Blog Session 3 Instructions ::::: Free Post 1

Dear Class,

How are you?

It's been a while since our last class on August 28th... Then, there was the strike, then September 11th, and then the week off because of September 18th.

As we have to continue posting, please choose a topic on your own for this Blog Session 3. You can choose something simple, maybe an important moment in your life, family, friends... Something deeper maybe about societies or cultures, you choose. In my case, I chose: Cinema because I love movies but I can't remember the last time I went to the cinema.

This time write your post in 180 words minimum. If you want to write more, you're welcome to write more and remember I don't need to correct your posts before you publish them.

Good luck,


Belén

Sample Post Blog Session 3 :::::::::: Free Post 1

Cinema: moving pictures or the industry of making films

Today I’m going to write about cinema. I’m interested in this topic because watching films can help us understand a great deal about life and human relationships. Every time we watch a film, we learn about other worlds, lifestyles and cultures and at the same time, we travel about two hours to other realities. 

Cinema is important because as a teacher, I can use films, short films, documentaries, trailers or clips to present topics or issues so students can discuss or debate. And that's only one possibility to use a film because there are so many.

By watching clips or documentaries, we can learn how different and important other realities are. Even if can't travel, we can learn about other cultures by choosing any foreign film from far countries or maybe from far regions in our country -but no matter where the film comes from, the images will make us travel to that place so we can feel as people there feel.

If we consider the origins of cinema, in China, for example, 5,000 years ago, they used firelight to project images of puppets onto screens and this was called “shadow plays”.

Cinema became possible by the invention of two French brothers, Louis and Auguste Lumiere, in 1895. The Lumiere Cinematograph” allowed large audiences to watch “moving pictures”. They showed several short films and they were all documentaries. Then, we have The Silent Era (1912), and some other important periods in the history of cinema such as: The Talkies (1928), The Golden Age (1932), The TV Revolution (1950) after the Second World War as well as the Modern Film Industry.

I’m going to conclude by quoting Auguste Lumiere, who said: “Cinema can be exploited for a certain time but apart from that, it has no commercial value at all”. I’d love to hear what Auguste Lumiere would say about making films in this century, after all the commercial value given to the Modern Film Industry.