Documentary Reflection

The topic that my documentary explored was the closed lunch policy at Blair, and how the recent modification of the policy has impacted students. Something that we learned in our research and interviews is that Ms. Johnson actually has no say in the lunch policy; it was agreed by the school board when Blair was built that it would never have open lunch. So my position on the topic is that we can’t change to an open lunch. However, if this restriction was not in place, I would say the best solution would be to open lunch and put more safety measures in place so that the students, who are already going to Woodmoor during lunch in large numbers, are less likely to be hurt. This was a good topic to focus on since it’s local and affects everyone at Blair, so it was easy to research and relate to. I think that the freedom in choosing the topics was one of the most important aspects of the project, as it allowed us to focus on the things we are interested in exploring on our own.

            While making the documentary, we did a lot of interviews with students. We found out that there are some students who don’t want an open lunch at Blair. Also, when looking back on the interviews with Ms. Johnson and Ms. Greene, it was obvious that they didn’t realize the true attitudes of the students. Most students admitted to going out for lunch at one point or another. The majority said something to the effect of “everyone does it”. However, both the principal and security guard told us that few students leave campus since the policy was enacted. They also believe that the stores are holding up to their end of the deal, while students testify that all the stores continue to serve them.

            The biggest challenge my group faced was the fact that out project got lost half way through its creation, replaced with a file that was outdated. No one could find it for a day, even with Mr. Mayo’s help. However, eventually Maddie managed to retrieve it, and we got our work back. Another challenge was the fact that a large part of our documentary was going to be based on our own experiences of going to Woodmoor during lunch, but one of the assistant principals prevented us from leaving. We worked around this, using more student interviews.

            If we could redo the documentary, we might have written the voiceover earlier and given it a more prominent place in the project, because most of it is just switching between interviews.  I think that if we had to turn in a script early on, the project would have been more manageable, and it would have been easier to piece together everything to create the final product. I think that the project was interesting and it challenged us.

           

Cleopatra VII

Cleopatra VII is one of the most famous female rulers in history.

She was born in Egypt in 69 BC. Her family, at the time of her birth, had ruled Egypt for over a hundred years. The Ptolemaic dynasty is one of Greek decent and was founded after Alexander the Great's death in 332 BC. Cleopatra's death ended their reign over Egypt.

Her father was Ptolemy XII Auletes, and her mother, it is believed, was his sister and wife, Cleopatra V of Egypt. Little is known about her early life. It is believed that she had four or more siblings, but records make it unclear.

Cleopatra VI, who is speculated to have been her sister, could have also been the same person as Cleopatra V, her mother. Records of her mother end around the time of Cleopatra's birth, but the name surfaces again in her later years.

Her known siblings are Berenice IV, Arsinoe IV, Ptolemy XIII, and Ptolemy XIV.

Her father died when she was eighteen, and left the throne to her younger brother, Ptolemy XIII along with Cleopatra. It is suspected that she was included in the succession because she might have been married to her brother, eight years her junior.

Ptolemy and Cleopatra seemed to be engaged in conflict, and in 51 BC, Cleopatra undermined him completely by placing herself on coins and writings, rather than the traditional male ruler. Soon after, she was forced to flee to Syria by his threats.

In 48 BC, she returned to Egypt with her own army. After a series of conflicts in Rome, Julius Caesar followed his rival, Pompey, to Egypt. While there, he met Cleopatra, and aided her in winning back her throne. The two defeated her brother in The Battle of Nice. After the battle, Ptolemy is said to have drowned in the Nile.

In 47 BC, Cleopatra had her first child, Caesarion. She traveled with Cesar to Rome after his birth, returning only after Caesar's assassination. She supported Marc Antony as Caesar's successor over Gaius Octavius, and went to visit Antony at his request, only for him to fall in love with her as well.

Antony and Cleopatra worked together to conquer Rome, Cleopatra providing support in return for parts of the land given over to Egypt as the result.

Antony was supposedly told in battle that Cleopatra had died, and committed suicide. Most stories agree that Cleopatra committed suicide as well, after hearing of his death, by allowing herself to be bitten by a cobra.

Cleopatra was the last of the pharaoh's of Egypt, because Cesarion, who was supposed to rule, was killed by Gaius Ocatvius shortly after her death.