Althea Thauberger

Thauberger's "Not Afraid to Die" really had an effect on me. It was a very sad, emotional piece. Because of the gestures the girl gives, the indifference in her eyes, the slow methodical movements of her eating the snack, and the eerie calm of the woods noises gives a sense of
loneliness. She looks at the camera as if it's a cry of help. Then the lyrics come in and it's as if the lyrics are her inner thoughts expressing how she really feels. The lyric, "I'm in a dark hole" acts like a blatant sign of her loneliness.
What I liked about this film is how it relies very heavily on emotion. The emotion is drawn out through the girl. And as it is explained in the article we read, the human being impulse to empathize is irrepressible. We long to connect, we want to connect, we need relationships to be sane. "We look at artworks in order to see ourselves reflected, to feel not alone, and to identify with a speaking, empowered subject". The empowered subject in "Not Afraid to Die" is the girl. And different parts of films can affect people in different ways. Characters, a song, dialogue, or even events in the film all have the ability to affect the viewer. Althea even mentioned that "Not Afraid to Die" had many different reactions ranging from this being a funny film, to a film about buliema. This whole idea of connecting to artwork has taken on a new form in the 21st century. Now people have the chance to connect with blogs, youtube videos, google videos, and etc on the internet. The internet is a vast plane to show artwork and to allow viewers to participate in the artwork. The internet has become a more accessible way to reach artworks. And with such websites like youtube, anyone can become an artist just by posting a video on it.
Art is very personal. It is argued that no great artwork has ever been created by someone without an inner struggle. I direct reference would be Althea's "A Memory Lasts Forever". The whole story is about something that happened to her in the past. Maybe this was Althea's way of confronting the issue. Because this is a very personal film much emotion is played throughout the characters. It becomes very poignant and draws in the audience. There is so much emotion that we want to be part of it. It's our impulse to empathize. We want to help them out, tell them we are there for you.