Kekexili is a mountain reserve in China home to a rare Tibetan antelope, whose pelt is very valuable. The antelope's numbers dropped drastically from over one million to just under 10,000 in the mid 1990's. Similar to the elephant poaching crisis in Africa, poachers in China go after the antelope and sell its skin, making large amounts of money in the process. The movie chronicles the struggle of an all-volunteer force, led by Captain Ratai, formed to protect the antelope and combat the poachers. One thing that really struck me throughout the movie, but especially towards the latter half, was the dedication these volunteers showed towards tracking down the poachers and attempting to bring them to justice. The mise-en-scene really helped to bring this out. The settings were very rough locales with freezing temperatures, rivers to cross, snow, high wind, and miles and miles of rough mountain terrain. There are often extreme long shots of the terrain and the volunteer force trecking their way through the mountains. The viewer really gets to take in the whole experience and see every aspect of the force's difficult journey. Captain Ratai's immense determination to track down and catch the gunners that shoot the antelope is most evident towards the end of the movie. He leaves several of his men behind when their jeeps run of gas and keeps pressing on for nearly 3 weeks on the trail of the poachers. Many times, the movie crosscuts shots of Ratai driving in his jeep with shots of the men he left behind freezing to death in the snow or falling into pits of quicksand. This specific use of the camera helps to constantly remind the viewer just how far Captain Ratai will go to bring the poachers to justice.

This movie was very intense and kept a rhythm going throughout it. This documentary chronicled life in an evangelical organization and the experiences that follow it. It followed several young children as they went through a camp and their everyday activities, recording their thoughts on their beliefs and themselves as they went along. This film was very good at building intensity and making the viewer feel like they were in the same room as the fiery evangelical leaders that were preaching, and yelling at times, to the children. It used lots of crosscutting camera work and close up reaction shots of the childrens faces. As the tension in the room would build, the crosscutting would become quicker and quicker and a rhythmic pattern of editing would develop. Strategically placed throughout the movie were interruptions by a talk radio host with an opposing view to the evangelicals and their extremist views. It helped to hear both sides and not just be bombared with one view the whole time. The documentary also used lots of close up shots of faces and objects to really get the viewer to feel like they were in the middle of this contraversy. It allowed the viewer to really feel for the kids and the emotions they were being bombarded and brainwashed with. Being a christian, it was hard to see how some people were like this in their extremist views. I see why so many people have a horrible view of christianity. It is true that everyone has a right to believe in whatever they choose to, but it seems kids as young as were shown in this movie should be at least given a choice and not shown only one side.

Due to an unknown error, the original blog of this movie was somehow erased. This is a rewrite.

This movie chronicles the lives of two siblings, Ali and Zhara, and their experience over losing a pair of shoes. The family is poor and cannot afford a new pair, so Ali and Zhara come up with a plan to hide the loss of the shoes from their mother and father. The movie differs at many parts with classic Hollywood cinema through its lack of elliptical editing and its focus on often unimportant objects or actions, much like the French New Wave movement in the last respect. For example, when Ali and his father go biking around the nicer neighborhoods to look for gardening work, much of their journey there and the subsequent work in a garden is lenghthened much beyond what it would normally be in most American films. Most Hollywood films would take a job that requires hours and hours of work and turn it into a 20 or 30 second montage of wipes and fades. Children of Heaven does not show the entire gardening job being performed, but shows much more than many films would. The film also shows many actions being performed that seem unimportant in advancing the narrative structure. The family is shown breaking sugar into cubes for the neighborhood mosque and then later shown serving tea and other refreshments at that same mosque. The film spends several minutes on these two sequences (they are not together though) and it seems at times frivelous to show this and other scenes as the viewer may wonder how this contributes to helping Ali and Zhara concele the loss of the shoes.

First off, a very, very strange and interesting film. The film follows a Frenchman named Stephanie as he moves into a new apartment and starts a new job. He meets and later falls in love with his neighbor Stephanie. Sounds simple enough, but the film has a very humorous and unique spin that it uses to tell this narrative. Throughout this movie, the line between reality and fantasy is blurred, and often times completely destroyed. Cellophane and other objects are pixillated into an animated sequence that interract with real world objects and people. Serious dialogue often begins to breakdown into a ludacris interaction between two or more characters. There is one example where Stephanie and Stephanie are on her balcony discussing a serious matter and he lights a cigarrete and throws the match down to the street below. Stephanie exclaims that he could catch someone on fire if he wasn't careful. The two characters then look to the street below and see a man on fire, with red cellophane wrap. They run over to the sink and grab a pot to fill it with water from the faucet, this time it is blue cellophane wrap. They pour the blue cellophane down to the street and the next cut shows a normal, not on fire, man having actual water thrown at him as he is merely walking down the street. Fantasy and reality are intermingled in this scene and it is this way throughout much of the movie. A double of Stephane appears in a tiny room in several scenes and we come to know him as Stephane's subconcious mind at work when the dreams. Stephane's subconcious narrates several parts of his life and we then see them play out in "reality". This becomes humorous when guests, such as his parents or Stephanie, appear in the room and help his subconcious display memories or set up scenes to act out. Overall, a very humorous and well-done attempt by the director to put a different spin on the film.

The first ever movie from the Jewish ultra-orthodox community was surprisingly good. It told the story of a couple named Moshe and Malli, a married couple dealing with financial problems. They pray for help, and through one form or another, a couple of men with connections to Moshe (and criminal backgrounds) show up and start causing trouble. The couple seems to believe that these two men are the answer to their prayers and begin to thank God. The mise-en-scene is very natural and seems to have been filmed on location in the Jewish community. The framing is also quite good with many close-ups and bumpy handheld camera shots that add a humanistic and emotional feel to the movie. A strong visual metaphor, if one were to be chosen, would be the yellow citron fruit that Moshe buys for 1,000 shekels and symbolizes all that he believes in and, when the fruit is destroyed on accident, really tests his faith. The scene where he runs into the woods and screams at God for taking away the fruit is a wonderfully put together scene. The lighting is very nice and naturalistic and the cinematography uses a lot of quickly cut medium shots and long shots of Moshe screaming and running around in the woods. We get to see multiple angles and various types of framing and really get to see how jaded and confused Moshe is, because we too are jaded and confused by the cinematography. A wonderfully put together movie, especially for a culture just diving into the film business.

This was a strange, psychadellic movie with a wonderful message and theme that really came together in the end. The movie stars John Voight as " Jon Buck", a wannabe cowboy/male prostitute who moves to New York in search of women and money. While in New York, he meets Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) a sickly local who initially swindles $20 dollars from him. The two eventually become good friends and, after Buck gets kicked out of his hotel, move in together in Rizzo's condemned and uninhabited apartment building. Jon quickly discovers his dreams aren't becoming reality and struggles to have food for he and Rizzo to eat. As the movie progresses, it becomes evident that Rizzo is becoming very sick and Jon starts to exhibit genuine compassion for him when he finally asks "are you ok?" while at a Rave-like party in the city. At the same time, Jon is struggling with his own past and turmoiled emotions as evident by a series of flashbacks made up of split-second crosscuts and mixed sounds from his past and present. These flashbacks continue throughout the movie and become more and more bizzare, allowing the reader to see just how hurt and ailing Jon is on the inside, just like his friend Rizzo is on the outside. Jon finally starts to meet with some success as a male prostitute (with both sexes at times) and aspires to earn enough money to heal Rizzo with some sort of medical care. At one point, he nearly beats a man that picks him up to death saying that he needs the money to care for his "family", which the viewer assumeds to be Rizzo. By using the word "family" and not just "friend", it is obvious Jon genuinely cares for Rizzo and wants him to get better. His dream of becoming a successfull male prostitute and earning lots of money are put aside to help the only one that really cares for him in his life. Jon and Rizzo are trying to get to Miami, FL because they both believe Rizzo will feel better and recover if he gets out of the bitter cold of NY. However, it has become quite obvious to the viewer that Rizzo's deteriorating physical body will not make it to Miami, and in fact, it does not. Rizzo dies on the bus and Jon, feeling the cold stares of the strangers on the bus, holds Rizzo close to him, almost as if to protect him from them. A wonderful movie with great performances by the main actors.