No more “Us’’ Versus “Others”: Critique of Cultural Trauma in the Movie Partition by Vic Sarin

On 15 August 1947, the glory of Indian Independence has introduced with a political hubris, dividing British India into two separate independent nations: secular India and Islamic Pakistan. The partition brings trauma in the life of millions; nevertheless, this trauma itself becomes the victim of nationhood and community both in official history and literary writing. In this background, the study examines how a Hollywood movie Partition directed by Vic Sarin in 2007, exceptionally surpasses that tendency of dividing the community into ‘‘as’’ and ‘‘others’’ imparting Indian partition trauma politically. While analyzing the behavior and action of major characters along with the overall imparted theme of the movie, it rethinks the customary archives of community and nationhood depicting partition memory objectively. The protagonist never pronounces a single word of communal intolerance even when he has been mocked and tortured in the name of religion. Conversely, some characters in the movie always attempt to massacre the truth of trauma spreading communal bile; however, the overall essence and message of the movie keep that alive. Rethinking cultural trauma and using the approach of memory, the study concludes that this in-between movie appears as “West Running Brook” that exceeds the common communalization and perpetual politicization in the history of depicting Indian partition. Eventually, the study establishes that sharing pain seems to work as a healer among victims to overcome their trauma on one side and uniquely it adjoins the British as a party in Indian partition trauma in the next, which has been blurred considering insignificant in the one-to-one conflict between two giants.

Winning Spelling Bee Competition: The Representation of Black Girl in Akeelah and The Bee (2006) Movie

<p class="AbstractText">This research examines the representations of African-American stereotype and the struggle of Black American girl in National Spelling Bee contest in Hollywood movie entitled Akeelah and the Bee (2006). The use of African-American English (AAVE) is one of the stereotype often depicted in Hollywood movie. Race theories are used to examine the relationship between race, racism and power. Meanwhile, Roland Barthes’s theory and semiotic film theory are used to examine the meaning portrayed in the movie. Findings show that the representation of Akeelah as a successful participant in the spelling bee competition challenges the stereotype of African American as academic underclass, and as associated with crime, failure and frustration. Akeelah is represented as a successful African American girl as she assimilates (adopts) American values of change/mobility, time and its importance, action and work orientation. The assimilation is achieved through a mentoring process and support from African American community.</p><p class="AbstractText"> </p><p class="AbstractText"><em>Keywords</em>: African-American, African American Vernacular English (AAVE), Stereotype, Spelling Bee</p>

Orange & Teal

‘Orange & Teal’ has become the preferred ‘look’ of the Hollywood movie industry. Is this craze just another arbitrary fashion? Possibly not, because ‒ apart from the name ‒ this palette has been around for ages in the visual arts. It is variously known as ‘painting in cool and warm,’ drawing a trois croyons, use of a ‘limited palette,’ and so forth. This leaves open the question of whether there might be one or more fundamental reasons for the preference for this particular dichromatic pair. Why not yellow–blue, red–turquoise, or green–purple? Reasons might be sought in human anatomy/physiology, physics of surface scattering, or the ecology of the human Umwelt. An in-depth analysis reveals that all these factors cooperate to render the orange & teal complementary palette indeed special. It involves world, body and mind and has to be understood in a proper semiotical (biological) setting.

Citizen Ken: Branagh, Shakespeare, and the movies

As Kenneth Branagh turns sixty, he finds himself honoured by the English theatrical world as the restored heir to its tradition of the actor-manager, having created a theatre and film career unlike any other. He is an actor-manager-film director who builds on the tradition he inherits from Laurence Olivier, Orson Welles, and Franco Zeffirelli even as he revises it. This overview of his career reveals that he can do small and tidy, but his cinematic imagination first feasts on Hollywood movie genres – noir thrillers, murder mysteries, Disney classics, Superhero fantasies, spy films, musicals, and bio-pics – then feeds his lasting legacy to Shakespeare on film.

RACISM IN THE LAST DECADE OF HOLLYWOOD COMEDY MOVIES

The United States is considered to have entered the post-racial era in the 21st century, where racial preference, discrimination, and prejudice towards minorities, such as African Americans, are supposed to no longer exist. As one of the media that reflected American society, Hollywood movies tried to eliminate the discussion on race and racism. It can be seen in Hollywood movies that begin to eliminate the negative images and stereotypes of African Americans. However, it does not mean that racism vanished from the Hollywood movie industry, especially in comedy movies. Comedy movies are one of the genresthat often involve African-American actors and actresses. Their stereotypes are also commonly used to make humor in the narrative. Therefore, this genre is closely related to racism. However, comedy movies in the last decade, such as Evan Almighty (2007), Wild Hogs (2007), Meet Dave (2008), The Maiden Heist (2009), Last Vegas (2013), Someone Marry Barry (2014), and Going in Style (2017), are not showing any racism on the surface. By using Interdisciplinary as the approach, this research attempts to see how Hollywood presents racism in comedy movies, especially in the last decade. The representation theory is employed to interpret the images, scenes, and dialogues from seven selected comedy movies concerning racism. Meanwhile, the theory of humor is used to find out how racism makes humor occur through African-American characters. The finding of this research indicates that negative images and stereotypes of African Americans are still sustained in Hollywood movies. These depictions are shown covertly. Meanwhile, overt racism indicates that the African American characters are used to make humor occur in comedy movies.Keywords: African American; comedy; Hollywood; humor; racism; representation

Singlish Turns Indonesian in Crazy Rich Asians: Lost in Translation

Crazy Rich Asians (2018) is a movie telling about Singaporean wealthy families, and in particular a love story between an heir and a commoner. Taking place in Singapore and Malaysia, this Hollywood movie includes Singaporean English (Singlish) in the dialogues so as to expose Asian identity. This study purports to illustrate Singlish utilized in Crazy Rich Asian (2018), and the strategies applied in subtitling the Singlish into Indonesian. This study is descriptive in nature, and scrutinizes the movie script while comparing the Singlish found with the Indonesian subtitles. Utilizing a Microstrategies theory proposed by Cintas and Remael (2007), this study maps subtitle strategies to reveal their impact on viewers. There are 86 Singlish words and phrases identified, and the subtitle strategies found are calque, transposition, explication, loan, omission, substitution, lexical recreation and compensation. The most frequently applied subtitle strategy applied is calque, which turns Singlish specific lexical and grammatical features into a set of formal Indonesian words and phrases. As a consequence, the translator can be considered successful in providing information about the movie story for Indonesian viewers. However, the translator fails to effectively introduce Singlish words and phrases as markers of Asian identity to Indonesian viewers.

Conclusion

The conclusion situates the book’s analysis amid contemporary controversies, including the 2016 election of Donald Trump and #OscarsSoWhite. It explores how contemporary black filmmakers continue to use film to contest antiblackness and white supremacy on and off Hollywood movie screens, in front of and behind the camera.