The Last Clean Shirt and News From Home

1.)

In _News From Home_, the function of the letters sent back and forth between mother and daughter is communication. The entire film carried different forms of communication within it. For example, the different lines that were filmed against the NewYork buildings explaining to the audience that they were in downtown. The different lines created other shapes, like triangles of blue sky up high with the buildings surrounding it. There was also footage of many streets and sidewalks with "don't walk" signs lit up, but people were still crossing, thus communicating a city atmosphere. During the subway footage, there was the obvious graffiti, but also at the stops the film honed in on each particular stop i.e. "Christoper St."

The mother, through her letters as well as the film footage was also able to bring across to the audience how she was feeling. She was not well through out many of the letters..she had dizzy spells in her first letter and as she read, there was footage of a fuzzy sign that was not readable, thus creating a sense of dizziness for the audience. It made watching the film surreal. The subtle effects were just enough to get the mothers points accross through the use of visual communication as well as audio...and as mentioned previously, it opened up for the audience to acutally feel how the mother was feeling.

The letters were an open door for the creator of this film to bring accross to the audience other forms of communication, to show the issues of race, class and gender all while keeping the audience intrigued in the frequent letters from mother to daughter. Very creative, and subtle.