Thrown to the Curb/ Pack & Deliver

For today I went to a double documentary premiere of 2 students from the University of Houston.

Plot: A young filmmaker attempts to understand the challenges facing bike riders within Houston proper.

Thoughts: This was a pretty informative movie that really looked at Houston’s growing bike community and the issues that face them; i.e. bike lanes, traffic signs, sharing the road with large vehicles. The structure was a little off, it seemed more like a television show than a film because the topics were brought up with subtext. Overall this was a decent movie and was a good look into the Houston bicycling scene.

Plot: A look at the sex trade in the city of Houston.

Thoughts: This film had much potential that it didn’t tap into. The material was really rich (as you can see with the accompanying 150+ page thesis) but the production value was poor. I wished for more from that side of the film, it even became a distraction to me (but I have a trained eye for film so that’s no surprise). The framing was unprofessional, there was an excessive use of subtext, and also the lighting was poor; but you can’t expect too much from individuals not trained in the field of media.

As for the film in general, it was really interesting. I never thought about sex trafficking in Houston because Texas is a state that really turns a blind eye to subjects like this. It was very neat to see an actual victim speaking on the subject and hopefully this will raise awareness.