Directions: In small groups, I would like you to respond to the following question and together draft a response that you will post to our blog. Take about 20 or so minutes to discuss this question and respond to it. Then, you will present your response to the rest of class, and we will use your thoughts as a way to open up a conversation about the film, its rhetoric, and research questions you might pursue in our first assignment.
Group #1: Logie, Reggie & Rachel: In our course blog about the background readings to The Laramie Project, many students commented on the impact of not portraying Matthew Shepard in the play and later the film. As a group discuss why you think Kaufman made this choice. How did it enhance his purpose? How did it impact the piece? Identify three scenes that you think were enhanced by Shepard’s absence and explain how it enhanced the film’s main point.
Group #2: Tracey, Theron & Jon: In terms of its creative methodology, The Laramie Project draws on extensive interviews—a qualitative research strategy—which raises the ethical question of how fairly the film represents the people of Laramie. As Don Shewey writes, “On opening night in Denver, it was impossible not to be aware of the enormous responsibility that the actors felt to do justice to the people who had entrusted them with their stories and their innermost feelings” (68). In your group, discuss how the film portrays the different groups of people that comprise this town. How fair, authentic, or compassionate is this representation? Identify one scene that you think does justice to the residents of Laramie and one that you think might not and explain why you picked these scenes.
Group #3: Hayley, Michelle & Kathleen: In “Argument as Emergence, Rhetoric as Love,” Jim Corder suggests that “we are always standing somewhere in our narrative when we speak to other or to ourselves” (17). As a group, discuss Corder’s ideas about how the narrative of our lives influence the emergence of our identities as arguments and how rhetoric ought to function in our communication with each other, especially when we disagree strongly with each other. How does The Laramie Project dramatize the clash of different narratives about homosexuality with a small Western town? What role does love—or perhaps more precisely, forgiveness—play within the film’s argument about the murder of Matthew Shepard and what we as a community—or a nation—should do in response to it?
Group #4: Sarah, Heather & Christine: One of the arguments that Amy Tigner makes in her essay about The Laramie Project is that as Kaufman and the Teutonic Theater Project shaped the interview transcripts into a play, they ended up conforming to conventions of Western American myth. In what ways is this film Western? Despite its appeal to a national audience, how does it shed light on life in a small university town in the rural West? How does this sense of region relate to our national identity?
Group #5: Shelby & Alex: In terms of rhetorical appeals, it probably goes without saying that the predominant appeal of The Laramie Project is pathos. As a group, remind each other what an appeal to pathos is and discuss how this kind of appeal works to help persuade an audience of an argument. Identify three scenes that you think demonstrates different, but particularly effective appeals to pathos and explain precisely what kind of emotional state the film cultivates within the viewer. How does this emotional appeal support the film’s main claim?
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Sarah, Heather, Christine
ReplyDeleteThis film reveals Western stereotypes by showing empty plains, interviewing town residents and small towns views. This film is Western-the townspeople still obtain old ideals and the way in which Matthew was killed is very similar to something you would see in the wild west. It reveals the modernization (such as the University) versus the old rural west ideals of the townspeople. The article describes that this is a worldwide problem not only a problem in Laramie. Due to oppression many original Laramie residents left to more liberal places so they could be comfortable with their homosexuality. Wyoming has closed its borders and has not fully accepted homosexuality, unlike many other states that have accepted this controversy.
Group # 3
ReplyDeleteMichelle, Kathleen, Hayley
Jim Corder states that “we are always standing somewhere in our narrative when we speak to others or to ourselves.” this is clearly represented in the Laramie project by the different views the interviewers discovered in the small town. These views reflect how the people were raised and their true identity. Corder explains that “we are arguments.” The different arguments clashed after the incident of Matthew Shepard’s violent death. This allowed the citizens to open their minds to the other perspectives that they had previously ignored. Often when we get caught up in our own identities and ideas, we fail to see the other solutions to a conflict. One side of the conflict claimed their motto is “live and let live.” While the others strived for acceptance and openness about issues like homosexuality. These people challenged the small town’s support for tolerance. The Laramie’s diverse approaches to Matthew Shepard’s death were seen on a national and even global level, too.
The film shows that despite your beliefs you always have the opportunity to do the right thing. The film uses pathos to make an audience sympathetic to a human life, not necessarily the minority. It goes beyond the subject of Matthew Shepard and questions ethics among Laramie. Three events raise specific questions to the audience and make different groups make realizations on their own.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Stephen Belber and his stance on being gay. This event is significant because it gives the audience a chance to relate to the minority group with the absence of Matthew Shepard. When he talks about his fear of being gay in Laramie before and after the event it makes viewers actually think about the seriousness of the issue at hand. Especially when the audience could consider themselves in the position to not open up about their own life. It made us consider how we would be able to live our lives in secret. It uses pathos to allow the viewer to sympathize with Matthew while considering the pain he went through just to be himself in everyday life.
Second, the scene when Amanda confronts the Baptist minister. The minister starts off by condemning both the defendants and Shepard for their actions but fades to only criticizing Matthews sexuality as if he had a choice. He gives the audience a chance to either agree or take offense to his view that Matthews lifestyle was sinful. If a gay person were to see this we believe that they would become angry and frustrated to hear that what they are doing is completely wrong. He's preaching tolerance although is intolerable.
The third instance that passes on thought to our audience is when Aaron Kreifels, a conflicted religious character, finds Matthew and "saves" him. Aaron proves that although Matthew was gay that's not to say that a conservative religious person would leave him to die. The situation uses pathos to allow the viewer to identify with Aaron because of his conflict with faith and moral. It gives the opportunity for the viewer to set conflicting beliefs aside to do the right thing. Aarons actions show that no matter what someone believes about your specific lifestyle, their human instinct will stand for the greater good. Not everyone who doesn't support is out to hurt you.
These events stood out in their use of pathos to appeal to the viewers emotions and choices. Everyone has to make decisions their identity and how they deal with others, the film is successful in allowing them to do this.
Alex & Shelby
Tracey, Theron and Jon
ReplyDeleteWe believe that the majority of the film portrays the incident and the people of Laramie very well and in an ethical way. However, altering the interviews of certain people in the town in order to enhance the town's image is unethical even if there are only a few occurrences. The character Aaron Kreifels was the founder of Matthew Shepard. Parts of his interview were omitted because he was considered the "savior" of Matthew Shepard. In reality he had many homophobic views and made many homophobic comments. This takes away from the ethos of the film because it takes away authenticity. This brings up other questions about ethos in the film of undocumented alterations of other people's statements. For example, the criminal statements of McKinney and Henderson were extremely harsh and therefore bring up questions of accuracy. Were their statements exaggerated in order to separate them from the community? Was this done in order to "clear" the name of the town?
On the other hand, there are numerous characters in the film that are represented correctly. One of these characters being Jedadiah Schultz exemplifies the authenticity of the film. He explicitly states in his interviews that his parents do not approve of homosexuality causing him to have a personal struggle between the "western primitive views" and "eastern liberal values." (Amy L. Tigner, "The Laramie Project: Western Pastoral") This along with many other characters from the film shows that the majority of the people in Laramie may not have necessarily approved of homosexuality, but they did not let that define them. They accepted that homosexuality existed and were sad because of the events that conspired. We believe that the interviews were condensed and edited in order emphasize that Laramie does not follow the typical western town stereotype.
Here’s our groups’ thoughts on why Kaufman did not portray Matthew Shepard in the Laramie Project:
ReplyDelete- Since Matthew’s character was left to our imagination, it was easier to personally identify with Matthew. The main character’s absence allowed the viewer to focus on the interviews and encouraged the audience to conjure up their own opinions without being persuaded by the film’s creator. We think that Kaufman’s purpose of creating the film was to raise people’s awareness of hate crimes and challenge its viewers to take an action.
Sometimes, a natural bias comes through when the storyteller is emotionally involved with their story. This emotional interference can ruin the emotional affect for its audience. Huge emotional appeal was also created through Matthew’s absence. It is likely that each viewer of the film has a homosexual friend, and if not, at least a friend who belongs to a minority. Matthew’s absence allowed for the audience to fill the void with someone who they were close to.
There were three scenes where Matthew’s absence was very effective. The Fence Scene – perhaps not being able to see Matthew on the fence allowed the audience’s imagination to take a more active role in the film, causing greater pathos. The Bar Scene showed just about everything except for Matthew and the two murderers. Not being able to show these characters allowed the filmmakers to bring attention elsewhere, like on the flag that said “THESE COLORS DON’T RUN.” This message reverberated within the viewer very differently than a crime scene would have. Matthew was also never seen in the hospital.
One question we pondered was whether or not the film would have been even more powerful if Matthew Shepard had made an appearance in the film, and then disappeared once he was murdered. Would this have made a significant difference?