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The 21st century has introduced various new and improved technologies to society. These technologies have created many connections within society as society is able to trace and connect with past relatives. However, society can also use new technologies to create disconnections as society becomes distant from its surroundings. The film ‘Lion’ 2016 by Garth Davis explores the connections and disconnections produced by technology advances through themes of Family and journey.

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Contemporary technologies have the power to create a connection between families through the use of technologies such as DNA ancestry, Facebook and google maps. These technologies have created connections within families as people are able to reconnect with relatives, remain in contact with family and uncover family history. Contemporary technologies were shown to create a connection within Saroo’s family in the film ‘Lion’ as he used technology to relocate his hometown of Ganestalay. Due to locating Ganestalay, Saroo was able to travel to his hometown and reunite with his family. In the scene of, ‘Saroo’s search begins’, a close-up shot is used to show the expression of Saroo as he located Ganestalay. Saroo’s face is filled with determination, his eyes are fixed on the satellite map which is reflected in the water of his eyes, once Saroo locates Ganestalay his face fills with excitement and relief as his search has become successful. The included image is a representation of Saroo’s family throughout his journey. There are apple trees included to represent his biological and adopted families. The Tree to represent his biological family is tall yet withering and therefore Saroo has turned to a fresh, new apple tree which can support him, this tree is a representation of his adoptive family. This image is a representation of Saroo’s connection to his family as the tall, withered tree represents how his biological family had supported him for years but is no longer able to support his due to their disconnection, therefore Saroo is gifted with the fresh tree. The fresh tree represents his adoptive family as his adopted family have been able to provide Saroo with the same support that he received from his biological family, until he becomes reconnected with his family.

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Contemporary technologies have the power to create disconnections through journeys as journeys will often introduce people to unexpected places and people. Saroo begins his journey is the scene ‘lost’, he catches the train from his hometown and travels 1700km. This scene adds to the audiences understanding of Saroo as low camera angles are used to show the extent of his vulnerability as the environment is shown through Saroo’s perspective and pathetic fallacy of the harsh weather reflects Saroo’s anger, sadness and sense of loss. Once Saroo continues his journey to Australia and has matured, he is having dinner with friends and are eating in the traditional Indian way- with their hands. Saroo is visibly struggling to eat and given a fork. This shows that contemporary technologies have created a disconnection between Saroo and India through journey as through his journey to Australia he has disconnected from the traditional Indian culture which he followed as a child. In the scene of, ‘Saroo begins his search’ cinematography is used as Saroo is positioned at the back of the shot and framed near the doorway. This shows that he is an outsider in comparison to the rest of the group. Once Saroo begins his search for his family he begins to reconnect to the culture. This is shown in the scene of, ‘Saroo begins his search’ as non-diegetic sound is used to incorporate Indian music. This music was shown to make Saroo happy and remind him of his childhood in India.  A quote has been included, “stay patient and trust your journey”. This quote was included as it represents the journey of Saroo. Although Saroo became disconnected from India and spent 5 years searching google maps he had trust in his journey and never gave up, this was shown as he stayed up late to continue his search on numerous occasions until he was successful. The image included shows Saroo surrounded by books about learning Hindi language and seated in a traditional Australian styled household. This image is a resemblance of Saroo’s disconnection from India as he tries to regain a lost connection, Saroo’s connection is represented through the Hindi language books. These books show that he is not familiar with Indian culture due to his journey to Australia.  

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This website has been created using Tumblr. Tumblr was used to create this website as this site was familiar to the creator and was viewed by the creator as the best provided option in terms of website layout. The website colours were determined due to aesthetics and as the background colour, grey. The grey background highlights the black writing, makes it clearer for the audience and promotes a sophisticated webpage. The introduction page features photos sourced from the ‘Lion’ film, these photos were included as they give the viewer an insight into the website and create an eye-catching introduction page. The website is set up with sections on each category/paragraph listed along the introduction page. This layout was chosen so the information is organised and easily assessable by the viewer. Photos and quotes have been incorporated into this website to assist information, photos are quotes were chosen as quotes can assist in reflecting on a particular time or place and are a simple method to portray messages to an audience. Photos were drawn and selected based on the relation to the themes and messages conveyed in the film.

[emilythomas21-blog]

The film ‘Lion’ explores the increasing effect of technology of connections through themes of family and journey. Themes of family and journey contribute to the connections and disconnects made by contemporary technologies as Saroo has been disconnected from Indian culture as a result from his journey to Australia and he no longer follows Indian traditions. Due to technology advances such as google maps, Saroo was able to relocate his family. This contemporary has created a connection as Saroo was able to reunite with his family.