Jennifer Montgomery

This week was one of the more interesting weeks within this class, not just the presentation and videos by JM, but also in discussion. In comparison to all the other films we have viewed its no wonder why, they possess a shock value that we haven't witnessed in this class yet. I posed the question in discussion today "what if a man had made this video? (Love with a Little L)" What I meant by this was what if every aspect of the film was the same, same narration, same actors, same objective/idea, but a man had been behind the camera instead. I was getting at the idea that the only way that film could succeed as a pseudo-feminist statement was if a woman had made it. I am not trying to take away anything from that film, I like it, but if a man had made I think the criticism would be drastically different. We would likely hear comments made that this man failed at it because he couldn't grasp the concept (since he is a man, and a man could never truly relate to feminism or female sexuality) or we might hear that the film was degrading towards women, in fact we probably would never had viewed it. Another thing that was discussed was the specific shock scenes and whether they were to0 vulgar/pornographic and if/when did you tune out? I personally wasn't really shocked by any of what was viewed. I grew up as the only man in a house with three women. My mother is also a behavioral analyst so my sexual education didn't come from concerned parents but rather Masters and Johnson. I rather enjoyed "Notes on the Death of Kodachrome". It had an earnestness and unpretentious quality to it that I have yet see in any of the films we have watched, and the film that was shown at the end of it (the one made with the camera she was after) was quite funny in a dry/lo-fi sense (whether that was intended or not).