The Illinois Parables Analysis
Paloma Martinez
Documentary Perspectives
FilmStud 410
March 12, 2017
Historical Associations in Deborah Stratman’s The Illinois Parables
For a film about history, Deborah Stratman’s The Illinois Parables is curiously timeless. Shot in 16mm, the artfully soft images of landscapes, woven together with archival footage create the illusion of having been shot at any time after the invention of color film. The timeless suspension of the images creates a meditative canvas for us to make our own associations through decades of Illinois history, ranging from The Trail of Tears in the 19th century to the Black Nationalist movement in Chicago in the 1960s. While Stratman’s choice of imagery, sound design and voice over is often associative in content, …show more content…
From a series of juxtapositions, our activity can create an overall emotion or concept.” Throughout The Illinois Parables we return to vast flying shots of landscapes across geographies and across time. The film opens with two back to back sequences of landscapes where Stratman uses sound design to create historical associations between the past and present. In the title sequence, we see a long aerial shot of what appears to be an urban landscape slowly transformed into farm land along with a solemn violin musical score. Interestingly, aside from a highway, Stratman stays away from showing any evidence of technology or modern architecture in the opening sequence. The timelessness of the images, length and somber mood of the images primes the viewer to look for transformations in the soil. Suddenly, Stratman grounds us when she cuts to eye level shots of grassy mounds poking out of flat grassland. In voice over, we hear a shaman named Ravenwolf performing a Native American song along with a drum. “I come here to Cahokia to gain strength and energy, to gain their acceptance and guidance,” he tells us. Here the film allows us to simultaneously contemplate the past, the lives of pre-Columbian Native Americans, while bearing witness to the present, where time and weather have literally buried history. To create a continuum, …show more content…
For Freidrich, the structure creates the illusion of watching a girl become a woman, while Straman uses chapters to connect past events to the geography of Illinois in the present. Interestingly, both films are only an hour long, yet manage to capture decades of human experience. Both succeed in capturing a mood because the object is not to achieve biographical or historical accuracy, rather a contemplation on how we live our lives, either through our own familial relationships or leaving our own marks in the
Documentary Perspectives
FilmStud 410
March 12, 2017
Historical Associations in Deborah Stratman’s The Illinois Parables
For a film about history, Deborah Stratman’s The Illinois Parables is curiously timeless. Shot in 16mm, the artfully soft images of landscapes, woven together with archival footage create the illusion of having been shot at any time after the invention of color film. The timeless suspension of the images creates a meditative canvas for us to make our own associations through decades of Illinois history, ranging from The Trail of Tears in the 19th century to the Black Nationalist movement in Chicago in the 1960s. While Stratman’s choice of imagery, sound design and voice over is often associative in content, …show more content…
From a series of juxtapositions, our activity can create an overall emotion or concept.” Throughout The Illinois Parables we return to vast flying shots of landscapes across geographies and across time. The film opens with two back to back sequences of landscapes where Stratman uses sound design to create historical associations between the past and present. In the title sequence, we see a long aerial shot of what appears to be an urban landscape slowly transformed into farm land along with a solemn violin musical score. Interestingly, aside from a highway, Stratman stays away from showing any evidence of technology or modern architecture in the opening sequence. The timelessness of the images, length and somber mood of the images primes the viewer to look for transformations in the soil. Suddenly, Stratman grounds us when she cuts to eye level shots of grassy mounds poking out of flat grassland. In voice over, we hear a shaman named Ravenwolf performing a Native American song along with a drum. “I come here to Cahokia to gain strength and energy, to gain their acceptance and guidance,” he tells us. Here the film allows us to simultaneously contemplate the past, the lives of pre-Columbian Native Americans, while bearing witness to the present, where time and weather have literally buried history. To create a continuum, …show more content…
For Freidrich, the structure creates the illusion of watching a girl become a woman, while Straman uses chapters to connect past events to the geography of Illinois in the present. Interestingly, both films are only an hour long, yet manage to capture decades of human experience. Both succeed in capturing a mood because the object is not to achieve biographical or historical accuracy, rather a contemplation on how we live our lives, either through our own familial relationships or leaving our own marks in the