For this essay, we were tasked with writing about how one of our favorite films interacts with the expectations and tropes of whatever genre it fits within. In my piece, I explored how La La Land simultaneously pays homage to the history of the American film musical canon while blazing its own trail within it.
This paper is the culmination of a semester's worth of research into documentary film and the ethical concerns that its filmmakers grapple with throughout their careers. More specifically, I was interested in examining if the form's ethical standards could be passed on the next generation of documentarians in Gen Z, considering the influence of social media video platforms like TikTok.
"A Hero's Journey" - Poem
I wrote this poem for a multi-genre project centered around grief. Much of my inspiration for this poem came from the story of Achilles and Patroclus. I particularly honed in on what I imagined Achilles' grieving process looked like after Patroclus' death and tried to express that raw, painful emotion to the fullest extent.