Festival of Art - Human: A Documentary

Viet Quoc Nguyen

Professor: Felix

ENG 125 001W

22 April 2016

Festival of Art - Human: A Documentary

        The Festival of Art, which is held on the Woodridge Campus at Northern Virginia College, is an occasion in which students have an opportunity to study more subjects related to art through the events and performances celebrated at the campus. The documentary Human, which was chosen to be played on Wednesday, April 6, 2016 at the Lakeside Theater, was part of the festival’s intent to provide a learning opportunity through movies. Like its name, the movie offers the audience various discussions on the aspects that define people as humans such as emotions and human rights, among other things. By interviewing 2,200 people in 60 countries with the same 40 questions, the movie attempts to send the message that everyone is a human being despite differences in background, religion, or language (Human). As people, people try to do better for themselves, their children, and try to be content in this world. Through the documentary, people share the similarities of love, women’s rights, and the matter of money to their lives.

        Although people define love in different ways, love should make them feel happy. For example, Leonard is a prisoner in the United States who committed murder; he admitted that he had killed a woman and her child because he used to think that love is equal to pain. His father used to torture him when he was a young boy, and Leonard’s father said to him that “I only do this because I love you” (Human). Leonard also admitted that after receiving care from the mother of his victim, he understood that love means to care for people, not to hurt them. Sumao is an elderly man in Japan who defines love as staying with his wife and fighting with their families until they can got married. Similar to Leonard, Aichail, a woman in a place where polygamy is legal, is satisfied with her married life because her family “lives in peace and takes care of each other” (Human). To Aichail, love is equal to peace in her family. Peter, a man from South Africa, says love is his duty to take care of his wife during her illness (Human). Love is care, commitment between husband and wife, peace or duty, and it makes givers and receivers of love very happy.

        Women are fighting for their rights which can help them to move on and have a better life. Women used to be considered only housekeepers in many cultures, and their rights to live a life as they wanted were limited. However, nowadays, women can stand tall for their rights by expressing their opinions and taking actions to achieve their goals rather than being silent and undergoing abuse and violence. Many wives choose to divorce their husbands in order to escape their abusive conditions in which they lived. For example, Aida, a woman in Senegal, divorced her husband after 20 years of marriage in order to go to work to support her life rather than staying at home. Sabira, a woman in Japan, escaped from her arranged marriage to go to school. Donna, a woman in the Philippines, divorced her husband to end the abuse by her husband for nine years( Human). Thus, women deserve their rights to live equally like any man and should not be abused or harassed for any reason.