Weekend

Weekend is a 2011 piece directed by Andrew Haigh. I would say the film is Romantic Drama featuring aspects of Social Realism. The film is based on homosexuality with the main protagonist being Russell a man in his late 30's who struggles to identify as gay. Although he is comfortable coming out to his friends, he prefers not to show his sexuality when in public. This is where it could be argued the film has elements of a 'coming of age' genre as by the end of his two day experience with Glen he ignores the fact he is in public and kisses him at the train station despite getting heckled. The Social Realism aspect throughout comes from the two men being of a middle social class with regular jobs and incomes. 

The film was independently made and featured Tom Cullen and Chris New as Russell and Glenn. I like how realistic the whole film was and although I thought it was slow at times it just followed the pace of a normal weekend opposed to being fast paced and unrealistic like Box Office hits tend to be. I liked the natural approach to filming it with intimate camera angles that let the audience feel they were apart of the conversation, especially as the film was dominated by dialouge throughout. 

News Article

Following the tragic events in Paris this weekend the Metro covered the topic tastefully. I think it is important for the event to be reported sensitively due to the amount of people that lost their lives and those that lost their loved ones. 

Amongst other news, The Xfactor also managed to be very sensitive around the issue deciding that finalists Lauren and Monica should change their song choices for 'movie week' as the lyrics were deemed insensitive. 

Simon Cowell also interupted the live recording of the show to wish for viewers safety - ‘In light of what happened in Paris we’d like to send out thoughts and prayers to everyone affected in Paris, last night,’ Simon said. ‘Please stay safe.’ 

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2015/11/15/the-x-factor-simon-cowell-makes-last-minute-song-choice-changes-after-paris-attacks-5503196/#ixzz3raxv6jel

News Article

The Daily Mail reports that there is a serial sex attacker in the South London area.  Over the past 22 days there have been 8 other sexual assaults in the Brixton and Clapham area, all taking place within 1.5 miles of each other. Two men were arrested under suspicion however have since been released on bail. 

I think the media has dealt with this case relatively sensitively releasing positive statements from Chief Inspector of the case Tony Hirst 'I would like to reassure the public that we have increased police patrols in Clapham and Brixton areas.' I find this better than scaring the public simply to make a good story and therefore the Daily Mail show they are thinking of their readers, also telling people to be cautious 'Always call police if you feel in danger'.  It is also reassured that night time patrols have increased and gave further advice to women to 'remain vigilant when travelling at night'. 

Saving The Cyber Sex Girls and Race Riots

Stacey Dooley investigates Saving the Cyber Sex Girls:
Saving the Cyber Sex Girls is a BBC3 documentary presented by Stacey Dooley. The show explored how young girls are being exploited and sexually abused online, particularly in the Philippines. Themes explored throughout the documentary include sex, social class, age and poverty. Poverty was a dominant theme and consistently referenced. Dooley looked at how a lack of income can force families to using their own children for sex trafficking, showing the true extent of their desperation. Children as young as five were described to being forced to perform sexual acts on webcam with some being shipped off to meet with foreign men that would later pay for sex. Dooley was clever in the way she spoke to victims to enable the audience to see their thought processes and if they think of themselves as being exploited. At one point in the show Stacey visited an internet cafe and spoke to a fourteen year old girl that had recently lost her virginity to a man that had flew to the Philippines especially to pay for sex with her. The show explored how these arrangements are often made on Facebook, a social media site that is so popular and can be so innocently used  it is hard for the audience to believe such terrible deals could me made via.  

To further investigate the cyber sex industry Dooley visits an organisation that created a fake online persona - ten year old Sweetie. In less than two months the character was contacted by more than 20,000 predators that wanted to make sexual arrangements with her or asked her to perform explicit acts. Sweetie's creators were able to trace 1,000 of these paedophiles and 110 were found to be British. Shockingly, out of the 1,000 predators contacted there were only 6-8 prosecutions.  

Overall Dooley concluded that the boom in cheap internet access and the extremely low age of consent at 12 is what makes the Philippines the perfect grooming ground for cyber sex. I like Stacey's Dooley's way of reporting as she can give a true insight into problems without being intrusive. She enabled the audience to see the extent to which young girls are being exploited and gave not only their side of the story but their perpetrators by visiting a local prison. 

Reggie Yates' Race Riots:

Race Riots USA is a recent documentary made for the BBC and presented by Reggie Yates. Yates investigates how black people are treated in American society, particularly in the town of Ferguson. The show was mainly focused on the death of Michael Brown a black eighteen year old who was killed by a white police officer Darren Wilson on the 9th August 2014.  The documentary featured footage of the riots that followed the death of Brown and how the town has been segregated between black and white ever since. Themes explored throughout are race, police brutality and also the representation of black people and white police officers in the news especially.

  I really liked the style of the documentary how it took the audience around the town and allowed us to see where the event unfolded. Reggie also visited a lawyer linked to similar cases, a charity shop opened after the death of Brown and also a large portion of the show was dedicated to Reggie meeting Brown's friend Clifton who had to watch his friend's body remain in the road for four hours. Moreover, I like how the documentary featured facts to help the audience develop their opinion such as the ratio of black to white people in Ferguson being at 70% to 30%. The show also looked at the protesters aiming to clear Wilson of his reputation who believe that although Brown was killed he wasn't innocent as he had stolen from a local shop, therefore possibly put himself in that situation at his own risk. My favourite part was watching Reggie be put in a crime situation and given a simulated gun. This was to test if he would succumb to pressure and reach for his gun - which he did.