My thoughts in general: Happy Valley is a documentary that I saw at the LDS Film Festival last week. It is about drug abuse in Utah County. It has a great message about the need to open our eyes to the reality of what is actually going on around us. However much some people want to discount, or at least not acknowledge, the "seedy" side of Happy Valley, we are not living in a Utopia, and it is important to know how to help our friends and family in recognizing addiction and properly dealing with it. In the film, we witness the reconciliation of a woman and a girl who is in prison for killing the woman's daughter by assisting her in a heroin overdose. Though the message is an important one, there were things about the filmmaking itself that did not sit well with me. The film seemed at times to just be a hodgepodge of stories lacking an overall cohesion. But overall, it was worth watching, and I feel that my criticism should not prevent anyone from seeing this film.
My thoughts on application: Well, I think I found a film that could actually be used in the classroom. The discussion of drug abuse (including the abuse of prescription drugs) is an important one, and I think this film can be a helpful aid. It could be used in a discussion of how to edit a film from lots of footage into something manageable, especially when there is so much to say that is worthwhile. This film could be analyzed to see where it succeeded and where it did not. However, as mentioned above, I think this film could most importantly be used to discuss important issues of drug abuse, specifically in "Happy Valley." In the film, there is some discussion of the influence of media. This would be particularly pertinent in a classroom discussion. The filmmakers met some participants in the documentary through the use of billboard advertising, which I think makes a case for the benefit of media. Thus, this could lend itself to a conversation about the benefits and detriments of media. Conversation is necessary.
No comments:
Post a Comment