Thursday 12 October 2017

Watching Denzel Washington's "Fences"...

I'd heard about this movie and thought to watch and I must say that I had mixed feelings about the storyline of the movie and the theme/message that it had. I watched it as my beloved likes watching movies with Denzel Washington but this movie left me asking more questions.

I think it reminded me very much of the play that I studied back in high school called 'Death of a Salesman' written by Arthur Miller which told the story of the life of a salesman. This story similarly told the story about Troy, a garbage truck collector/driver and his values and impact that his life experiences has on his family.

Through studying indigenous research principles, one of the important principles that is asked is whether the themes etc. are positive or negative for the culture that is being studied/written about etc. I guess there's been a saturation of the negative stereotypes, characterizations and studies about minority groups that seem to perpetuate the same negative stories about minority and marginalised groups that there's been a reaction against such storying in indigenous research which is why I am so blessed to have read up about.

Therefore I won't be recommending this movie except to say that it is one of many life stories but that the stories that I am most interested in supporting and recommending are ones that offer hope and support dreams, are realistic about life circumstances but then allow those obstacles to be ways of building character and overcoming difficulties along the way. Stories of not giving up or giving in to the 'fences' that block us in society...


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