Rhetorical Analysis
During the recent event of the Toronto Film Festival a variety of films were presented. Among those films a few contain heavy racial components. In the article Toronto Film Festival: Just Don’t Call Them ‘Black Films’ the author, Brooks Barnes, addresses the necessity of categorizing each of these films separately. Although they share many similarities it’s important to recognize their differences in subject matter. They aren’t just ‘black movies’, they’re movies that address real issues that occurred in American history. Barnes also notes the relevance of this topic during a time where the last two Academy Awards cycles were criticized for being predominately white. He then goes on to divide, categorize, and describe three specific racially centered films.
Barnes’ approach to this topic is somewhat effective in its persuasiveness. The summaries he gives of each film are the strongest point of the article. However, some areas are unnecessary and the article could’ve been more effective without it. The main forms of rhetorical appeal that he uses is ethos. Aside from the article’s slightly confusing bits, the overall nature of it is very compelling. It does well communicating the purpose, relevance, and significance of each film.
In order to convince the audience of how important it is to recognize the difference of the movies, Barnes first cites Cameron Bailey, the artistic director of the festival as his main source. This immediately establishes a form of credibility and thus is ethos. He does so by quoting Bailey commenting, “[the films] could not be addressing race in more different ways, and to put them in a box — as ‘black films’ or whatever — would just be more racism, frankly”. The reason Cameron Bailey is considered credible is due to the fact that it is his job to categorize the films being played at the festival. As the artistic director he chooses which material is to be presented and when. The persuasiveness of doing this is effective because it shows the audience how a person with a credible background believes in the importance of examining each film separately.
There are some pieces in Brooks Barnes’ article that are much less effective. One being how he quotes the director of the film Loving, Jeff Nichols, for no particular reason. Barnes quotes him saying, “It’s hard to make movies that people experience instead of just receive… Especially in an election year like we’re in, everyone goes to their corners and gets ready to fight, and what gets forgotten are the people at the center of these topics”. Instead of being a supportive quote that could’ve been another demonstration of his use of ethos, quoting this had no real purpose. It did not support the main topic of his article and did not have to be added.
Overall, the effectiveness of the article was good. It was persuasive and demonstrated the value in sorting each film differently. Although some quotations probably weren’t necessary to include, it hardly takes away from the general influence the article has.
