Senna, Seminar 2

Following our screening of the documentary 'Senna' which we mutually agreed was the observational style of documentary, we were encouraged to look deeper into this film and with the help of our readings, we all came up with some insightful ideas about the documentary. My initial reaction to this film was I felt that I had a clear understanding of Senna's passion for racing, it was so deep and religious that I found myself almost forgiving him for any wrong doings he may have done during his time as a professional race car driver, because it was all clearly driven (ha!) by his passion. So much so that it did lead to his tragic death, I was shocked by how much this film could emotionally impact me even though it was made up of a collection of interviews and found footage. The use of a sound bridge throughout the film created a more harrowing effect to the film, which demonstrated to me that a voice over, or 'the voice of God' isn't necessary when trying to evoke an emotional response from the audience. Therefore I believe 'Senna' was successful at telling this man's compelling story. During our seminar about 'Senna' we were put into groups to discuss 'representation' within the film, it begun with the discussion of gender representation, or the lack thereof. 'Senna' is one man's story, but even the interviews lacked any female perspective, yet we still were shown 'the male gaze'. Senna was a successful man, and it seemed that he believed that this warranted inappropriate behaviour towards female journalists; though the film was made in 2010 the uncomfortable atmosphere of these scenes were never addressed. Senna still remained the hero. As I previously mentioned my initial reaction to this film was that I felt I had a clear understanding of Senna's passion; in our readings we were told to look at Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's exploration of discourse, which has a clear but more complex similarity to semiotics "This totality which includes within itself the linguistic and the non-linguistic, is what we call discourse". I found that once I understood this term it acted as a great way of defining Senna's passion: a machine becomes a religious experience when Senna is competing in a Grand Prix. I found it difficult to wrap my head around, but did deepen my exploration into this intriguing documentary.