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Title: I Walk Alone
Song: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Violet Orlandi
Fandom: Carmen Sandiego (Netflix)
Length:3:16
responsible for the lack of consistency in title block from vid to vid: seekingferret
content notes: None
Thanks to:
starlady for betaing.
Summary: Carmen vs. the World
Premiered at: Vidukon 2019
I wrote before about my general reactions to the new Carmen Sandiego on Netflix, which happened to come out right as Festivids had ignited a new flurry of personal Carmen feels for me. So immediately after I made two vids of the 1990s cartoon that I grew up with for Festivids, I made a vid about the new antihero Carmen. It just premiered at Vidukon, which I am told also showed both of my old!Carmen vids. The inspiration was simple- I heard "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" on the radio, it struck chords of Carmen's complex dance with friendship and betrayal, and I went searching for a female cover. Upon finding one, this vid poured out, fairly quickly. It was also a test run for using my new laptop to vid- I have since mostly gone back to vidding on my desktop, but it's nice to have a laptop I can vid on again.
I don't really have deep thoughts about this vid. I didn't love the Netflix Carmen, because I was frustrated with its refusal to really commit to the possibilities of an anti-colonialist Carmen, but I liked Gina Rodriguez's performance, which darted so skillfully between childish innocence and ruthless cunning. This vid tries to focus on the parts of Carmen I do like and ignore the parts I don't, so it is not a particularly complicated narrative. With the exception of her alliance with Player to take down VILE, and the occasional clumsy support of Zack and Ivy, Carmen Walks Alone. She is a fucking badass. The end. :P
If I wanted to think a little more deeply about the vid, I think I'd add that there's probably some intentionality behind choosing a Green Day song, of all things. I think there's a level at which the vid uses Carmen to interrogate some ideas about masculinity, about what kinds of emotional responses are permitted for men and not for women, and vice versa. "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" is a song inspired by James Dean walking alone, raincoat billowing behind him in the wind, the icon of glorified male angst. My vid tries to celebrate the fact that Carmen could only take on performing some of those gendered responses in the '90s because she was written as a villain, but in 2019, she can inhabit them while being, at least, the hero of her own story. Maybe?
This entry was originally posted at https://seekingferret.dreamwidth.org/306586.html. Please comment there using OpenID. There are
comments.
Song: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Violet Orlandi
Fandom: Carmen Sandiego (Netflix)
Length:3:16
responsible for the lack of consistency in title block from vid to vid: seekingferret
content notes: None
Thanks to:
starlady for betaing.
Summary: Carmen vs. the World
Premiered at: Vidukon 2019
Click to viewI wrote before about my general reactions to the new Carmen Sandiego on Netflix, which happened to come out right as Festivids had ignited a new flurry of personal Carmen feels for me. So immediately after I made two vids of the 1990s cartoon that I grew up with for Festivids, I made a vid about the new antihero Carmen. It just premiered at Vidukon, which I am told also showed both of my old!Carmen vids. The inspiration was simple- I heard "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" on the radio, it struck chords of Carmen's complex dance with friendship and betrayal, and I went searching for a female cover. Upon finding one, this vid poured out, fairly quickly. It was also a test run for using my new laptop to vid- I have since mostly gone back to vidding on my desktop, but it's nice to have a laptop I can vid on again.
I don't really have deep thoughts about this vid. I didn't love the Netflix Carmen, because I was frustrated with its refusal to really commit to the possibilities of an anti-colonialist Carmen, but I liked Gina Rodriguez's performance, which darted so skillfully between childish innocence and ruthless cunning. This vid tries to focus on the parts of Carmen I do like and ignore the parts I don't, so it is not a particularly complicated narrative. With the exception of her alliance with Player to take down VILE, and the occasional clumsy support of Zack and Ivy, Carmen Walks Alone. She is a fucking badass. The end. :P
If I wanted to think a little more deeply about the vid, I think I'd add that there's probably some intentionality behind choosing a Green Day song, of all things. I think there's a level at which the vid uses Carmen to interrogate some ideas about masculinity, about what kinds of emotional responses are permitted for men and not for women, and vice versa. "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" is a song inspired by James Dean walking alone, raincoat billowing behind him in the wind, the icon of glorified male angst. My vid tries to celebrate the fact that Carmen could only take on performing some of those gendered responses in the '90s because she was written as a villain, but in 2019, she can inhabit them while being, at least, the hero of her own story. Maybe?
This entry was originally posted at https://seekingferret.dreamwidth.org/306586.html. Please comment there using OpenID. There are
comments.