Blessings #7

Yuna - Yuna (2012)

They found him in a hay field outside of Kansas. Hard to believe, right? Such a cliche, no? When Rachel Daugherty spotted him, she had no idea what she was about to discover. She was photographing for an article about family farms in the mid-west and the loss of the great agricultural heritage of the nation. She spotted him through the lens and the camera opened up to him. Before long she had him in her studio in New York and the rest was a blur, a mix of pleasure and delight and creativity that launched his presence upon the world. He became an icon, a face that everyone fell in love with and that's when he slipped from her fingers. The universe wrapped its tentacles around him and pulled him into the vortex. Rachel was happy for him but she also felt like something special came and went before she had a chance to really experience it. She was also worried about what might become of him. The machine has a way of destroying such innocence. But the amazing thing about it was that he came out of it all unscathed. She saw him ten years later and he was still pretty much the way that she remembered him. By then, he was even more famous than she ever imagined he would become. Her  life had changed dramatically, as well. She was still an active photographer but she was now married with children. He was a star while her life had grown more subdued but that night he never made her feel like he was better than her. He was still so grounded and she couldn't fathom how someone who came from such humble beginnings would catapult into fame only to come out with his soul intact. He didn't really know either. He simply shrugged his shoulders and gave her that smile that made everyone swoon.

Winter's Bone - Debra Granik (2010)

Rural Missouri, forgotten and desperate, where people push against the fringes just to earn a living. A teenager looking at a future without hope has learned to stand up for herself in order to survive, to fight. When a father, who is no longer part of her life, goes missing and must be found so that they don't lose their home, she steps out into the rugged and dangerous community full of backwater gangsters and farmhand drug addicts. No one will help but determination goes a long way with people who are simply trying to lie beneath the surface. It'll either get you dead or some sense of respect. Ree Dolly has no choice. If she can't find her father, she'll end up homeless and on a path that will lead to nowhere real quick with people who rely on her also tumbling along the way. If she can find him, then at least she will still have a roof over their heads for the time being. So she follows the twisted and violent path to its bitter end because these stories always end that way, especially in the cold woods of modern day Missouri.