Reflection about the panel: “Society Through the Lens”

This week at the university was held the Student Interventions in General Studies: Interdisciplinary Project and Creative Initiatives on March 25 and 26, 2014. This conference was divided in different panels or sessions, each one with a different topic like: “Interrogating the Journey: Literature and Personal Experience”, “Society Through the Lens”, “Using Technology to Enhance Learning” or “Immigration and Puerto Rico Today”. In each panel undergraduate students in courses in the College of General Studies could participate summiting a paper with no restriction on the topic; it could be of different disciplines other than English. My class Journey in Literature, English 3135-001, from the professor Cynthia Pittmann selected the topic “Interrogating the Journey: Literature and Personal Experience” for the conference. As part of the class my group and I had to attend to different panel through the days and make blog reflections about the panels and our experiences. I could not attempt to this panel because I had class at that hour but I did go to other panels.

The fist panel that I attempt was “Society Through the Lens”, the supervisor professor was George Noble. The panel content or topic was how the society is perceived or seeing through the lens of the camera or movies. In the panel the students presenting selected to discuss how society is presented in the movies: Fight Club, American Hustle and Flight. Through the discussions of the movies the student exposed important topics. The movie Flight, starring Denzel Washington, presents a pilot that suffers the problem of alcoholism. The student that presented this movie relates the situation of alcoholism with a family member of him who suffers the same problem. The girl that presented the movie Fight Club was extremely clever and very fluent as an English speaker. I admire her for her bravery to stand up and explain her perspective and point of view. She believed that in this movie you could see why society is so blend, she said that the movie present why we buy things that we don’t need, that we buy things to achieve happiness. I found the topic of the panel very interesting because the way that the movies represent the world or a specific place or type of person, makes a profound impact in the viewer. For example, if the movie presents a country that I had never visited, I would assume that the place is exactly like the movie show me.  If a movie present the Puerto Ricans like drug user some people would assume that all Puerto Ricans use drugs. So, the way that the society is presented in the movies is very important because the movie is going to be seeing by a lot of people.