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This is the blog of The Renaissance Charter School's senior elective class, "Delving Into Documentaries." This blog was put together in the spring semester. In the fall semester, we watched Food, Inc.; Forks Over Knives; GasLand; and An Inconvenient Truth. Students wrote reflection papers, journal entries, and essays. Instead of these assignments, this semester, students will write on this blog. After each film, they will post a review/critique. Each week, they will post a response to a controversial question related to the film we are currently studying. Visit our Wiki to learn more!

Friday, April 5, 2013

Me @ the Zoo (Spring Break Assignment) #4


‘Me @ the Zoo’ was about an Internet celebrity named Chris Crocker who is openly gay and lives in Tennessee with his grandparents. In 2006 he decided to upload videos on MySpace in which he discussed topics, such as, sexual orientation, identify, artists, and personal struggles. He one day got really popular with one video called “this and that” in which he acted in an abnormal manner. Many people found him entertaining and comedic which then made them want to follow him online and send him feedback on his videos. The media then portrayed Chris as an attention seeking person who just wanted to be famous. He was then labeled an “overnight sensation” because people didn’t know who he was until that one video. One of the most watched videos he made was the “leave Britney alone” video, in which Chris Crocker cried over his idol Britney Spears. Numerous people found him hilarious, while others just hated him and decided to cyber bully him through their ignorant messages. The documentary shows all of Chris Crocker’s struggles while being famous, to him getting bullied, to downfalls, and to relationships with his family. It is a wonderful, beautiful, and entertaining film.
There was a bias in the film because it mostly talked about him, but there were also videos on how people hated him. In one scene, you see all of Chris’s fans uploading videos supporting him and loving him for who he is, but there are also people saying foul words and threatening to kill him. I think overall the directors and editors balanced out the bias in the documentary. But it is also important to concentrate on him because it is a documentary about him, so it’s well deserved.

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