Today’s Video Saturday is about puppets. If you don’t care about the topic, at least watch the very last video in article. If you do care, let’s get started with a puppeteer that was performing on Las Ramblas in Barcelona.
It’s a dancing and singing skeleton! Neat!
The world famous ventriloquist Señor Wences! ‘S alright!
Another cool ventriloquist, Kevin Johnson.
Damon Scott and Bubbles, the Puppet Monkey. This one is kind of odd.
This is by young director Kiri Davis, and it’s originally from MediaThatMattersFest.org. I once saw something about this on the news in the US and then went on to search for it online because I was very impressed. There’s also an interview with Kiri Davis on YouTube, or rather a snippet of her talking about the documentary.
That’s all for today, please do comment!
That last video just hit me like a punch in the stomach. Some bits almost took me to tears, like the girl pointing which doll was the bad one and then being asked to point which was more like her. That really makes you think the kind of society pressure it is needed for a girl that age have that image of herself.
But what shocks me the most are two things. The first is all those young women talking about themselves like if they were ugly or somehow imperfect, when they are so pretty. The second, and most important, is them saying they have no heritage, no past, because they know they are “African”, but don’t really know their culture or even what country they came from. That is so dumb! And so segregating. They are not African, they were born in the United States, grew up there, all their memories, their relatives, their friends are there… their culture is the American culture. African-American? They are no more African than me or the entire human race, as we all have African ancestors somewhere in our past. I wish we could stop confusing skin colour, or genetic ancestry, with culture or ethnicity.
I know what you mean, António. It’s so sad when the girl, asked who she looks like, points to the doll she said was “ugly”.
I think maybe they are given the feeling that they don’t belong in the US? If there is a lot of racism… and one president even said to the black community, “look, there’s a ship in the harbor, if you’re unhappy here, go back to Africa”… which is such an effing ignorant thing to say… But if people say things like that, no wonder people feel a little like they don’t belong. But you’re totally right, your skin color has nothing to do with your culture.
It’s a very eye opening little film and I admire Kiri Davis for making it. :)