day day day

Today was our last day of classes, and it was bittersweet. In the morning we watched a film called Shattered which was about a brothel in Northern China and the brothel owner's aging father. It was a bit slow, but interesting nonetheless.

Following the film we had a discussion with James Tweedie concerning documentary ethics. My opinion is that documentaries are SO varied that there cannot possibly be such a thing as "documentary ethics." Your ethics if you're making a film about food will be totally different from your ethics if you're making a film about criminals. I didn't really get a chance to voice this opinion, though, because nearing the end of the course I sort of felt as though my comments and questions were either unwelcome or altogether ignored and not listened to. Maybe it was just me. Maybe I'm just tired. Who knows?

After our discussion and lunch a few students shared some photos and videos from their experience on the course. I shared a photo from an art gallery, a photo of a monument to the 90 year Communist Party Founding anniversary, a photo of me and Tara in front of the Forbidden City, and a photo of a modern art piece that had some Communist kitsch. I'll edit all of my posts with photos when I get back. Some of the memories were cute and pertinent, others were a bit off topic and confusing.

For dinner we had a really good Peking duck dinner, probably my last real Chinese dinner because I will most likely be eating quick things this weekend or dinner with one person. I know that I'm going to a North Korean restaurant with Gen, a student from Harvard, and tomorrow I will have the day to myself at the Lama Temple and Yashow.

I am tired