COURSE BLOG for GWSS 3307: Feminist Film/Media Studies (Fall 2007)

Context:

Directed by Deepa Mehta, written by Mehta and Anurag Kashyap. It was released and distributed in the United States in 2005 by Mongrel Media and A David Hamilton Productions. It was the third part to her Elements Trilogy Fire, Earth and Water. While shooting the film in India there were controversial issues surrounding the film, which led to the crew not being able to finishing filming in India and instead finishing the film in Sri Lanka. The film was set in 1938, which was when India was still under colonial rule of the British. During that time, when a woman’s husband died she either had the choice of joining by being put to death or living in a widow’s ashram.

Continue reading "Water" »

Posted by Timac at 04:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Context:
Water was written and directed by Deepa Mehta in 2005. It is the third in her elemental trilogy (following Fire and Earth). It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, and was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category. Because of the controversial subject matter of her previous films, the filming of Water attracted hostile attentions. The day before filming was scheduled to begin, protesters wrecked the filming site. Mehta was forced to film in Sri Lanka instead of India as originally planned, and had to work on it under a false name (River Moon).

Continue reading "Analysis of Water" »

Posted by Jessica Vaughan at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Context- This was a film by Deepa Metha. She used it to complete her trilogy. There was great controversy over this film becuse of the content, which was thought to be anti-religous to this culture. It was set in the 1930's and deals a lot with emotion and opression.
Content- The content of this film is about widows in India. These women are told within their religion that when their husbands die, half of themself also dies. Because of this these women are forced to live in houses, away from thier families and friends. They are also restricted from doing a lot of things and are openly mocked by the public. This movie centers around one house and a woman who decides to go against her cultural and religous belifes to find love again.
Form- This film is so beautiful. It uses lush and vibrant colors to tell it's story. They use a pallet of blue, green, and what looks like yellow. This just makes the scenery pop against the harsh reality of the story being told. Using color in this way enhaces and makes the story so much more personal because when you look at the screen it really draws you in.

Posted by sketch at 09:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Context:
A film by Deepa Mehta
-Third part to her controversial elemental trilogy
- Got inspiration for film from seeing an old widow distraught on the street because she lost something. No one paid any attention to her nor did any one try to help her.
-Mongrel Media and A David Hamilton Production
-Based in India in 1930’s
Complications during production included massive protesting during shooting in India and delayed filming for 5yrs. They had to relocate to Sri Lanka and film under a false title for safety reasons.

Content:
Overall the content of this film addressed the role of widowed women in India whose lives were ruled by ancient religious texts. The story is focused on the journey of a young Hindi girl named Chuyia, who becomes a widow at a very young age and is forced into a life of seclusion. The other women who share this life all have different ways of getting by but together, their struggles weave a story of love, passion, religious ideals hardship and freedom that ultimately is ruled by identity and ethical inquiry.

Form:
Colors: Blues and greens were emphasized throughout the film primarily to give the feel of water. Also these colors were used to give the viewer a sense of calmness and break from the struggles and tensions of the characters in the film. The color blue was also mentioned in the behind the scenes section as the color of Krishna.
Location: The complications in shooting the film are fascinating and to think of the bravery that it took to re-locate to Sri Lanka after huge protests is admirable. In reading about the locations on the link that was assigned the funniest thing that stuck out to me was that the crew had to build Hindu temples along the river in a town that was primarily Muslim. The funny thing being that tour boats would ride up and down the river telling people about the ‘ancient Hindu temples’ and had to be chased out of the scene. The river itself being hard to light at night and difficult to control (tour boats), I felt as I watched the film that the location felt real and did not seem to be constructed at all. This is due to the use of nature as it is with beautiful shots of trees and the river shoreline.
Camera: In the behind the scenes section that we watched in class, they talked about the camera being non-intrusive and strictly observational. This gave a smooth flow to the film and allowed the spectator to become lost in the world that this film constructed.

Analysis:
The importance of water in this film represents this uncontrollable flow or current that ruled these women’s lives. This current also represented the uncontrolled fate that was to happen later in film. In the beginning, Chuyia believes that she is just a visitor and that she will not be staying long. This is reinforced when she meets Kalyani who says that Krishna says Chuyia will not stay long either.
Feminism (vs.) Humanism
Deepa Mehta sees herself as a humanist rather than a feminist. In the link I have never made a film for ‘shock factor’, Mehta explains that she hoped that this film would allow the viewer to feel compassion for the characters in the film even if this was a whole new world for the viewer. She specifically says that this is a humanist film.
I completely agree with Mehta, but I feel that it is not too different from feminism. I feel that in order to make feminist media, women must be humanized first because women are usually objectified first. Is humanism the new feminism?

Posted by Mary Ellen McCormick at 09:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think the film Water, is my favorite film that we have watched all semester. I enjoyed that the movie was subtitled, and took place in a country whose culture is very foreign to me. The story that is being told is so emotional and I just absolutely fell in love with the little girl. I felt so sorry for the oppression that the widowed women experienced. It’s like they are basically walking dead, left to never experience love and passion from another human being. It’s sad that traditions such as keeping women so horribly oppressed still exist. I had no idea that this sort of thing happened in the world today. One of my favorite parts of this film was when the women, I think, got to celebrate color and all of them had bright beautiful color all over their faces and their stark white Saris. The colors just popped and made the scene seem happy, hopefully, and light, despite the fact that their situations are unbelievable. It is like a short escape from the life that they live and know.
Mehta did an excellent job with this film. She got her point across in such a way that the audience is left with a heavy heart and questioning the ways in which a society justifies treating women as they are in Water.

Posted by Kristen Kramer at 09:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Content: Deepa Mehta's film, Water, is about the oppression that widowed women in Inda must live with. She shows the despair and anguish that drenches their life because of their placement in society. The main characters, who are almost entirely women, must deal with moral and societal issues that make their life difficult in order to survive in a patriarchal society.

Context: The film Water, by Deepa Mehta, displays her strong feelings towards a feminist issue that she feels needs to be revealed to the world. In the film, she shows the power that a patriarchal and class-based society has on women. The film outlines how women, whose status is based on the relation to thier husbands, are affected by this patriarchal classification of their gender. It shows an ultimate example of how women, especially young women who have absolutely no agency, are affected by the views and beliefs of society. Mehta wants to reveal the subordinate life that women live in subjection to men in India. She wants the viewer to empathise with a socity that oppresses women on the basis of their gender.
This is a powerful message because it provides a view that supports the feminist notion of univeral oppression of women. The title of the film, Water, is a significant metaphor because like societal construction, water is the basis to all life; and if society oppresses women they must live within these social constructions in order to survive.

Form: The movie uses bright and extreme lighting in order to emphasis the women's beautiful surroudings in relation to their oppressed and angusihed lives. The natural surroundings contrasts the unnatural societal constructions glorifies the struggles that the women face.

Posted by Magda Bilska at 07:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Content: Deepa Mehta's film, Water, is about the oppression that widowed women in Inda must live with. She shows the despair and anguish that drenches their life because of their placement in society. The main characters, who are almost entirely women, must deal with moral and societal issues that make their life difficult in order to survive in a patriarchal society.

Context: The film Water, by Deepa Mehta, displays her strong feelings towards a feminist issue that she feels needs to be revealed to the world. In the film, she shows the power that a patriarchal and class-based society has on women. The film outlines how women, whose status is based on the relation to thier husbands, are affected by this patriarchal classification of their gender. It shows an ultimate example of how women, especially young women who have absolutely no agency, are affected by the views and beliefs of society. Mehta wants to reveal the subordinate life that women live in subjection to men in India. She wants the viewer to empathise with a socity that oppresses women on the basis of their gender.
This is a powerful message because it provides a view that supports the feminist notion of univeral oppression of women. The title of the film, Water, is a significant metaphor because like societal construction, water is the basis to all life; and if society oppresses women they must live within these social constructions in order to survive.

Form: The movie uses bright and extreme lighting in order to emphasis the women's beautiful surroudings in relation to their oppressed and angusihed lives. The natural surroundings contrasts the unnatural societal constructions glorifies the struggles that the women face.

Posted by Magda Bilska at 07:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was incredibly impressed with Deepa Mehta’s film Water. She created a beautiful looking film with an emotionally gut-wrenching story. I think this combination really works. It shows how rough things can be in a place that appears so beautiful. I think the look of the film also carried a subconscious message of hope throughout the film. I appreciate that Mehta considers herself a humanist filmmaker. This is an issue that has an effect on many different people. We can this in the main male character’s troubles.
Also, I have never encountered a scene as powerful as the last when the woman is running to get the little girl onto the train. The direction in this scene is absolutely perfect and effective (it was for me at least). I am even more impressed by the quality of the film knowing the conditions it was made under. Wow.

Posted by MacKenzie Duffy at 06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I thougt Deepa Mehta's Water was a really moving film. The director was already familiarized with the Indian culture being that she is a native-born Indian woman really adds to the the culture of the film and how it is perceieved. Her story of the lives of widowed Indian women is very touching, and she does a great job of representing the gender differences and inequality seen within the Indian culture. Men clearly have dominion over the women and are treated with a higher respect and dignity. The use of colors Mehta utilizes also really adds to the film. The bright, beautiful, green landscapes show how these women live in this beautiful, uplifting country, but the dark, dirty blue color reminds them of their unpurposeful life they must live as a widow. The river signifies a place to retreat to for cleansliness and bathing. It is also the place Kalyani turns to to escape from her trapped life she lives. Overall, Water was an eye-opening movie that really is able to educate the viewer as to the life some women must lead in a foreign country.

Posted by Cassie Setter at 01:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In creating a film like Water, Deepa Mehta had felt so strongly about the importance of conveying to others that there is a world that few many know about, but that people are being severely affected by. To me, this film represents an idea that we are controlled by our society in many ways. Though I have not experienced the extreme oppression that the women in Water did, I recognize that there is a certain level of power and authority given to individuals who are not always making decisions for the good of all people under them.
So we come to the question of who is right and who is wrong? What is to be trusted, law or faith? I think that within this film it is obvious that there is a case of pointing fingers and those who are weak under the faith will be oppressed. The audience is left to deal with who really wins in this film.
At first in the film I was angry that the women did not choose to speak out and stand up for themselves. But after I had watched the entire film I realized that the characters in the film were so conditioned out of tradition that they were almost oppressing themselves unknowingly. They have lived in a culture that is strong in its traditions and know the consequences and hardships set forth for them. But they have also been lied to. Though some of the women sensed the urgency to remove themselves from this lifestyle, I never really got the feeling that any of them thought that they deserved a better lifestyle. They knew that there were better things out there, but not necessarily that those things were acceptable for them to have.
Overall, I feel that Mehta was asking the audience to think about where blame can fall and who it should really being falling upon. She does not point fingers at who is to blame herself, but rather leaves the audience to make their own decision based upon their personal feelings on the issue. I find this quality in a filmmaker to be most valuable because they are not making a decision with their film, but rather encouraging a decision because of how the film is laid out.

Posted by Nicole Berg at 02:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In creating a film like Water, Deepa Mehta had felt so strongly about the importance of conveying to others that there is a world that few many know about, but that people are being severely affected by. To me, this film represents an idea that we are controlled by our society in many ways. Though I have not experienced the extreme oppression that the women in Water did, I recognize that there is a certain level of power and authority given to individuals who are not always making decisions for the good of all people under them.
So we come to the question of who is right and who is wrong? What is to be trusted, law or faith? I think that within this film it is obvious that there is a case of pointing fingers and those who are weak under the faith will be oppressed. The audience is left to deal with who really wins in this film.
At first in the film I was angry that the women did not choose to speak out and stand up for themselves. But after I had watched the entire film I realized that the characters in the film were so conditioned out of tradition that they were almost oppressing themselves unknowingly. They have lived in a culture that is strong in its traditions and know the consequences and hardships set forth for them. But they have also been lied to. Though some of the women sensed the urgency to remove themselves from this lifestyle, I never really got the feeling that any of them thought that they deserved a better lifestyle. They knew that there were better things out there, but not necessarily that those things were acceptable for them to have.
Overall, I feel that Mehta was asking the audience to think about where blame can fall and who it should really being falling upon. She does not point fingers at who is to blame herself, but rather leaves the audience to make their own decision based upon their personal feelings on the issue. I find this quality in a filmmaker to be most valuable because they are not making a decision with their film, but rather encouraging a decision because of how the film is laid out.

Posted by Nicole Berg at 01:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Deepa Mehta’s Water has been my favorite film of the course – it resonated with me in a way that not many films do. I thought Mehta’s method of prodding rather than preaching was incredibly effective. She forces us to contemplate but not necessarily adopt any positions. An example of this forced contemplation is with an interaction between Narayan and Kalyani:

Narayan: All the old traditions are dying out.
Kalyani: But what is good should not die out.
Narayan: And who will decide what is good and what is not?

Continue reading ""God willing she'll be reborn as a man."" »

Posted by Luna Lovegood at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Deepa Mehta's answer to whether or not she is a feminist filmmaker was dead on. She said she is a humanist filmmaker, and that is apparent in Water.

Continue reading "Water" »

Posted by Tara Weinberg at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was really moved by the film. I thought Deepa Mehta did a wonderful job portraying the widows of India.

Continue reading "Water" »

Posted by Rachel Kyllander at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Context:
Water is a film directed by Deepa Mehta, it is the third film in her elements film trilogy following the films Wind and Fire. This film follows the lives of widows living in the desperate conditions of an Indian ashram in 1938. Deepa stunningly exposes the extreme social ostracism in the name of religion that these women experience. With dialogue and excellent character development the spectator is persuaded to empathize with the widow’s hardship as well as recognize their incredible and seemingly undying courage in the face of extreme adversity. Deepa Mehta does not call herself a feminist filmmaker, rather she identifies as a humanist filmmaker. Which I think is illustrated by her desire to expose the extreme human rights violations that Indian widows have had to endure for many years. The making of water was certainly not easy; Deepa and her crew had to face several barriers, including violent activist protests, no defense or support from local government who sided with protesters, a dwindling budget, recasting, a forced location change to Sri Lanka and a five year delay in filming. Clearly, in the face of all these obstacles Deepa’s commitment to telling the story of Indian widows illustrates that she most certainly is a humanist director.

Continue reading "Water" »

Posted by Rose Coleman at 07:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The film Water by Deepa Metha is about misogyny of women, specifically widows in India in 1938. Although Metha does not identify as a feminist film-maker, she identifies as a humanitarian film maker, which I believe to be very closely related. The film is shot in a blue/green light to accentuate the natural beauty around the Ganges river and to give the audience a break from the depressing lives of the widows who are caged inside this poor housing complex. The use of other colors, I understood the significance of the color black the best, I believe it signifies sin. This can be seen in cutting off all of the women's long black hair, in the small black dog Kaulu being a bad omen to the house(spelling?), and even when Kalyani first meets Narayan, he is wearing a long black overcoat.

Continue reading "Beauty of the World and the Despair Within it." »

Posted by Sparky4 at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Water

Context:
The director Deepa Mehta, as a part of her Wind, Fire, Water trilogy, wants to expose the mistreatment of women in India. Mehta is a humanitarian director who's primary goal is to inform in the most realistic sense possible. Although set in the 1930's, women are still being put in homes for being widows, and are essentially exiled from the rest of society. Mehta attempts to inform her viewers by following the story of an eight year old indian girl who is put in the house after the husband she never met passed away. In addition, you also follow the stories of two other women, one who is rebelling against the norm of widow behavior and another who regrets her life and tries to make it better for others.

Continue reading "Water" »

Posted by RowGophers at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)