The Mystery of the Flying Kicks

The short documentary I watched was The Mystery of the Flying Kicks. I’ve always been curious as to why shoes are always on these power lines throughout town, especially back in my old neighborhood. I grew up hearing many of the reasons that were said in the video especially the comments on shoes being hung up for people who have passed as well as for markings of drugs that are being sold in the area. Yet, I never fully believed that this phenomenon was a growing worldwide concern with many opinions from many likes of people. In the short passage we had to read, it discussed some reasons for why documentaries are filmed. Some of these reasons are to teach you (the viewer) something about a problem going on in society, documentaries tend to be on the serious side, but overall they are movies about rea life. Documentaries are also expected to be a fair and honest representation of somebody’s experience of reality. The documentary I watched did that by exploring some research the director did about the subject prior to filming. This research was personal stories or opinions of people who voiced what they thought the reason was behind this phenomenon. These first person anecdotes play as an educator in expressing some knowledge of this subject in the different cultural settings. Just by watching this short documentary you can interpret numerous different ideas about this subject. For example one individual uses the shoes he threw onto the power lines as a physical reminder of the improvements he has made in his life compared to the life he used to live. However, another individual sees these shoes being thrown on the power lines as disrespect towards him being that he feels this action is solely an act of gang presence in the neighborhood so he hates seeing the sights of the shoes and tries to remove them from his neighborhood. By giving these opinions from these individuals the director showed another part of what these documentaries do. Documentaries tend to tell us something we should know, something worth knowing. This documentary demonstrated this by bringing forth numerous issues that have risen from this controversy as well as all the initiatives taken by people who have been moved by this controversy. These issues were announced by individuals through different types of narrations, interviews, anecdotes, different images and other different techniques that illustrate a meaning for interpretation on this subject of The Mystery of the Flying Kicks.