Reaction for a Documentary

I watched a documentary on Thursday this week, Stranger with a Camera, which is directed by Elizabeth Barret. The stranger with a camera in the movie is not about Elizabeth herself. She is trying to say something, or expose something to tell the relationship between media and the communities at which we are living. The entire movie is leading by two major characters in a true story, Hugh O’Connor, who is a Canadian filmmaker killed by a landlord Hobart Ison in eastern Kentucky’s Appalachia in 1960s. For the purpose of filming the documentary, Elizabeth Barret is trying to reveal that today’s unresolved questions concerning media images and the individual`s lack of power to define oneself within the American landscape.

The story was happened in eastern Kentucky because it was the center of war on poverty then. It was explored the poverty and economic exploitation of southern Appalachia region. And it attracted many reporters and journalists from out of Kentucky to report or find the truth in that region. Eastern Kentucky was poor, where the region was primarily supported by coal mining. Many people in the state were happy about the entire country started paying attention to what exactly happened in Appalachia through media’s exposure. However, the major conflict was between those journalists from out of states and the local rich and poor people.

The stranger in the story is not actually just Hugh O’Connor himself. The call includes all the media from out of states. Those rich people are not happy about it because they do not want to whole country to see the truth. They do not want others to know how they exploit or why the disparity is existed in the eastern Kentucky. Eventually, they don’t expect their benefit is affected by any political policy. The poor people who are not happy about the media since those cameras reveal what exactly their life is to the whole country. It is shame for them. And people should not live in such poor conditions in America. That is why Barret says in the documentary, “Can filmmakers show poverty without shaming the people we portray?”

As a narrator, Barret combines the story with her own experience of growing up in eastern Kentucky to emerge the film. For the purpose of comparison, she expresses not only the outsiders can report what happened in Kentucky, the local media, like herself has the same responsibility of reporting their community. The media of outsiders cannot promote the social change even though the expose the local issues. According to the story, they are not welcomed. They do not have the relationship with those people who they are portrayed, and they do not know what exactly the local residents want.

The community story is told by outsiders, which is not Barret`s expectation. After studied filmmaking, Barret understands the mission of regional media is film and documents their own culture. That is the role of local media should be. Now, having watched the film, Barret never give up protecting her own community from those who would harm it. The major media is holding extreme views when they are showing the images of Appalachia, such as they are showing how poor the region is, the poor are living in what kind of conditions, and how they are struggling in living in Appalachia. The images taken by Barret are different contrast to the major media. She is not only report what she can see, and the most important is she can fairly see what exactly is going on in her community and trust it.