Maria Full of Grace

    Maria Full of Grace starts out in Colombia, with a pregnant seventeen year old girl named Maria. She works in a flower power plant de-thorning roses, until one day she is fired. She has trouble finding another job so she decides to accept an offer from a guy friend to become a drug mule. So she flies to the New York, with sixty two cocaine pellets in her stomach. But things dont happen the way she thought they would.

Afghan Star review

     Afghan Star was a movie that truely showed how different American and Afghanistan culture is. A big difference in what i saw is what is accepted in the Afghan culture. One thing i noticed that really surprised me was that you arent allowed to dance, its a sin. One of the two girls danced up on stage infront of the cameras and thousands of people. And when the cameras went around asking what people thought of it, they told the cameras that she should just die because its such a huge sin. Whereas here in America dancing is an everyday thing and its not frowned apon but its encouraged.

     This just shows part of the restrictions women have in the Afghani culture. There are a lot of things they cant do. And in my eyes coming from the American culture it makes me sad and angry. Because its just showing that women still arent equal to men. The women even  have to wear head raps. This is because their beauty only creates sins. They will only tempt the men to sin. Which isnt fair to do in my opinion because you should be able to control your actions. But apparently they dont believe that.

    Another thing i noticed was how restricted they are, how many rules there are because of the Taliban. An example of that would be; you have to send/call in your vote for the show and the Taliban took down the phone lines, so these people now couldnt vote because there was no way in making a call or text.

Afghan Star

    
Afghan Star is a tdocumentary about a tv show based off of American idol but set in Afghanistan. Its showing the last nine contestants but focuses in on the two women and two men that are in it. Their names are Satara, Lema, Hameed and Rafi. But a major part of the film focused on Satara and the moves she makes that puts her life in danger. In this movie the cameras follow around the singers/stars and show you what its like to be in their shoes. The cameras also go around to local people and ask them about what they think of the stars and the show.

Please Vote for Me review

     This movie really surprised me. Or should i say the children in this movie really surprised me. They are mini politicians, its crazy. And they're brutal! They become mean, and they tear at eachother (the canidates do). To the point we some cried. They also begin to bribe the class. The parents really help out on this one. One kids dad is a police officer so he got free tickets for a class to ride a train. Another kid bribed kids by promising them political office jobs. These kids are very smart. And a lot of it is because of the parents stratagies.
    Another thing that surprised me was how the kids treated their parents. Well one kid in perticular. He would yell at his mother and push her around. It was very rude and i was surprised that a third grader was doing this. When all she was trying to do was help. And i think most of this is because of the one child policy in China. I think these kids treat their parents like this because they are their parents main focus and when they dont get that attention all the time they freak out. Or that they might be a little more spoiled then people that have more then one kid because all they have to worry about is keeping one child happy and its less expensive so they can afford more things for that child.
     But overall this movie showed on a small scale about what democracy is. And how it affects people. And it was funny to watch how these kids handeled learning about what it meant to have a democracy because they are in communist China. It was entertaining and fun to watch. I would recommend this movie to some people because it is teaching us a lesson also.

Please Vote for Me

     Please Vote for Me is a documentary about a third grade class at Evergreen Primary School inWuhan, China. Its about this class and how they are learning about democracy when they themselves have to take part in an election. Three kids are picked out of the class by the teacher and they have a few days to figure out what their campaign is and what they have that would benefit the class, so that the class votes for them. The election is basically for class president. And the parents of the three choosen childern use whats within their power to help their child win the election.

Mongolian Ping Pong review

    Im going to have to say this is my favorite out of the two Mongolian movies we watched. Im not totally sure why i liked it more. Probably because there was more stuff going on, and people talked instead of just camel noises. But really this movie was good, a little confusing to me because its about these people who dont know what a ping pong ball is. And to me that silly, but i only think that because ive known what it is for a long time and its not a weird or strang unknown item to me. So you have to take into consideration about where people live and how advanced they are.
     Another difference i found was how they got around, transportaion wise. One of Bilike's friends had a motor scooter, Bilike rode a horse, and the traveling sales man and police man both had cars/trucks. And i was pretty surprised that the scooter could drive on that terrain. It was pretty impresive. Because those vehicals have to be able to go on just about anything because there are no real roads or anything.

     And it was pretty cool that this probably 8 or so year old kid had his own scooter. Most kids in America dont even have that. So as you can see these kids have a lot of freedom. They also stole a beer and basically ran away and played in these hills over night and its like their parents didnt even care, until they found out that the kids had gotten drunk from the beer.

Mongolian Ping Pong

     This second film we're watching is called Mongolian Ping Pong, it too is also based/filmed in Mongolia. This film is about a young boy named Bilike, who finds a ping pong ball. Something he has never seen before. This small ball is basically a miracle and a confusion to young Bilike and his two closest/best friends. Throughout the whole movie these three boys try to figure out what it is and where it came from. Bilike asks his grandma and is told it comes from the spirits who live up the stream. So the three boys go on a journey to Beijing.Only to realize its further away then they had planned. Soon after that Bilike goes off to school, he enteres a building where he hears a strange sound. Only to find that it was a large room filled with people playing ping pong.

The Story of the Weeping Camel Review

       I did like this movie. At first i didnt really understand what was going on. But as i continued to watch the movie i began to understand. This movie i think was made to help people understand some of Mongolias culture. And its very different if you compare it to our culture (United States). These families all live together in these hut like tents. When you go inside its very small, its circular and only one room. Theres a fire place for cooking and some sleeping areas. But nothing big and crazy like in the United States. They have room for what they need not what they want, unlike us.
      This Mongolian family raises camels. And the main theme of this movie is how its the ending to breeding season, and this one brown camel has a baby. It turns out that its white. A white camel is known to be very very sacred. But then the mother rejects it. She wont care about it at all. So this Mongolian family tries to force the mother to care for her baby. It starts as a real struggle but then they reach success.
     Another big difference between Mongolian culture and American culture, is what we eat. When i watched the movie all i ever saw them eat was what looked like watered down rice/soup. each meal time, and they didnt get to eat much of it. Whereas American culture we can eat just about, or what seems like whatever we want. And almost however much we want. Our meal choices vary, from fast food, to other cultures foods.

     The last difference id like to talk about is how our priorities differ. In the movie they all work from sunrise to sunset. Everyone has a job. And they make sure to do it because it all afftects the family and how they will survive. Whereas American culture isnt so hard working. Sure we work but not everyone has to work to survive. Sometimes we do but not always. So as you can tell American and Mongolian culture differ a lot.

The Story of the Weeping Camel

 The Story of the Weeping Camel is about a nomadic family who raise camels in Mongolia. Then there is a white camel that is bornded and its mother rejects it. Poor baby camel! But the human family helps the baby white camel because its pretty sacred. Yeah that just happened.