Film: Contemporary.

Ill Manors (2012)

Producer: Atif Ghani

Written by: Ben Drew

Ill Manors is a British crime drama set in Forest Gate London. It follows the lives of 8 different characters and their circles of violence, drugs, prostitution and money as they struggle to survive on the streets and try to get by everyday. Each story weaves into one another, painting an ultra-realistic gritty picture of the world which is on the brink of self-destruction. Each story is also represented by a different rap song by Plan B(Ben Drew).

Trailer:

Reviews:

• Positive reviews from most critics and fans, Rotten Tomato gave it an 80% fresh' rating and gave around 25 different reviews of the film all positive.
• The Guardian - 'The rapper's directorial debut shows the inter-connecting stories of a group of gangsters living in east London and features new music from his forthcoming album'

Screen Shots:

Butler.

Butler 'Identity is performed through expression'

Continuing on from my earlier post about this quote.
The T.V program Top Boy (2011) i am researching relates top this quote.

What is meant by this quote is that the way you act, talk, what body/facial expressions you give shows your identity.
So in the program you see black men who are from a rough estate and bad backgrouds involved in all sorts of trouble including drugs.
From the way that they talk you can tell that they have little respects for those other then thier friends/family, they feel that they have a 'higher authority' and 'rule'. They use aggressive and abusive language having little care for those aroubnd them.

From the way they act you can see they act as if they are in charge or the 'boss' of others in the gang, telling them what to do and making them earn thier trust. They act if they are inferior to others and people shopuld be scared of them even people in their 'group' including two young teenage boys who are easily infulenced and think its good to be involved. It also looks like they feel they have advantages as they use weapons such as guns and are involved in seling drugs/drug trade.
 They tend to dress in the typical clothing such as hoodies, tracksuits, jackets which are mainly dark coloured and they usually wear their hoods up suggesting they are trying to stay on the down low and keep a low profile not getting recognised etc.

Theorist.

Little Book of Chavs - Lee Bok

In this book Lee Bok descibes chavs as a vile leach to British society, having kids at very young ages, wearing designer clothes such as burberry and causing a lot of trouble.
However this book has been criticised for taking a very strong dislike to chavs as Lee Bok is an upper class male, so its questiond whether this is a real view or a stereotypical view not giving a real insight about chavs today.

Q

Butler 'identity is performed through expression'
Your identity is shown by the way you act, talk, walk,dress and the facial/body expressions you show.
So if you have an angry facial expression, and use violent language you can be seen as an aggressive person.

Perkins 'Stereotypes are not always negative'
This quote doesn't relate to what I found in the film i am researching 'Kidulthood'.

It's true some stereotypes are not always negative but from why I've found the stereotype about 'chavs' is and it brands them as working class, lawless an violent people who are uneducated and trouble.
In the film Kidulthood (2006) the characters are seen as teenage 'chavs' who would be described as the above. In the film you see the boys acting violent, reckless, ill mannered and involved withy drugs which relating back to reality young boys especially black boys are see to behave in the same way. Even though one of the girls seems innocent and isn't as loud and confident as her friend she in some parts of the film tries to do right but then get influenced and ends up drinking and doing drugs knowing she is pregnant. So this is showing a young pregnant girl involved in activities seen the be irresponsible and unacceptable which relating back to reality could show that young 'chav' mothers are not responsible or good role models. 

Today the stereotypes for young people living or from estates has never been positive they have always been given bad labels and kidulthood is an example of this, in the film the boys are portrayed as they think they are better than everyone else and those who get the most girls, drugs, money, alcohol and weapons are the ones respected and higher up. They use violence to get messages across and the older boys especially 'harrass' and 'scare' the others into doing whatever they like showing that they give out threatening behaviour and are bullies.

The girls in the film are exactly same, in one scene they are threatening and beating up a frightned and fragile girl giving her bruises and a bloody nose whilst everyone else in the class is just watching this shows that even though they know what the girls are doing is wrong no one wil step up and help as they fear it may backfire onto them because of the way the other girls are behaving resulting in the girl who is getting bullied to commit suicide.
So from these example most stereotypes especially for chavs in Kidulthood stereotypes are strongly negative even if someone is doing good.

Hw

Peter Turner in his article representations of modern youth said the 'typical representation of young people in Britain is the image of the chav'
He said chavs are now appearing in the british 'hood' films and there is concern that the representations are doing more harm than good.
One of the films I researched kidulthood(Damian Jones 2006) has been accused of glamorising violence and chav culture. It has been seen as a negative representation and bad view of young people because of the restricted language, drug use and lawless behaviour.

Comparisons.

Then and Now

• Chavs have become more vviolent and lawless over years. More related to crimes such as drugs, theft etc.
• They are mentioned everyday in the media and twice as much as they were in the past. Chav related stories are always in the news etc and some take up the main big headlines or front pages. 
• The word 'chav' is an everyday word word which most people know the meaning of and use, chavs have become a more talked about topic in Britain today.
• In his book, Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Classes, Owen Jones says have become a society in which working class people have become invisible or despised, according to the Observer
• He said: 'The 1980s saw a dramatic assault on all aspects of working-class life, on unions and council houses and communities and with it, working class pride. 'Its been replaced by middle-class pride and the working classes have come to be seen as something to escape from.'
• From what i have found the ages of 'chavs' today have widen more younger people aged 11+ are involved with crimes,drugs and gangs. From my research of the film Shank, the main characters are all young kids aged 13+. This shows how its not just 16+ anymore the ages are getting younger and younger, a lot of chavs seen today are young kids rather than teens/adults.
  
  
  

T.V: Historic.

W10 LDN(West 10 London) 2008

Producer: Tim Cole

W10 LDN is set in the fictional Greenside council housing estate in West London.
Following the lives of several teenagers who are dealing with drugs, theft, seeking fame and running society.

Trailer and Clips:

Screenshots:

 
This screen shot shows two teenage black boys sat in a park. One appears to be drinking alcohol and the other one is smoking what looks like weed in park public park. This shows that as it is the middle of the day these boys clearly havent got jobs or any work to do and are just 'dossing' about. It shows that young people instead of getting an education and working earning money are more busy involved in illegal activites which is giving them a bad name.