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A few days ago I made a post asking for help finding sources to make a vid about literacy for one of my education courses. Here is a brief (and final) update on that:

1.) You are all awesome and the greatest and I love you guys forever, omg.

2.) Having found a song (probably), I think I'm going to try to focus in on new media stuff, still very political, I'm having trouble articulating words today but basically: people taking control of texts. Elaborated as follows:

3.) People: especially young people, especially POC and people with disabilities and, to a somewhat lesser extent, women--anyone in some way oppressed by the traditional educational concepts of "literacy" and "writing" and the teaching thereof in schools.

4.) Taking control: creating, adapting, translating, remixing, subverting, rejecting, destroying. Both in school contexts and elsewhere.

5.) Texts: just about any kind of "created" communication (that can be distinguished as such in a two-second clip with no context). Computer/internet stuff for sure, but also video, audio (if there's like...microphones or speakers in the shot or something visible like that), drama, pictures and other visual art, and all kinds of writing and written text, both traditional (regular books, writing in a notebook) and subversive (text graffiti, zines, a million other things I can't think of right now).

6.) Also scenes of the exact opposite of all of the above, for the beginning of the vid—people being oppressed by texts and school.

So: if you didn't see the last post, or maybe this slightly more specific request brings something else to mind, or whatever, I would just really appreciate any movies/TV/any filmed viddable source whatsoever you can think of that fits any of the above criteria, even just one. I am super super grateful for everyone who's already offered suggestions or linked to my original request, and I promise this is the last post I'll make on the subject (at least that requests your involvement; as with any vid, I will probably whine about my own process endlessly). As before, signal-boosting is hugely appreciated! I promise this is the last time. *g*

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Hm. There are a bunch of scenes in Sleepy Hollow (which only has, what, 2-3 extant episodes) of Abbie (a WOC) digging through files, reading things, researching.

Oh man, I've been wishing for some excuse to spend time catching up on Sleepy Hollow, so I appreciate this comment on multiple levels.

The first thing that came to mind was not at all serious-- Brian in Life of Brian painting ROMANS GO HOME 100 times on the city walls.

That is in fact on my list and if it doesn't make the final cut I will cry forever. Reclaiming of oppressive textual traditions! It's perfect!

Hey, you don't know me but stumbled across this request idly browsing friends of friends and think it sounds like a really interesting project. :)

You've probably already thought of it but The Sarah Jane Adventures definitely comes to mind - particularly Clyde, with his rejection of traditional school work and taking to drawing comics instead in the later series...

The movie Cloud Atlas - there's lots of reading/writing across different historical periods, and POC. I'm especially thinking about the two future segments. (I have a vague memory of Halle Berry's character doing funky-looking stuff with futuristic pop-up screens towards the end.)

And I kind of can't believe I'm about to type this, but screw it, it was the first thing that popped into my head...Sister Act 2. Pure cheese but fits your premise perfectly with the kids being failed by the traditional school system then taking control through music and rap. Been many, many years since I've seen it though, so no idea about specific visuals I'm afraid!

Good luck with the vid!

Hi, saw this on my Network. How about:

- Newsies, where they take control of the printing press and distribute the newspapers

- http://tumblr.austinkleon.com/post/58067526093 is an interesting documentary about punk collage art

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhZTNgAs4Fc Possibly some parts from the MCR I'm Not Okay video would work? Maybe the bit where Mikey hooks up the tape recorder to the PA system?

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBEw_4vZ_Dc Here is a scene from Batman Begins where Bruce Wayne attempts to read while in a dream and all of the text is gibberish

- Pump Up The Volume, maybe? I haven't seen it in a while so I'm not sure how much usable footage of Christian Slater's pirate radio station there is.

I will signal-boost and keep thinking! I really love your idea.

Hmm. Firefly/Serenity? Can't stop the signal!

"Shawshank Redemption" has scenes of a man being taught to read in a prison library by an older man.

"Dark Angel" has a man in a wheelchair running a pirate radio broadcast.

"Birds of Prey" has Barbara Gordon in a wheelchair communicating by radio with Huntress.

"Veronica Mars" has several scenes that might be useful, like when she's putting together a fake website to destroy a guy's reputation. (Season 1 "M.A.D")

Try delving into old PBS shows. Ghost Writer, 321 Contact, Electric Company, and, ooh, Reading Rainbow. I don't know if they are on You Tube or not, but I am sure there is source footage out there somewhere.

So, I wasn't sure if this would be suitable, as it's only a few seconds long, but your post suggests that it might be.

So, back when Siri was released, someone on YouTube made a spoof video for a feature called GLaDOSiri, and starting at 0:57, there is a blind woman reading a novel in braille, who then receives a text. I don't know how useable it is, but it definitely fits the criteria of being oppressed by traditional concepts of literacy.

Press Gang should have lots of footage you could use. (In case you haven't heard of it, it's about a bunch of kids running a newspaper for kids.)

Also I haven't watched it for years, but I remember Early Edition had Marissa reading Braille at some point, and getting interrupted by Gary and/or Chuck.

In the film Hero, there's a shot of students writing in sandboxes as arrows destroy the school. I think the teacher takes a broken arrow and continues to write with it after his stick is shot out of his hand. Not sure if that works for you.

The Korean drama Tree with Deep Roots, is about the king who invented hangeul (a system of writing which is much easier than the older character-based system) trying to disseminate it to his people, over the vociferous objections of the noble class. In particular (spoilers):

I don't know if it would be sufficiently transformative or textual, but the movie Akeelah and the Bee is about a little girl who competes in the national spelling bee. Akeelah is African-American, and her primary rivals/friends are Latino and Chinese-American.

For written text, many of the slave narratives are deeply concerned with literacy. In particular: Fredrick Douglass' memoirs (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the most famous, but I believe he wrote three or four different books about his experiences), Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington, and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs.

And on the odder end of the spectrum, you might want to look up the Five Percenters/Nations of Gods and Earths, who involve a lot of wordplay in their theology. (For example, according to the NGE, Allah is an acronym for Arm, Leg, Leg, Arm, Head.)

The kdrama Capital Scandal has scenes of the heroine teaching people (including a gisaeng) hangeul (Korean alphabet), which was an act of resistance to the Japanese occupation at the time.

If animated source is useful to you, some animes I can think of:

Read or Die. I've only seen the OVA and not for a looong time, but the main character is MAD about books and can control paper. As I recall there are lots of scenes of her fighting people for possession of books, carrying great stacks of them, using books/paper as weapons etc. And it's called "Read or Die", so.

FullMetal Alchemist has many scenes of Ed and Al reading and studying and also lots of imagery of alchemical circles/symbols and people writing to make things happen (usually terrible things). They are both young people with disabilities, though it's not always visually obvious.

In Yami no Matsuei the characters use ofuda to cast spells and summon shikigami, which is very visually dramatic, also one of the characters is cursed by having spells written all over his body.

Sorry I don't have more useful episode details, I haven't seen any of them recently.