Sean Hemingway
1) Write a character sketch of Elizabeth Barret, Hobart Ison, and Hugh O’Connor from the film; describe who they are and what agenda/motivations they have.
Elizabeth Barret: Native Kentuckian who heard about the Hobart Ison case when she was a little girl. She was not from the same impoverished area Hobart was from. Instead she lived outside the area Ison was from and lived in a much wealthier area. Being in a community around Hobart’s, she defended Hobart; assuming that Hugh O’Connor had done something wrong to get shot. When she got older, she went to film school in Appalachia, and her interest in the Ison case grew, and she wanted to find out exactly what happened, from both sides of the story. Her motives were to find out exactly what happened and how everyone in both parties felt about what happened. Although she had her own biases from her childhood, her agenda was strictly to find out exactly what happened, and understand how the communities involved felt about the situation.
Hobart Ison: Native Kentuckian who shot O’Connor. He was a proud landowner who felt that O’Connor was trespassing on his property. It seemed that his motives were only to protect his land and his community under any circumstance, by any means necessary. He had seen a lot of journalists, reporters, and politicians in the area and he, along with a portion of the community, felt like the outsiders who were coming into their community were trying to make fun of the people in that area.
Hugh O’Connor: Canadian filmmaker who went to Kentucky to show the impoverished areas of America. His purpose was to show America from all stretches of life, and most importantly, show although America had a reputation of having “streets paved with gold”, in fact America had its own problems just like every other country. During a filming, he was shot and killed by Hobart Ison; a member of the impoverished community O’Connor was filming. O’Connor’s only agenda seemed only to be the documentation of American life.
2) What different communities are represented in this documentary? How are each represented?
There are three different communities shown in the movie. The first community is the wealthy Kentuckians who did not want to be associated with the poor communities in Kentucky. They were portrayed as if they were ignoring the problem because they were scared it the poor areas would make them look bad. The second community was the filmmakers who were with O’Connor when he was shot. It seemed like they were portrayed as nice people, who only wanted to help express the pain of the poor in the coal towns. When it comes to the shooting, they were made out to seem like they just encountered the wrong person and the wrong time. The third community was the Kentuckians of the coal towns. They were made out to be proud people. There was no set mentality that was shown because all sides were viewed, but they were shown to love the land they lied on, and not matter the situation, they wanted to defend it.
3) As amateur ethnographers what are your responsibilities to your subjects?
My responsibilities are to keep an open mind, and they try as hard as I can to be fair, and look past my biases and ask questions.
4) Think of the community you will be studying, then answer the question; who should tell their story? How might the story change, depending on who tells it?
I feel like the community I am interviewing should tell the story, and it is my job to ask questions to get them to think more about their community and give an in depth analysis of their lives and story. Along with that, it is my job to do the broader historical research to let people know why the community might be the way it is today.
5) Compare “Stranger with a Camera” with the audio documentary “Ghetto Life 101”.
Both documentaries seemed to have people close to the communities in focus doing the documentaries. They were focused on giving people an understanding of communities that outsiders (in general) would not understand, and thus avoid.
