In the lecture we screened a short film called ‘End of the Line’ – the film shot in Broken Hill.

Please describe in 300 words or less if you think they achieved what they set out to do.
You may not remember much detail, if so, it could be helpful to talk about your first impressions, after all this is what most of us are left with after one viewing. The treatment which we showed in the lecture is avalaible here
Feel free to write to any categories you wish. eg. story, choice of participants, sound, camera, editing etc.

I am a cynic and thus didn’t really enjoy End of the Line. I think its treatment was very confrontational and they clearly had prior expectations of the Broken Hill lifestyle similar to expectations of poorer countries in Asia and Africa: “it’s amazing how they’re content with so little!” but with less colonialism and racism attached. I firmly believe that technology is incredibly useful and while of course, stepping away to enjoy simpler things is also important, people who spout stuff about those who don’t have a lot of technology being so much better isn’t a particularly intelligent viewpoint.

Fortunately the actual film ended up being a little more interesting: I liked that they actually touched on the fact that it’s not actually that great for living actual lives, especially for young people.

Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you.

One point I took from Pawel Pawlikowski’s reading is the idea of creating films with form that cut through the “meaningless glut of images” that has arisen with so many video cameras (and now with so many phones that do recording) – I’ve often thought about this. On one hand, it’s good that people that might not have had the opportunity to create videos (for example less wealthy or less connected people) now have the opportunity. On the other hand, some of this stuff is not particularly worth seeing, which makes it hard for the actually talented to be seen.

The second point I found interesting was his views on documentaries other than his own. He seems quite disparaging of many documentaries (which is fair enough, because some lowest common denominator documentaries are quite terrible), but I think he may just need to suck it up like everyone else and make art like all the other indie freelancers out there.