Conor Ward

Professor Erin Dietel-McLaughlin

WR13300 – Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric

Monday 23rd February 2014

The March Continues: How Ava Duvernay Uses Film To Encourage Present Day Action

Selma, a film directed by Ava DuVernay, tells the story of Martin Luther King Jr and the

Southern Christain Leadership Conference’s efforts to protest the disenfranchisement of African

Americans in the American South. The film focusses on the marches from Selma to Mont-

gomery, which were led by Dr. King and the SCLC in an effort to protest laws that made it diffi-

cult for African Americans to vote. The film introduces this struggle with a scene in which Annie

Lee Cooper, an elderly African American woman, attempts to obtain and is subsequently denied

her voting registration. This scene displays the prejudice that African Americans faced when try-

ing to obtain their voting registration, by having the white registrar ask biased questions in an ef -

fort to make Ms. Cooper fail the required test. The movie’s plot continues to progress with Dr.

King meeting with President Lyndon B. Johnson in an effort to get him to pass a voter’s rights

law. This law would help to protect the rights of African Americans attempting to vote. Once

President Johnson refuses, King begins to organize a march from Selma to Montgomery to

protest. The march is met with violent opposition that is filmed and displayed for the whole

country to see. King then organizes a second march, but quickly turns it around because he be -

lieves it is a trap. He then proceeds to organize a third and final march, which successfully ar-

rives in Montgomery. Soon after the completion of the third march, the Voting Rights Act of

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1965 is passed. The film ends with King’s speech in Montgomery and then proceeds to roll to

credits with rapper Common’s modern day protest anthem playing in the background.

The events that took place at Selma are displayed to show many parallels with current

events, such as Ferguson, Missouri. Duvernay tries to show how the protests of Ferguson, which

are in response to the death of Michael Brown, and those of Selma are similar and thus tries to

encourage action similar to what occurred in Selma. Through its use of rhetorical imagery tech-

niques, such as reframing and mobile framing, subtle imagery, and modern music at the end of

the film, Selma strives to evoke the emotions of the viewer in an effort to encourage action.

Thus, the film uses these rhetorical devices to convey the idea that the story of Selma is not over

and needs to be continued to this day.

Before beginning to discuss how DuVernay attempts to use rhetoric and rhetorical im-

agery to persuade the audience, it is first necessary to explain what rhetoric and rhetorical im-

agery are. The University of Notre Dame’s Writing Program defines rhetoric by saying,

“Rhetoric we define broadly as “the art, practice, and study of human communication”

(Lunsford). In this view, rhetoric is the more inclusive category, accounting for all forms of com-

municative activity, and argument is the sub-category, one of the forms of communicative prac-

tice.” (University Writing Center) Therefore, rhetoric is simply any form of communication be-

tween people. In addition, rhetorical imagery or visual rhetoric is simply any medium of imagery

that is meant to convey a message. Thus, the medium of film can be used as a rhetorical device

to convey a message to a specific audience and it is through this medium that Duvernay attempts

to convey her message.

One of the first instances in which Ava DuVernay uses rhetorical imagery to achieve cer-

tain emotions from the viewer comes during the first protest, when Annie Lee Cooper is thrown

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to the ground for defending another protester. In this scene, Jimmy, another protester, is about to

be struck by an officer, when Ms Cooper defends him by striking the officer. This leads the offi-

cers to arrest her. During the sequence of her arrest, DuVernay uses the technique of reframing to

give the audience a slow motion close up of Ms Cooper’s face. Reframing is a process in which

certain elements of a scene are focussed on. This technique can then provide closeups of images

in order to bring less noticeable details to light. (Lancioni 106) Thus, the technique is used to

emphasis the violence of the arrest, in addition to the pain she suffers as a result of it. The effect

this action has on the viewer is described by Judith Lancioni, when she states, “The close-ups

achieved through mobile framing and reframing enable viewers to experience the past on the in-

timate terms they have been conditioned to regard as “reality” (Lancioni 107) Thus, the reframing

causes the viewer to experience the scene differently from how they would normally. The re-

framing used in this scene helps DuVernay evoke emotions from audience that subsequently

make them feel compelled to act and stand up for people like Ms Cooper. In this scene, Duver -

nay focuses on Ms. Cooper, because she is meant to represent those who can not stand up for

themselves against injustice. Additionally, DuVernay may focus on Ms. Cooper, because she

represents the long years of oppression that African Americans had faced. Thus, when DuVernay

focuses on Ms Cooper, she attempts to encourage the audience to stand up for defenseless people

like Ms. Cooper, while also encouraging them to stand up against the years of oppression that

African Americans had faced.

In another powerful scene, a family of protesters takes refuge from the attacks of the po-

lice by hiding in a restaurant. The family is soon found by officers, who then proceed to beat

them. The scene comes to a climax when Jimmy, the son of the other two protesters, is fatally

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shot by one of the police officers. To depict this momentous event, DuVernay uses reframing to

show the distraught faces of Jimmy and his mother and then framing out to show the whole

restaurant as Jimmy falls to the floor. Lancioni gives an explanation for why the director would

do this, when she says, “In reframing, filmmakers show viewers part of a photograph and then

the whole of it or the whole then the particular parts. Creating several separate frames from a sin-

gle photograph calls attention to a part of the whole photograph that might otherwise be missed”

(Lancioni 111). Thus, DuVernay is attempting to call attention to the pain caused by Jimmy ’s

death. This scene is meant to evoke great emotions from the viewer, who then, just as with Ms

Cooper, feels compelled to act. The audience will feel compelled to act, because the emotions

that DuVernay evokes, can make the audience feel as though Jimmy could have been one of their

family members. By using the reframing and closeups, DuVernay makes the audience feel as

though they are a bystander who just watched a member of their family die. Thus, DuVernay

uses this form of rhetorical imagery to make the audience more likely to stand up against these

types of injustices, because the audience now views acts like this in a much more personal light.

In addition to using reframing to provide closeups of scenes involving individuals, Du-

Vernay also uses the technique to give character to larger groups of people. For example, during

the first march, DuVernay provides images of the scene as a whole and then provides closeups of

individuals. In this scene we are given a closeup of the march’s leaders and then a shot of the

group as a whole. During the closeup, the audience sees the stern, yet ominous, faces of the lead-

ers of the march. After the closeup, the group as a whole seems to take on a different persona. In-

stead of steadfastly marching through adversity, the group suddenly takes on a sullen persona as

they march towards impending doom. According to Lancioni, when viewer is provided with a

closeup of a member of a group, they will change the way the perceive the individual as well as

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the group as a whole.(112) As a result, the viewer is now more likely to empathize with the pro-

testers, because the way they perceived each individual, as well as the group as a whole, has

changed. Moreover, DuVernay perfectly utilizes the technique of reframing to provide insight

into specific images, that otherwise would have gone unnoticed, in order to evoke the emotions

of the viewer. It is these emotions that DuVernay relies on to encourage viewers to act and sup-

port modern day protests against perceived injustices.

Additionally, DuVernay also uses the technique of mobile framing to portray the events

that take place during the first march. Mobile framing is the use of panning and tilting an image

to create a three dimensional scene for the viewer. (Lancioni 105) During the march, DuVernay

uses mobile framing to give a panoramic view of the bridge. As the marchers approach the

bridge, the camera gives a full outlook of the bridge, marches, and the police waiting for the

marchers. This view makes the viewer feel as if they are witnessing the events that are unfolding

first hand. DuVernay uses mobile framing to pan over large areas to give the viewer a sense of

the surrounding area. This technique makes the scenes that are being portrayed feel more real to

the viewer, because they feel like they are there. Thus, the viewer is more likely to display empa-

thy towards the marchers, which then in turn may cause them to feel empathy for modern day

protesters.

Duvernay also uses the techniques of mobile framing and reframing to emphasize subtle

images, which are placed in the scenes to evoke specific emotions from the audience. For exam-

ple, in the scene where Dr King and his wife Coretta are discussing the harassing calls they re -

ceive from the FBI, there is a statue of Gandhi situated on a table in the back of the room. The

statue only becomes apparent after a panning shot of the room. The statue of Gandhi is important

to the scene, because he is considered an icon who stood for non-violent peaceful protests, just as

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King did. According to Martia Sturken and Lisa Cartwright in the Practices of Looking, “An icon

is an image that refers to something outside of its individual components, something (or some-

one) that has great symbolic meaning for many people. Icons are often perceived to represent

universal concepts, emotions, and meanings. Thus, an image produced in a specific culture, time,

and place might be interpreted as having universal meaning and the capacity to evoke similar re-

sponses in all cultures and in all viewers” (Sturken andCartwright 37) Moreover, the placement

of the statue is important, because it is meant to be interpreted as a symbol of peace by all view-

ers. Furthermore, the statue of Gandhi is not a symbol of peace, but of non-violent protest. The

idea of non-violent protest is echoed in the scene, because even though King is being harassed

and attacked he does not fight back. In the scene he calmly states that the accusations are untrue

and then continues to go about his business. Thus, DuVernay uses mobile framing to emphasize

Gandhi with the goal of evoking the idea of nonviolent protest in the audience.

While DuVernay heavily relies on different camera techniques to provoke the emotions

of the viewer throughout the majority of the film, she also incorporates different styles of music

into the film in order to achieve the same results. Throughout the film, music accompanies many

different scenes and transition sequences. These songs are either songs written to mimic the style

of the era or songs actually written around the time of the march. However, this trend of using

the music style of the era changes, when the credits begin to the role and the modern rap song

“Glory” begins to play. This song is meant to be a powerful protest anthem aimed at calling the

viewer to act. The lyrics of the song discuss new events, such as Ferguson and events that had

taken place during the Civil Rights Movement, such as Rosa Parks. This song connects the

events of the movie to current events and gives the viewer an outlet for the emotions that were

evoked through out the film. This outlet is a call to action and protest against perceived modern

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day injustices. The song has such a strong impact on those who hear it, because it changes the

connotative meaning of the film for the viewer. According to the Practices of Looking, ”Conno-

tative meanings rely on the cultural and historical context of the image and its viewers ’ lived, felt

knowledge of those circumstances--all that the image means to them personally and socially”

(Sturken and Cartwright 19).Thus, the music makes the viewer feel differently about the film

they have just watched, which leads them to be more likely to support DuVernay ’s cause, which

is to encourage people to stand up against modern day injustices.

On the other hand, there are some people that may argue that DuVernay is not trying en-

courage action from her film’s viewers, but simply making a historical narrative to document and

spread the story of a very important moment in United States history. From the outside looking

in, this movie seems like one that accurately portrays the history as it happened and for a mem-

ber of the audience that does not know the true history of the event, it is very likely that they

would take all the facts and ideas presented as fact. While the idea that DuVernay was simply

making a historical narrative is possible, it is unlikely, because why would she change facts of

what happened, if the goal of the film was to share and document a historical event. John Herrick

explains why one may do this when he says, “Creating a message involved thinking critically

about the facts available to you” (Herrick 20). Here Herrick shows that if the viewer is only

given certain facts, it will influence the message that they take away. Moreover, it is possible that

DuVernay made an effort to influence the message viewers would walk away with by leaving

out certain facts. However, without being well versed in the history of the event, it is difficult to

discern weather these criticisms are true and therefore we can not truly know whether DuVernay

was attempting to influence the viewer by changing the facts or if she thought this version would

better appeal to audiences.

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The film Selma ends on a powerful note and leaves the viewer with the sense that the

story of Selma is not over and the struggle it worked against continues to this day. As John Her -

rick stated best, “Rhetors address audiences with goals in mind, and the planning and adaptation

processes that mark rhetoric are governed by the desire to achieve these goals.” (Herrick 10) Du-

Vernay’s goal for this movie was to evoke emotions that would encourage action and support

from the audience. Throughout the film, Duvernay did a masterful job of influencing the viewer

and changing the way the audience thinks about this historical event. She used different rhetori-

cal devices to connect modern events with those of the past, which resulted with her achieving

her goal of creating a film that would encourage the viewer to act and give support to her cause.

Thus, Selma is a strong example of how rhetoric can be used to achieve certain goals.

Works Cited

Herrick, James A. The History and Theory of Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Barn, 2001.

Print.

Lancioni, Judith. "The Rhetoric of the Frame: Revisioning Archival Photo Graphs in the Civil

War." Western Journal of Communication (1996): 397-414. Web.

Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture.

Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.

"What We Teach." // University Writing Program // University of Notre Dame. N.p., n.d. Web.

12 Apr. 2015.

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