Ryan

Ryan was an extremely trippy look into the downfall of a Canadian animator, named Ryan. The film was a short created by another animator. Though not completely my style, I was able to see firsthand how expressive animation can be. The narrative style was pretty unique, too- the story was told in sections dealing with the people in Ryan's life. The cartoon versions of people showed scars through creative means- like bars of color or missing bones. Some of the depictions were kind of cringe-worthy to me, but ultimately effective.

When the Levees Broke

Though I saw this film in its entirety a few months ago, I still find significance in its message. When the Levees Broke chronicles Hurricane Katrina- the way in which a natural disaster affected people, the way that water plays into that, and the way that people reacted to the problem. I learned a lot from this film. I knew that Hurricane Katrina happened, but that's about it. I didn't know that the city had expected the disaster to happen, and had just improperly prepared for it. It's so strange to think of water as something that can completely engulf a city, when at the same time, we are dealing with a small body of water that has been changed to be "efficient." In that way, the city of New Orleans and the city of Syracuse are similar in that they both changed something about their nearby water. Syracuse channelized, while New Orleans created levees.