“A visual embodiment of this psychological space is one of my favorite shots of the film, where you see him isolated in the confessional placed entirely in the upper-right hand corner of the frame. Another example of my ambivalence actually occurs during the transition from the graveyard scene to the non-literal confessional shot I just described. (These occur between minute 4:00 and 4:31.) Mid-dissolve, the man is compositionally opposite himself…which embodies my ‘diametrically opposed’ feelings of belief and disbelief.”
Along with this opposition, the second minute of the film shows the top of the confessional with the confessor facing one way and the Priest facing the other. From the top, the partition is almost forgotten, but we are reminded that a barrier in communication exists. He has a hard time telling this story to a man he can not see and who can not and probably will not make an honest attempt to relate. For the Priest, life is either miracle or burden (sin), and he will professionally remove this burden, but the main character has learned, as Pryce explains in this interview, that miracle and burden are too closely related. This ambivalence is life. This is our Yin-Yang, our “much to do with hate but more with love,” as Romeo says.
Finally, I asked Pryce how I could get my students to watch films like hers rather than the latest sit-coms.
“I’m not sure how to go about it,” she said, “probably because TLC’s not for everyone. Besides, I’m once again focused on paying my bills and trying to get a few more production companies to represent me as a commercial director. And to answer your question about how to get people to watch interesting works vs. the latest sit-com…frankly, you as a teacher are the most important link. You are letting them dip their toes into untested waters. I think that if one of them watched ‘The Missing Peace,’ (her other short film) they would not have the same interest as TLC because it is even more foreign, enigmatic territory. There’s a lot to be said about gradual development. I may make the radical suggestion of analyzing pop culture in your classes with the same approach you take to the classics. Perhaps they will appreciate more sophisticated material once they can no longer watch MTV as a passive viewer….”
This is where media literacy comes in, and as humanities teachers, we do find ourselves infusing popular culture into many things we
