Questions on Filming Techniques and Representation
1. Before you show the entire film, show a scene without sound. Then have students discuss what meaning they think they see in the scene. Next show the same scene with sound. Ask the class to discuss how the director used a narrator's script to shape the meaning of the scene.
2. Why does the discussion of "assimilation" occur with scenes of Jewish children attending school?
3. The film portrays three public events—a parade put on the natives/locals, a parade put on by the Jews, and the Postville Festival attended by natives/locals, Jews, and Hispanics. Why did the director put them in that order?
4. Why does the director end the scene of the Jewish parade with a Jewish boy holding the American flag? How would the parade be represented differently if that scene had been omitted or placed in the middle of the parade sequence?
5. Near the end of the film, the narrator describes the "windy and dusty path" of multiculturalism while the audience watches a car drive down a dusty road. What are other examples of the narrator using a metaphor or imagery at or near the same time that the metaphor or image is visualized?
6. As the credit rolls, there are six brief clips: a Jewish woman, a Hispanic woman, a native/local woman, a native/local man, a native/local woman, and a Jewish woman. Why do you think the director picked these people making these statements?
7. Throughout the film, there are many quotes from Jews and locals/natives. However, only one Hispanic is quoted. What is the significance of that? How does that affect what the director is representing?