Form over content is one of the things I least like about structuralist film. So, I decided to start with the notion of making a structuralist film but then letting it stray from the path in order to create meaning.
In the equation section, we are given instructions to figure out a problem. Once we are sure that is the right answer, we are told it is wrong and have to question our thought process. This narrator represents an authority figure, and symbolizes that once we get into "the system" (institute of education, work, etc) sometimes the things we thought were right, are "proven" to be wrong. A and B represent conflicting ideals and C is what the person becomes as they grow up. The multiple colored mouths represent the many voices that infiltrate one's conscious and how they don't necessarily give the right answer but guide the person to "check the number again" thus figure things out for themselves.
In the middle there are two sections of small squares. The first childhood memories, the flashing colors symbolize how we remember things not quite as they really were. The next section is Cher from the 1995 film "Clueless." I chose this clip as she debates Haitians needing US help, which 15 years after the film came out, is an issue we deal with today. This clip is especially important because not only is Cher an "unreliable narrator" (pronouncing Haitians "Haity-ans,") but she is giving this clearly un-researched presentation in a classroom, one of the "systems" I mentioned above. The first time it appears it is in black and white, representing the timelessness of the issue. The second time it appears in squares representing again the way we perceive things that happened in our childhood, and how that will later affect how we feel about it when it shows up again in our lives.
The fruit represents how fragmented this life can be and by the time the slices mix, it's not not black and white, but rather a mix of all the experiences, people, etc that we have experienced. At a certain point in life these things can not be separate or sorted, but rather revealed. The tinfoil represents the how as humans, we see each other's choices, and hear each other's words but often do not know why the other is like they are. The peeling of the tinfoil represents the time when something or someone finally unwraps that. As life goes however, the tinfoil retracts as the openness, freeness, and honesty is no longer present whether it be a time you move on, or whatever/whoever opened it moves on.
By the end "C" is a little more clear. It is no longer just "not equals 3" but is a mix of memories, people, and all those voices combining into an explanation of how we are what we are.
The final shot, half a lemon, represents that we are never finished figuring out who we are. Since the lemons were first in the line of fruit, it is interchangeable with A, and this last shot is the beginning of a new cycle. There will always be new A's, new B's and they will contribute to discovering C.
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