Positioning vs Alignment

• Subjective positioning- heart beat sound and when it stops we know that Hushpuppy knows what it means
• Positioned with Hushpuppy and/or Wink when Wink is floating away
• Aligned with Hushpuppy when Wink is dying/is dead
• Positioned with Wink when he is dying as well
• Positioned briefly with the aurochs (?)
• Positioned with the rest of the Bathtub briefly
• Over the shoulder shot when walking – positioned with Hushpuppy

Film Form/Dynamic Interaction With Spectator

• performance – Hushpuppy shown as/acts strong
• Extreme close up of the aurochs eye
• Performance of crying and ‘no crying’ dialogue
• Motif of the aurochs
• Performance – fierce/strong facial expression (Hushpuppy)
• Sound – music drifts off/stops/briefly you hear the music box music when Hushpuppy turns to face the aurochs
• ‘I gotta take care of mine’ – Hushpuppy
• Manifestation of her fear – aurochs (a possible interpretation)
• Aurochs don’t look like aurochs because we see them from Hushpuppy’s perspective
• We can hear the aurochs (Hushpuppy’s perspective)
• Action reaction shot of trying not to cry
• Mise en scene – Wink wrapped up
• ending shot – defiant, camera moving back making them smaller, sea level rising, reverse tracking shot with piano and string music

Binary Oppositions

• Levee and Bathtub – marching into the Levee(?), funeral
• Hospital treatment and refusal of treatment – self reliance
• Life and Death – Hushpuppy is the one who sets the fire which shows that she doesn’t need to be protected even as a child, that she is leader like and that she is respected. Plus, the voice over tells us that Hushpuppy has already decided what her legacy will be
• Young and old

Passive and Active Viewing

• Active – understanding the meaning behind the aurochs
• Active/Passive – thinking about the representation of children

Range of Readings/Responses (Hall)

• Multiple interpretations of the aurochs – childhood, innocence, environmental meaning, fears, strength. She stands up to whatever they represent, climax, real and fantasy come together (e.g. rising sea levels)
• Aurochs – An imaginative world is being left behind, she has to look after herself and her dying dad
• Who we are positioned with when Wink is dying

Ideology/Values

• emotional strength/control – no crying
• Self Reliance – not getting treatment from the hospital
• Environmentalism- aurochs (melting ice)
• ‘when it all goes quiet behind my eyes’ speech – reflective, recognises that she is part of the world. ‘When I look too hard it goes away’. ‘I see that I’m a little piece of a big, big universe and that makes things right’.
• ‘When I die, the scientists of the future are gonna find it all’ – panning shot of elders, identifies herself with that community and she understand her own mortality.