Baraka - A Beautiful World Defined Without Words

On my last class of Media Appreciation, I was shown an amazing movie entitled "Baraka". What amazes me is that, this movie involves no talking at all, but a full movie of only motion and sounds. Baraka shows how the world evolves from time to time. It's a movie with a vast viewing angle.

Baraka basically means, "blessing". Watching this movie, I can actually identify what is happening. How the world begins from scratch. Humans did not have the technology that they have today. We begin everything from a very basic stage. The movie shows how the world begins, how civilisation slowly develops, modernisation happens, war outbreaks, and death. It's also symbolic to a life cycle: We were born pure and innocent. We also grow up learning how to live. At a certain point of time, we are finally being able to stand on our own and make own decisions, and at times we also made mistakes that has caused us a precious loss. Finally, the inevitable stage of life, which is death. When we die, only memories of us will remain in the hearts of those who remember us. Baraka also shows how people from different religions and beliefs perform various prayers and rituals to seek blessings from God. The unique thing about it is that, no matter in what era we live in, the prayers and rituals still remain and practised by the believers. How they perform their rituals and prayers may differ from one another but their motives are the same; to seek God's blessings. This shows that, we are all the same and there is no reason for us to discriminate one another at all. Every religion teaches us good things, and no religion will ever teach its believers terrorism. 

The Beauty of Semiotics

By definition, semiotics are the "science" of signs. To make things clearer, it is how a single sign can bring a lot of meanings. For example, we take a look at this:

What does this mean to you? Is it just a leaf? It's more than just a leaf. It's a symbol of living. It's a symbol of healthy environment. It's a symbol of the beauty of mother nature. It's a symbol of feeling refreshed. 

As you can see, there are many ways to interpret to a single picture. Semiotics play a big role in delivering messages, especially through advertisements and movies. Signs in movies we see can give us a lot of different impressions. Sometimes, it also tells us the story itself. Semiotics are also often used by movie producers to deliver a certain implicit message. Some people might not notice them when they are watching a movie, but some people can. Thus,  there will be people debating about what the semiotic signs mean, because they have different opinions based on their observation. 

Media Literacy

What is media literacy? Media literacy means to access, analyse, evaluate, and to produce communication and information in an array of ways. In summary, media literacy basically means to watch carefully, and think critically. 

To be a creative media interpreter, one must be able to watch and analyse media content observantly. Most media contents provide a vast meaning, depending on the individual viewing it. For example, let's take a look at this video: 

And compare it with this: 

See the difference? Yes, it's Justin Bieber's current and old music videos. As you can see, there are a few possible interpretations  the audience may make:

An all-time Bieber hater may say: He is still a bad entertainer, and forever will be bad.

A Bieber fan may say: He gets even more attractive than ever.

A neutral person may say: His music evolves, and so does his physical.

Some might say that he's bringing bad influence to minors because his recent music videos are becoming a little bit more inappropriate. This might be because he is only 18, his fans are mostly pre-teens and even little kids.  As you can see, there are many different views of this, depending on the person. Therefore, we can conclude that a media content will have many different feedbacks depending on the people who viewed it. 

PS: I'm not a Bieber fan. :P