Shine- David Helfgott

Shine follows the story of David Helfgott who suffers from schizophrenia. as the movie progressed we can see that David started off as a healthy young boy but as he grow older his ticks start to become more apparent until it became full blown after fainting on stage. Looking at the DSM-IV criteria of schizophrenia we can start to determine where in the spectrum David lays. From the characteristic symptoms we can gather that he has disorganized speech as many of the times he brings up moments from the past that are irrelevant to the situation, not to mention the speed at which he dished out his close to incoherent babbles. The second characteristic symptom, which is required to make a diagnosis, is David’s disorganized which can be seen by the state of the house when he is left alone. From the next criteria, social/occupational dysfunction, David varies as he appears to be a savant as he has profound musical skills with the piano which in turn have led to his occupation and on the other side we can see that he is even quite social as he continuously makes an effort to meet new people, but help is also required to help him in other social situation as he also has the tendency to get naked in public.  Looking at the duration we can see that this is lifelong for David as he will never be the same as he was before the incident. Taking a closer look at the type of schizophrenia we can see that his symptoms are most similar to those who suffer from disorganized type, as he suffers from disorganized speech and behaviour as well as inappropriate affect. Regardless of his disorder, David still seems to have a large effect on his family as well as society as he continued to play piano for thousands of people.

David Helfgott

Benny, Joon & Sam

The story follows a mentally unstable individual, Joon, who has grown up with her brother, Benny, who has taken care of her since she they were young as their parents were involved in an accident which unfortunately cost them their lives. With this in mind we have to consider the relationship in which Benny and Joon endure. Throughout the film we can see that Joon faces a series of problems that can be seen as slightly maladaptive under certain situations as her anxiety gets the better of her.  Benny feels responsible for his sister making him reroute his life around her in order to prevent any of her outburst, which may not be considered dangerous but as many individuals do not understand her situation this leaves Benny weary of her whereabouts and compelled for Joon to carry out her routines. In a sense Benny has got complete control over Joon’s life as he believes he is responsible for keeping her safe and restricting her decisions to a routine basis. This leaves benny in a dilemma as under professional guidance, as Joon’s doctor request that she’d be sent to a group home yet Benny is not completely sold on the idea until Sam comes into the picture.

Sam too is truly eccentric who ends up in both Joon’s and Benny’s lives. With his love for film there doesn’t seem to be room for much else which in turn makes him appear quite simple, from his lack of writing to his creative ways of preparing food, many individuals perceive that something is wrong with him. However, his simplicity leads him not to perceive Joon as someone to be weary of but instead someone who understands him and vice versa. As Sam starts to become more and more part of the family we can see that the calls that used to interrupt Benny from his work, the errands that he used to run and other behaviours that were considered maladaptive not just for Joon but also effected Benny subsided. The relationship sparked between Joon and Sam yet Joon felt the need to tell Benny about the newly formed relationship.

Benny was outraged when Sam told him as he saw this as something that should have never happened perhaps due to both Sam and Joon’s conditions, the lack of understanding of the matter and the feeling of being taken advantage of. His outburst lead to Joon running off with Sam which in turn lead to Joon acting out on the bus and then taken to the group home for supervision.  With this in mind perhaps it is not just one individual needed in Joon’s life but a number of them who truly understand her. If Sam was enough for her, the anxiety would have not got the better of her as she was running away and if Benny was enough then Joon would have never ran off in the first place. it is not just the people who are effecting her that make her change for the best but also her effects on others so perhaps they can understand that the little things should not be taken for granted, such as family.

Strictly Ballroom- the power of the community

Scott Hastings is a young dancer looking for his place to in the dancing community yet the limitations put forth by the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championships prevents him from doing so. Regardless of the consequences we can see that when Scott chooses to dance his own steps, he not only lost, but his family and dancing partner crumble around him. All these externalities put pressure on Scott to conform to the given steps that were danced within the previous years. This shows a form of power from the Dancing Championships as it does not let individuals express themselves through their own dance movements let alone the original dances.

As dance revolves around the freedom to express oneself the limitations put forth by the community prevents such actions of expression. This becomes obvious to Scott as he performs the Dancing Championships take of the Pasodoble to a Spanish Family who laughs in his face. Not knowing why he follows the family to the back where they performance of the original Pasodoble which captivated Scott. The daughter, Fran also helped Scott come to the realization as she is the only individual who wants to dance Scott’s steps, even though they prevented him from winning. Even with the knowledge of losing Scott still chooses to re-enter the Dancing Championship dancing against the given steps until his “family secret” is revealed.

The influence of the Dancing Championship is done through coercive power which suppresses freewill though the act of fear. The matter of dance is so large within the Hastings family that loosing would only bring back the memory of what Scott’s parents nearly had as opposed to what they should have had. We find out that Scott’s mother didn’t want to dance with the father as he too danced his own steps which was constantly degraded and ignored but could have prevented this cycle of power back then. Only then can they have the freedom to truly dance.

Cry Freedom

The story based on real events begins with two individuals living on the same land yet who lived in two different worlds. The first being Donald Woods a white liberal and editor who gets the best out of the Apartheid regime. This was an almost perfect world with clean streets, beautiful beaches and luxury cars to name a few, but this is just a face that disguises the true nature of South Africa and the separation, discrimination and prejudices. Donald sees these imperfections yet believes that the liberals are actually doing good towards the blacks as they are somewhat integrated into their society as opposed to living in squalor on the outskirts of town, where few whites other than enforcement venture. However obvious the situation may be to South Africans let alone the world, Donald Woods and many white South Africans within that time justified that any stand against the integration of blacks was seen as a racist notion of not wanting to be part of society. This contradiction in belief and fact is known a cognitive dissonance, this is where individuals will change beliefs, attitudes or actions to relieve tension between two contradicting ideas. This leads to such justifications that much of the history of South Africa was created by the whites and the belief they are the saviours of the land as they prevent such things as tribal wars and have now created a society in which they thrive.

This brings us to Steve Biko’s world. He is part of the Black Consciousness which stands against the regime as it does not truly support a free South Africa. These worlds are not just separated by beliefs but the laws and regulations that support the “white man’s world”, a world where blacks are made to feel inferior. The inferiority comes through working cheap labour then leaving the “white man’s streets” at designated times and forced back out to the crime infested shanty towns where they linger in hopes of a chance to survive. Some face the same sort of dissonance as Biko put it “the genius of it is that you started convince most of us of it to”, referring to the white man’s South Africa. Everything taught is done through the white curriculum with lack of emphasis on many important black figures that were considered federal offenders such as Nelson Mandela. Even the language taught was that of the white population. This is why many feel inferior as they had to grow up in this world that contradicts the freedom it portrays.

It is not all black and white however, as many individuals such as Donald Woods came to realize that this should indeed not be tolerated, even to the extent of putting his and his family’s lives in danger. Steve Biko showed Donald the way he saw South Africa, not just with all the poverty and atrocities but also the people and the drive they had against the system that so clearly puts them down, the love they hold for one another and respect to those who want to better South Africa not just for one race but for everyone, even with all the resentment. After Biko’s murder Donald comes to the consensus that he must do whatever is in his power to do what he can to put a stop to apartheid, this is when Donald truly understands what it is like to be in Biko’s situation. Although Donald was able to publish his book, it took a lot more than just their words to open the world’s eyes to this travesty that happened in such recent years.