A question such as, "What do films teach us?", is a very broad question to answer. The possibility of interpretations of films are infinite simply because of the mere fact that our perception is different. What people fail to realize is that we are a dynamic group of people. As a people we are labeled as African Americans or the minority, but we are in fact, a diverse group of people who come from all over the world with very distinct backgrounds. Hence, we decipher the collection of images throughout a film independently with unconstrained awareness. An aspect of a film that maybe had some influence on me, may have no impact you, simply because we are different with different views.
A filmmaker whose work I enjoyed the most this semester would have to be Ava DuVernay. I automatically felt connected to her when I googled her picture and saw that she was a natural African American woman. I was left eager to read about and look at the work of Ava DuVernay because I had already related to her on the grounds of being a natural African American female. Two films I liked in particular, The Door and Middle of Nowhere. These films show black women in a positive light taking on lead dominant roles. Ava DuVernay gives black women the spotlight and a sense of independence in these two films. They are portrayed in real world situations, with real world stories which is portrayed on camera and allows for exclusive translations. Ava DuVernay does this by extending her hand out to her audience, getting personal and inviting them on the journey to the story she tells. These two short films could have been interpreted in so many different ways.
Although, we make may look at the same films and develop different judgements, they are all credible. When we are looking at images through the eyes of a director on a big screen, our perception is subjective. Films teach us to think for ourselves, develop our own views, challenge the views of others, to inspire, be inspired and etc. The overall theme or knowledge one is supposed to take from a film is deeper than the image, it lies in our subconscious. No matter what perception we take from a film, we can't focus on one viewpoint without tapping on the others, they are a cluster, one cannot be without the other and this why the question: "What does film teach us?" remains hard to answer.
