"I was hooked because I was exhilarated. I stayed because it was more important to me than anything I had done in my life."
Barista offers an in-sight into the realm of coffee culture in today's society. Coffee shops like Starbucks have become extremely popular global empires and it is due to the way people now view coffee that it has become this way. Coffee culture describes a social atmosphere that relies heavily on coffee. Not only is this term used to describe how coffee shops have become largely omnipresent forces in everyday life, but it also describes the propagation of coffee as something larger than just a commodity, but something the narrator describes as artisanal, like wine or scotch. Whether he is poking fun at the movement or just highlighting its impact in society is not extrememly apparent, but the fact that this piece is an essay film makes me believe that he could be doing both. Though his final remark on barista competitions is quite snarkly, he does seem to be quite interested in how coffee has become a prominent stimulant in culture.Watch the film here.
"Then you see the full outfit, like the full effect...What she's radiating out to the world...It's like so satisfying."
In just the span of two minutes, Chelsea McMullan has created a piece that is not only pensive and thought provoking on the inside in accordance to its themes, but it is also wonderfully crafted on the outside as well. The film is essentially about fashion and self-image and how what we wear reflects what we want others to see. It is also a bit of a protest against the male gaze in the way that the women being interviewed talk about how they view other women on the street. The way that these women talk about one another is dramatically different from how men talk about women as men are usually more sexual and often aggresive as they view women as possessions to take ahold of. These women talk about one another, but they're talking about each other in way that less possessive and more admirable in their efforts to understand what draws them to each other in the first place.Watch the film here.