{"id":1316,"date":"2018-11-09T11:19:01","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T17:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/?p=1316"},"modified":"2018-11-19T12:03:36","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T18:03:36","slug":"reflecting-on-resilience-the-2018-wsu-film-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/reflecting-on-resilience-the-2018-wsu-film-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting on Resilience: The 2018 WSU Film Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the conclusion of the Resilience Film Series at the end of last month, I have to marvel a little at the direction the series took.\u00a0 When I first heard the words \u201cresilience\u201d and \u201cfilm series\u201d together, I initially had this mental image of Mad Max type characters spitting, \u201cI will survive!\u201d at the camera and then proceeding to prove their mettle through a series of improbable stunts and action sequences in the typical blockbuster fashion.<\/p>\n

Then, remembering my role and duty as a film studies student to share productions of artistic value that mainstream audiences would likely not have taken the time to see, my mind went to the classic, artsy award winners that move everyone to tears with their sweeping melodrama.\u00a0 I am very happy to say that, in the end, our series went in an entirely different direction than either of these two.<\/p>\n

My initial ideas demonstrate two common misconceptions about resilience.\u00a0 First, resilience is not about toughness.\u00a0 It\u2019s not \u201csurvival of the fittest\u201d (sorry, Max), and, counterintuitively, a resilient person is not \u201ctoo strong to knock down.\u201d\u00a0 With that being said, there\u2019s the competing notion that resilience is this trait that only very noble and heroic people have, and when they commit an act of resilience, it is a very serious and tearful affair.\u00a0 If either of these ideas were true, resilience would be a very strange concept for Winona State to pick as its 2018 theme.<\/p>\n

As the WSU website<\/a> explains: \u201cResilience is the ability to successfully adapt to stressors and adversity.\u00a0 It\u2019s the ability to \u2018bounce back\u2019 and grow from difficult experiences.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, one has to be knocked down in order to display resilience by getting back up again.\u00a0 Furthermore: \u201cIt is a myth that resilience is a trait that people just have or don\u2019t have.\u00a0 It involves feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that can be learned and developed by everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that definition in mind, it\u2019s interesting to look at our film selections in retrospect because 7 of our 9 screenings were centered on childhood-related resilience.\u00a0 This was not something we had planned ahead of time; rather, it began with our professor\u2019s suggestion to include the documentary, Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 In terms of how this particular film relates to our theme, the content is about as subtle as its title.\u00a0 The documentary examines the biological effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE\u2019s) and serves as a call to action for those in the healthcare and education fields (which, appropriately, are two of the most popular majors of choice at WSU).<\/p>\n

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Dir. James Redford 2016<\/p><\/div>\n


\n<\/em>It being unanimous that this film should be included in our series, our class began our selection process, and while I don\u2019t recall us ever discussing the idea of centering our series around childhood resilience, it naturally began to take shape.<\/p>\n

We had very specific reasons for choosing the films we did: we wanted to include a wide variety of genres and cinematic experiences to both cater to and expand our audiences\u2019 tastes, yet we also kept returning to this idea of childhood resilience.\u00a0 For example, Moonlight<\/em><\/a> is the 2017 Academy Award winner for Best Picture and is an important milestone in cinematic history for its portrayal of a black, gay protagonist, but it is also a moving coming-of-age film about surviving child abuse.<\/p>\n

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Dir. Barry Jenkins 2016<\/p><\/div>\n

In another example, Eighth Grade<\/em><\/a> was the humorous indie hit of the summer and its limited release inspired us to bring this underseen gem to campus.\u00a0 However, it is also, again, a coming-of-age film, this time centered around a girl trying to survive the final weeks of middle school.<\/p>\n

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Dir. Bo Burnham 2018<\/p><\/div>\n

Along this line, we thought we would be remiss to not include the documentary hit,\u00a0Won\u2019t You Be My Neighbor?<\/a>, <\/em>a film that features a man known for his unique way of encouraging and comforting small children through the trials of daily life and even tragedy: Mr. Rogers.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Dir. Morgan Neville 2018<\/p><\/div>\n

In the end, films that did not in some way include childhood resilience were chosen very very sparingly and this kept a strong connecting thread throughout the series.\u00a0 We all were strongly invested in this overarching narrative and so were proud to share it with the WSU community.<\/p>\n

Through this series, we came to realize that society\u2019s most resilient individuals are also perhaps their most small.\u00a0 Sometimes, we get a little too caught up in our adult ego\u2013\u2013as the documentary, Resilience, <\/em>makes a point of noting, adults tend to view childhood as this rosy, perfect time of life, and that often isn\u2019t the case\u2013\u2013it is, in fact, an extremely unfair ideal to burden our children with.\u00a0 Fortunately, everyone can identify with childhood; everyone either had one or is currently having one.\u00a0 Perhaps that is why our class resonated so strongly with the idea of childhood resilience\u2013\u2013it is uniquely eye-opening and relatable at the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the conclusion of the Resilience Film Series at the end of last month, I have to marvel a little at the direction the series took.\u00a0 When I first heard the words \u201cresilience\u201d and \u201cfilm series\u201d together, I initially had this mental image of Mad Max type characters spitting, \u201cI will survive!\u201d at the camera […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,81],"tags":[14,54],"class_list":["post-1316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criticism","category-right","tag-brynn-artley","tag-resilience"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1380,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316\/revisions\/1380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}