Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s 2008 film, Sugar, follows the journey of Dominican pitcher Miguel Santos as he travels to the United States and attempts to make it to the big leagues of baseball. His story and the struggle that comes along with it strongly resemble Marston’s Maria Full of Grace, which explores the migration of another Latin American into the United States.
First, I will note the resemblances between plots. Both movies feature young adults in Latin America that are working hard to provide for themselves and their families. 19-year old Miguel Santos is from the Dominican, where he works everyday to improve in his baseball skills. He aspires to advance to the Minor Leagues in the United States and use the bonus money to support his family in the Dominican. Similarly, in Colombia, 17-year-old Maria Alvarez has the pressure of supporting her own household of women. After Maria quits her job due to a verbally abusive employer, her mother and sister both encourage her to apologize and return because they need the money. The main characters Miguel and Maria also share certain characteristics. Both are headstrong and determined, albeit in their own unique ways. Miguel displays high confidence in his ability to pitch, and he is unwavering in his work ethic, tenaciously pursuing his dream to go to the United States. Likewise, Maria is headstrong. After quitting in the flower shop, she is determined to never return to its terrible working conditions and to find a better paying job. A third parallel is how Miguel and Maria end up remaining in New York, where there is a Latin American community for both of them. Neither knew they were going to stay there but do at the end of the movie. Both characters decide that the U.S. has many more opportunities than their home country offers, and they want to create better lives for themselves. The films’ conclusions are also open-ended; Maria and Miguel remain in the U.S., but we do not know where the future will take them.
There are key differences between these films as well. The first major contrast is that Miguel always wanted to travel to the US to play baseball, but Maria did not know she would be going there until she became a drug mule. Building off this, another difference is that Santos had a linear path to get to the United States, while Maria did not. Santos knew since he was eleven years old that he was a great pitcher, and his goal was to become famous and wealthy in the U.S. majors. Maria, on the other hand, did not have huge dreams such as this, and she sort of stumbled into the job as a drug mule just after quitting her work at the flower shop; she did not have a plan to be a drug mule. Finally, the fact that the protagonists are different genders plays a major role in the films, as a massive part of Maria’s story involves her getting pregnant. Thus, she stays in New York not only for herself, but so that her baby can have a more promising future.
In Sugar and Maria Full of Grace, Miguel and Maria attempt to succeed in their pursuits but ultimately both fail in some ways. Miguel has worked since he was a young boy to succeed in baseball. After having a great start in the United States, he gets injured, and then the pressure to perform consumes him and he begins to decline. His entire life, he worked towards being there in the Minors, but he knows he will get cut and sent back to the Dominican. Thus, rather than getting cut, he decides to leave before the season ends and live in New York. Instead of going back to the Dominican post-baseball, he will work and create a new life with more opportunities in the US, continuing to send money back to his family. Maria has her own “failures” that ultimately lead to her final stay in the U.S. First, she quits her job while her family is desperate with money. She is then faced with a difficult decision; either she does not find a job right away or she can work as a drug mule. Neither is a good option, but Maria needs money so she chooses to carry drugs into the U.S. Maria is also presented with a tough decision when she discovers her pregnancy. She can choose to remain with her boyfriend, whom she does not love, or carry the child on her own. Either of these choices could be considered a failure. She either remains unhappy in a loveless relationship, or has no support in raising in the child. She chooses the latter. Finally, she can either stay in New York, where she knows nobody, or return to her family in Colombia, where she will either continue as a drug mule or work in the flower shop. She could be without her family in New York and have to completely restart life, or she could return to dismal working conditions and no opportunity for growth and change. She chooses the first, as at least she can create a better life for her child.
Describes the setting of a scene in a play or a film. It refers to everything placed on the stage or in front of the camera—including people. In other words, mise en scène is a catch-all for everything that contributes to the visual presentation and overall “look” of a production. When translated from French, it means “placing on stage.”
This is the art of photography and visual storytelling in a motion picture or television show. Cinematography comprises all on-screen visual elements, including lighting, framing, composition, camera motion, camera angles, film selection, lens choices, depth of field, zoom, focus, color, exposure, and filtration. Cinematography sets and supports the overall look and mood of a film’s visual narrative. Each visual element that appears on screen, a.k.a. the mise-en-scène of a film, can serve and enhance the story—so it is the cinematographer’s responsibility to ensure that every element is cohesive and support the story. Filmmakers often choose to spend the majority of their budget on high-quality cinematography to guarantee that the film will look incredible on the big screen.
Editing is the process of putting a film together–the selection and arrangement of shots and scenes. Editing can condense space and time, emphasize separate elements and bring them together, and organize material in such a way that patterns of meaning become apparent. In addition, editing can determine how a film is perceived: for instance, quick, rapid cuts can create a feeling of tension, while a long take can create a more dramatic effect. The first photoplays generally had no cutting, owing to the fact that they were single-reel films; once filming began, you could not stop until the film ran out. (https://filmglossary.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/term/editing/)
Sound is an integral part in a film. It refers to everything that the audience hears including sound effects, words and music. Sound is used in films for various purposes, including: providing the information to the viewer about the location of the scene, heightening the mood, telling the audience about the characters and advancing the plot. Every person who watches a film realizes that the choice of voices, soundtrack and music present in a film affect the way that the viewer perceives a particular film. As a result, the sound is an important and integral element of the film, one that determines the way that the viewer experiences and understands a film as a visual experience.
Narrative analysis is an examination of the story elements, including narrative structure, character, and plot. A narrative can be considered to be the chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space. In order to analyze the narrative of a film, we need to first make the distinction between the plot of the film and the story of the film. This is sometimes referred to as the discourse and story of a film. Narrative may also be called the story thought story mainly refers to the events that describe the narrative.
Film genres are various forms or identifiable types, categories, classifications or groups of films. (Genre comes from the French word meaning "kind," "category," or "type"). These provide a convenient way for scriptwriters and film-makers to produce, cast and structure their narratives within a manageable, well-defined framework. Genres also offer the studios an easily 'marketable' product, and give audiences satisfying, expected and predictable choices. Genres refers to recurring, repeating and similar, familiar or instantly-recognizable patterns, styles, themes, syntax, templates, paradigms, motifs, rules or generic conventions.