buster keaton and dormant pedagogy

I did a looooot of TAing duties today almost 8am-8pm...but the kind where I sit and stare ahead, or sit and grade, not the kind where I stand and teach. It was cool because I got paid to watch a Brazilian documentary at 8am, and then to watch The General this evening, which, if you haven't seen, is really really great. Buster Keaton is the greatest. His stone face always has me in stitches.

How.ever. The whole reason I've been assigned to go sit in on films I've already seen is because there is an unfortunate tendency among intro to film students to forget they are in a university film class, and from what I've heard there's a lot of talking, rude/ uncharitable laughing,shout-outs, and a general lack of etiquette.

So I sat in today for the first time, and a girl in the front row put her feet up on the seat in front of her so that both her feet were nicely silhouetted against my view of the screen. Then this couple behind me kept audibly talking to each other, not even whispering, and bursting into giggles, and they were eating and chomping really loudly and crinkling snack wrappers. I asked them to be quiet twice, and both times they immediately went back at it as soon as I turned around. The third time I was more firm, and afterwards I could hear them talking about me. What in the world is wrong with people?

Clearly I don't go to the movietheater and have forgotten what it is like, and clearly I've been spoiled with film class after film class where everyone is dead silent and wants to to be there and wouldn't dream of being so rude and disrespectful. Clearly I just had a reality check, which is probably good for me...

anyways

This is a screen shot from The General where Keaton plays a Southern engine driver.

This is from Keaton's One Week, a really endearing short film.

and THIS is some gold I found while digging for photos of Buster Keaton. Bowie AND Buster? what a world.