Hi,

My name is Antonin and I’m a second-year student in this Last 100 class. I’m hoping to major in History, and so I’m really interested in taking courses that are related to history in different aspects. This course really interested me because it approaches such a specific subject in such a broad variety of ways, not just through a historical lens.

Caudillos 2016:

This video I found was hard to maintain interest in because of the long pauses and time it took to change between pictures for each piece of information. Although the subject was rather interesting on the origin and dissection of what a caudillo is, it was still difficult to be actively engaged in the material. Nonetheless, I think that the use of drawings and paper to convey pieces of information was a nice change from seeing a person speak on camera.

The War on Drugs 2015:

Although the narration of the video was at times a little incoherent, the subject matter was really interesting and well done. The way that the subject is approached is excellent because it gives a clear outline of different time periods and the main events during that period. Another aspect of this video that I really liked was the interviews that one of the group members carried out with a Colombian person whose family was there at the time of the events that are described. This gives a valuable insight into a more personal internal dimension of the stories that are perhaps well known around the world.

The Terror 2014:

I really enjoyed this video because I found the content and subject matter to be very interesting. The use of narration was effective because it was laid over relevant footage of events and people at that time, which I found to be really engaging. It is almost like watching a professionally made documentary in the way in which the narrator describes events as real-life footage is shown over the top. Moreover, the narration is not too long and overcomplicated but is rather easy to follow and the information is simple enough to digest. Overall the style in which the video was made makes it really effective and interesting.

Speaking Truth to Power 2014:

I found this video to be the hardest to properly follow simply because I was not engaged enough in it. The lack of visualization made it hard to really picture the information being given out and also it meant that the focus was entirely on the group members faces when speaking which I found to be rather distracting. Additionally, the poor sound and video quality are both unfortunate because obviously, this was unintentional, yet they still dramatically take away from the potential of the video and its content. The actual information being spoken is interesting at times and the topic of the influence of power and fear in ruling within Latin America easily arouses curiosity within the listener.

These were my short analyses of my two favorite and two least favorite videos out of the 6 that I watched, as well as my short introduction about myself.

Thanks for reading,

Antonin