consequences of more than one-hundred years of bigotry upon the ex-slaved society in the U.S. Even though so many years have passed since the end of slavery, emancipation, reconstruction and the civil rights movement, some of the choice terms prejudiced still engraved in the U.S society. When I see such images on the movie screen, it is still hard, even f...
“Standing as one of the most-heinous, race-motivated crimes in America’s history” (News One). This murder sparked a nation in a large way. One racist move and a movement was created.
Lee’s usage of these real world events in her novel begins with the gruesome murder of young Emmett Till. This tragedy definitely altered Lee’s vision in writing her novel.
Spike Lee is brand name when it comes to the film industry. When you try to ask any group of people their opinion about this man, you will probably receive numerous positive responses from the film community as well as the African American community. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989) is a film that illustrates how racial conflict can become a reality while showing the repercussions that come with racial segregation. Spike Lee uses a number of tools to write and produce the film in order to ensure the message reaches his intended audience in the best way possible. The use of location, soundtrack, and dialogue is abundant in this film. Therefore, this film analysis paper is for Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989). It is a film in which racial segregation ignites riots in a neighborhood dominated by the black population. The heightened scene of this film analysis is where Spike Lee throws a trash can and it is from this that hell breaks loose and riots begin.
African Americans had been struggling to obtain equal rights for scores of decades. During the 1960’s, the civil rights movement intensified and the civil rights leaders entreated President Kennedy to intervene. They knew it would take extreme legislature to get results of any merit. Kennedy was afraid to move forward in the civil rights battle, so a young preacher named Martin Luther King began a campaign of nonviolent marches and sit-ins and pray-ins in Birmingham, Alabama to try and force a crisis that the President would have to acknowledge. Eventually things became heated and Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor released his men to attack the protesters, which included many schoolchildren. All of this was captured and televised to the horror of the world. Finally this forced the President into action and he proposed a bill outlawing segregation in public facilities. The bill became bogged down in Congress but civil righ...
glimpse into some of the internal problems that many black families deal with today. It allows
Addie, Carole, Cynthia, and Carol were the names of the four victims in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing. A documentary showcased their lives through the words of their loved ones being interviewed. It created a solemn tone to have the viewer feel what the interviewees were feeling. To see the true expressions on their faces while emotional music plays quietly in the background. To hear the cracking of the interviewees' voices when the music fades out to only hear their voice. To feel the importance of this story being told, and to know why and how certain methods were used. In Spike Lee's documentary, Four Little Girls, Lee uses dim lighting, which focuses on the interviewees' faces along with gospel/soul music joined together to create
This film really focuses on the characters. Their thoughts, anger, distress, and mistakes become part of your mistakes. This deals with a father’s s priority and how he will achieve that priority by using unethical ways like torturing an innocent man. Bringing up child abduction and torture are