Documentary!

The documentary I watched was "Sick" Now, let me first say, that this is not a documentary I would recommend for most people. I am really interested in performance art and I think that work like Bob Flanagan's is both challenging and beautiful, but I fully understand that it is not for everyone.
The doc follows Robert Flanagan for, what turns out to be, the last year of his life. Bob was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at a young age and was told for his entire life that he would not be around for a very much longer. Because the condition left Bob in constant pain, he found that masochism was his only outlet for controlling the amount of pain his body underwent. In his own way, inflicting pain on his body was the only time Bob felt he had any control over his body. Bob wrote poetry about his condition and masochism and became well known for his tongue and cheek songs about CF in CF camps and youth organizations he worked with. Eventually, he also became quite well known in the S&M community for doing S&M performance art and eventually broke mainstream. He met his partner, Sheree Rose, also worked with him on his pieces. Always provocative, Bob presented his pieces at various venues and art museums across the nation. The end of the film is the end of Bob's life. The cameras are with him in his hospitol room when he passes away, and the camera also pans over his body in the morgue. What is both upsetting and fascinating about Bob's "work" is that-once he had left his body- he left behind a canvas. All his tattoos, piercings, and scars denote his process and experiences. It is an interesting film, to say the least, and I think it does do a good job of revealing the reality that Bob faced- what could be more real than death. The documentary also delves into the politics of the body by pushing the audience into questioning what makes us uncomfortable and why. Bob was uncomfortable for his entire life, but only by making his audience uncomfortable by manipulating his body in harmful ways was he able to make the audience understand the pain of cystic fibrosis.

Of course, I would never show this film to high school students in a classroom setting because it is so graphic and upsetting, however, I am very interested in showing students clips of docs or whole docs that present a slice of life to see if I can get them to think outside of their comfort zone and self understanding. For example, I would never put nails through my flesh, but in watching Bob's story, I am able to understand why he does. I understand that we are fundamentally different people, and am able to respect and empathize with how he expresses himself. Some docs I'd be interested in showing my students to try and get them to think outside themselves include- This American Life with Ira Glass, Small Town Gay Bar, True Life, the farmers interviews from Food Inc., Maxed Out, etc. I think a well designed graphic organizer and class discussions would be the best way to help students think of themselves in the world, rather than the world revolving around them.