Geography Movies?
Monday November 10, 2008
Timothy asks about geography-themes movies. What are your favorites? What do you recommend? Are there any? Please help us out by clicking "comments" below...
Discuss
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Comments
Well… of course all films are geographical because they represent a cultural condition of a place or they are a representation of some place. So with that said, a couple cultural-social geography films about sports include the documentaries Go Tigers! and Hoop Dreams. A couple other good films include Born Into Brothels and Children Underground.
Hmmm….
East Germany: Goodbye Lenin and The Tunnel
How India sees the world: Bride and Prejudice
American Indian cultural landscape: Smoke Signals
Up coming I want to see the much hyped “Australia”
I like Born Free – its old, but filmed on location in the Rift Valley, and my students (freshmen in high school) love it.
And it leads to some really good discussions of what’s happened in the intervening 50 years.
I began showing “Bend It Like Beckham” (2003) to my A.P. Human Geography classes last year. It effectively relates how Pakistani immigrants carry culture with them to London and must, at the same time, adapt to their new cultural milieu. I highly recommend it.
I used to show “City of Joy” (1992) about Kolkhata (formerly Calcutta), in which Patrick Swayze goes to India to find himself and bumbles into a Saint Teresa-like slum. I recommend this one, also, except for the fact that the Swayze character continually utters the g.d. malediction. Otherwise, it effectively shows Indian culture.
For teaching about Mongolia – the physical as well as cultural geography, I highly recommend the movie Weeping Camel. Don’t be put off by the English subtitles. My 7th graders have no trouble at all with them. Weeping Camel is probably the best movie I show all year long.
For stunning photography of the topography of Australia’s Northern Territory, I recommend the ‘western’ Quigley Down Under’. Great musical score too.
For a bad example of a geography movie, let me cite the old disaster flick ‘Krakatoa, East of Java’ about the volcanic explosion of the volcano which lies in the Sunda Strait, WEST of Java.
Blood Diamond – covers conflict diamonds, what people will do for resources and most importantly, refugees.
I have used many movies in my classrooms. A few of the best liked are:
Fern Gully- Rainforest issues
Medicine Man- Rainforest research/destruction
Amandla- African culture and liberation from apartheid, good mucic too!
Salud- Cuban health care system and aid policy
Rwanda- very vivid about genocide and political issues in Africa
These are just to get you started and some need to be for older/ students.
Around the World in Eighty Days, won Oscar for Best Picture, set many world records that still stand like number of sets, most modes of transportation, etc. Fine actors (David Niven and Shirley McLaine went on to win acting Oscars; Cantinflas should have) — producer Mike Todd (married to Elizabeth Taylor) invented the “cameo” and had something like 40 stars in bit roles (e.g., Frank Sinatra, Buster Keaton, Sir John Gielgud). Beautiful photography; wonderful soundtrack that won its own Oscar. Even took the plot from Jules Verne (but changed it a bit). My favorite movie of all time!
I use a very interesting film, Hillbilly, The Real Story. Unfortunately, it has to be ordered–rather cheaply–through the History Channel. Moderated by Billy Ray Cyrus, the film covers a much forgotten and neglected region, Appalachia. The film features the areas contributions to our history and clarifies terms, such as–red neck- which has been incorrectly applied, over the years. In fact the term describes a honorable event in the strive for workers rights. In it’s original context “red neck” included whites, Hispanics, African Americans, Asians and immigrants, with dated photos. Many interesting historic and recreational activities are highlighted in this film–for all ages.