Defying Genocide

First Set
1.What did Damas Gisimba, Carl Wilkens, and Simon Weil Lipman value, and what risks did they take by holding onto their values?

2.What values did the children of the orphanage demonstrate?
As events unfolded, what were Damas Gisimba's concerns?

3.What does it mean - as both Simone Weil Lipman and Damas Gisimba state - to "see the other as yourself?"

Second Set
Think back to the incidents that took place during the Rwandan genocide:
1.What role did the international community play during the genocide?

2.Does the international community have the responsibility of assisting countries threatened by genocide?

3.How can students get involved and make their voices heard against genocide? (For suggestions, visit www.ushmm.org/conscience/alert/students/)


Third Set
Think about challenges you face in your everday life:

1.Have you ever witnessed an incident by which a bystander took the responsibility of offering assistance to someone in need of help? What happened?

2.When someone needs help, do bystanders have the responsibility to offer assistance? What do bystanders risk when they intervene and when they do not get involved?


Fourth Set
At the end of the film, Damas Gisimba stated that hatred must be "banished" to make the world a peaceful place. Reflect on that and answer the following:

1.What is "hatred?" When is it dangerous?

2.What are examples of different forms of hatred in the global community?

3.Can hatred be banished?

4.What would it take to banish hatred?

5.Whose responsibility is it to work to end hatred or to respond when hatred provokes violence?

Slumdog Millionaire

• The game show format brings into to focus the culture of meaningless competition. What does the spectacle of the game say about what people value today? What values does the media promote? Are they humanizing values?
I think it means like people now on days do everything for money eaven if they reduce all their moral.


• Greed, corruption and the misuse of power are highlighted in the film through a variety of characters. How are those who have money and power glamorized in this film? What happens to the victims?
In this movie the rich people where like the bad people, in all the movie the rich people where abusing the poor people. And all the poor people were represented as the ones that suffered.

Same title as the other posts... (Movie questions)

What do you think the film is saying about the globalization of culture through media? We see the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” adapted in the Indian culture. Is this a sign of progress?

I think it is a sign of globalization, thus not progress, because I've always hated the fact that people copy other people's ideas for their own benefit. Like here in México. All stuff you see on T.V. (In mexican channels), comes from ideas from channels of other countries. I really don't like that. But anyways, I guess that helps the country's economy somehow.

What is this film staying about the effect of money on culture?

Money "improves" culture, making it more advanced in technology, hygiene, life quality ect... Of course if the money is used for the good of the community, which happens rarely. All our money is in hands of just a few, and only for their own.

In one exchange of dialogue in the film during the interrogation of Jamal, the police inspectors discuss the impossibility of what Jamal knows.

Police Inspector: Doctors... Lawyers... never get past 60 thousand rupees. He's on 6 million. [pause]
Police Inspector: What can our slumdog possibly know?
Jamal Malik: [quietly] The answers.
Discuss the irony in the film that Jamal “knows too much” and is suspected of cheating. Discuss the irony that in the end, his poverty may make him rich. What point is the film making? What is real wealth?

Jamal went through so many things and lived life the hard way. All of the things he remembered when answering the questions, were involved with tragedies, losses, and things that impacted Jamal as a kid. It is hard for people to forget that kind of events, besides, living on the street gives you a lot of cultural knowdledge even if you lack the proper education. Still, being asked questions that were somehow linked to his childhood took a lot of luck. I think that a person who knows too much, doesn't need money to succeed in life, as we saw the example in this movie.

Slumdog Millionaire

13. In the final scene, we see Salim and the choice he makes - filling the bathtub with money, etc. Why does he make this choice?
The whole movie centered in the show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” because it meant the acquiring of a high social status by means of money. In the case of Salim, who also gained a lot of money, meant the acquiring of a high social status, but since he was going to die, he chose to fill the bathtub with money because I think that meant to him dying with dignity.


14. This film weaves together nightmare and impossible dream. What do you take away as the most important message or impression from the film?
The most impressive scene was when Salim was acting as a tourist guide for some Americans. When they came and found out that somebody robbed their car and suddenly the Indian guy started to hit Salim. The phrase he said, “want a piece of what real India is?” Then what the Americans said to him, “we will give you a piece of what real America is,” and gave him (money). Those scenes were the ones that had the greatest impact for me from the entire movie because it represented the contrast between the Indian and the American culture. It show the difference in how to solve problems or treat children. In the case of Indians, it is correct to hit them, or at least what they always do, and Americans with love and money.




Roberto Cai Wu

Slumdog millionaire

11.-Describe how loss, chance, luck, suffering, and street smarts are also characters behind the scenes. The film explores gain and loss side by side. Triumphs are tempered with loss. Where do you see this evident?
A: The whole movie is based on explaining this extra character, so that you understand that even though these kids are from the slums, they come from a place in common, just trying to make their way in life, trying to understand it in there very own way, and you wouldn’t understand this way, if you didn’t see were they developed during they’re lives, a place that takes and gives in a drastic derailed way.

12.-The chaos and the constant noise and motion of Mumbai at the center of the film, (supported by a fabulous soundtrack) are contrasted with a deeper silent seeking. Describe what each of the main characters is seeking.

A: Like everyone I know and interact with, they are looking for they’re place, even if its corruptive or extreme they must find it, and in general they all do what’s best to understand it and translate it into a less fluctuating movement.

Jamal: I wouldn’t consider him a hero like most do, I think he is the guy with less bad ideals, the one who took what most I’m thinking clean road, he was looking for a meaning in life, he seams to be someone who was a lot more into a bigger purpose, and understanding as something practical, like a way to live, seeing it every day in Latika´s eyes, wrong maybe, but in the end his sole purpose.

Latika: Even if we didn’t see Latika for the most part of the movie I think I can describe her as an object, and I’m not meaning to sound like a macho man or anything like that, I think that I don’t understand what happened to her in the first scenes, making me think that she was kind of a lost puppy, who was perfectly fine by finding comfort in someone else’s eyes, its not wrong, I can tell you that much, but I think that she didn’t mind being tossed around as long as she found a place to be identified with, and this place was jamal

Salim: Would I say I saw a bad ass? Maybe, what I saw was a kid who grew up to fast, because his brother needed him, and in the process ended up hating him as well because he couldn’t remain a kid for the time he needed to, he found his way around crooks, and this was because he identified with all the frustration and anger that surrounded him along the way.

Fco. Alan Velazquez Fontanot

Slumdog Millionaire

1-.What does the title mean? How does the title and the contrasts within it provide symbolic summary of the film? Well, slum is an area of a city that is marked by extreme poverty, and I read that calling someone a slumdog it's an offense in India, and maybe in another places. Slumdog millionaire, by traduction means simply... someone considered as the lowest from the poorest, becoming rich. Actually, the title has a lot of problems and issues behind it. Some representatives from slums in India filled a lawsuit alleging that "Slumdog" was too rough and it could offend people from the slums in that country. The guy who thought that using the word "Slumdog" wouldn't be problematic was wrong. Besides, the movie itself has provoked a lot of movements: some said it depicts poverty in India so the world could make a new stereotype, some said that India isn't even like that anymore. I think it's a "romantic" way for us to see India.



2-.Early in the film we see the young Jamal dive into a latrine pit to steal a glimpse at a visiting movie star. How does his single-mindedness to see this movie star reveal his determination? What other examples do you see in the film of his determination? Well, all along the movie Jamal fights for what he wants. Through all of his life, he fighted and tried to find Latika, thinking that it was his "destiny" to be with her. I think that for jumping into a pool of poo just for an autograph.. you need to have a lot of guts and a lot of desire for something to do that. The biggest example of his determination is the fact that he chased Latika until he got her.

Slumdog Millionaire: Questions 3&4

• In the film, the theme of destiny is a central theme. What does it mean that all Jamal desires is just out of his reach? (The prized autograph, Latika, his brother, the answers, etc.)
that doesnt matter that almost everything its against you, because if it is your destiny to become someone important in life, and you never give up to do it, it would happen eventually.

• Compare and contrast three pivotal choices or decisions made by Jamal and Salim. How do their choices affect their respective paths in life or “destinies”?
Salim.- Whe he decided to got look the enemy of maman when he killed him to become more importart, thats lead him to the "bad side" and he sell latika to the guy. that was a very crucial decision in salim's life because change the curse of their lifes.
Jamal.- When Jamal decided to keep looking for Latika, was a very important decision because if he wouldn't go for her, she would became maybe a prostitute or a women that sells her body, because Maman was using her to make money.