Cross-Cultural Blog

This activity marks the beginning of communication between Stanford students in Writing and Rhetoric 1, “The Virtue of Vice and the Vice of Virtue: The Rhetoric of Criminality,” and American University at Cairo students in “Writing in the Social Sciences”: RHET 322. Professor Gironda explains that many of her AUC students are majoring in Political Science (with a few in Anthropology and Psychology) and that they have chosen to research and write about the internationalization of democracy "looking particularly at the EU and Eastern Europe and the Middle East," as well as "the role of children in local, national and international conflicts from Rio de Janeiro to Palestine." As a result of these interests, the students chose to watch and analyze the documentary, “News from a Personal War,” which investigates drug dealing, the police and favela residents in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

What follows are a series of questions the students in Cairo and at Stanford were asked to consider when watching the film.

1.Does the film make, or at least suggest, any cause and effect or arguments about the violence and squalor it depicts and other social/political/historical/ economic events or circumstances within or outside Brazil?
2.If so, make note of these claims. How does the film support these claims or describe these relationships?
3. How is rhetoric deployed in the film? What is the role of ethos/pathos and logos and what is the balance among these strategies?
4. Is the film making an identifiable argument and, if so, what kinds of evidence does it present?
5. What questions does the film raise and leave unanswered? What areas do you feel could be investigated further?

If any of you readers have watched "News from a Personal War," we welcome your thoughts as well.