2011 Student Writing Awards Booklet - Santa Fe Community College

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he wields like the wand of a maestro conducting an orchestra. We begin to want the man to steal a bike, and also to care deeply about the situation of his family. Of course the hero’s need for a bicycle becomes fairly immediately (but also temporarily) obviated by the intervention of his wife, who dutifully sells her finest linens to sponsor her husband’s new career. Their impossibly cute child watches on in adoration as his father dons a uniform and sets out for his glamorous career as a, wait for it, movie poster – poster. The apex of the protagonist’s success occurs here - early in the movie, and we endure every blow with him on the downward trajectory that follows. My description of these characters leads to another aspect of the film that I think allows audiences to appreciate it more than six decades after being released. By employing non-professional actors from the local region DeSica imparts an extra sense of realism to the affairs at hand. I got the definite sense that cast members personally knew how it feels to wait in line for meager work, to have no money to feed their children, and even to be accused of thievery. And audiences, anywhere, anytime, have an affinity for the truth above all else. When a work, be it a film or a novel or a play, truly captures the reality of a time and place – we, even the most cynical of modern minds – can appreciate the fact that our own times merely reflect mankind’s problems of the past in different ways. A truly iconic work reminds it’s viewer of the old adage,“Nothing is new under the Sun,” through a portrait of the shared elements of human experience, no matter time and place. At once both exquisitely local and breathtakingly universal, Bicycle Thieves fulfills all the requisite attributes of such a work. In closing I draw attention again to the images we see repeated throughout the film: the stairways (including a shot of beautiful white marble steps that stretch forever), the streets and walls of a concrete city, the teeming crowds that flow from everywhere. DeSica could not have known these images would continue to remain potent over the decades, reminders of the alienation and economic woes that haunt cities across the world. But they have, and they do – just as the many stark, vital instances of beauty in the film cannot be withered by the passing of time alone. A truly remarkable artifact, Bicycle Thieves belongs to the canon of man. 61
Santa Fe Community College 6401 Richards Ave. Santa Fe, NM 87508 (505) 428-1000 www.sfcc.edu
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ACCOLADES The 2011 Santa Fe Communi
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Academic Essay . . . . . . . . . .
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Poetry Runner-Up Audrey Powers Befo
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Before Him i. Left alone, at the ag
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Poetry Runner-Up Gabriel Tafoya Liv
Page 11 and 12: Poetry Honorable Mention Erin Brook
Page 13 and 14: Poetry Honorable Mention Richard Sc
Page 15 and 16: the Y2K catastrophe and I am waitin
Page 17 and 18: Poetry Honorable Mention Mayluva Du
Page 19 and 20: Poetry Honorable Mention Louis Domi
Page 21 and 22: Personal Essay Winner Kendra Peters
Page 23 and 24: Personal Essay Runner-Up Audrey Pow
Page 25 and 26: had a lifestyle filled with thorns
Page 27 and 28: had reviewed my letter requesting a
Page 29 and 30: Personal Essay Honorable Mention Da
Page 31 and 32: I spent one whole month avoiding my
Page 33 and 34: Personal Essay Honorable Mention Ba
Page 35 and 36: Personal Essay Honorable Mention Je
Page 37 and 38: and months about it! So wait...I ca
Page 39 and 40: system. Santa Fe, NM and San Franci
Page 41 and 42: where I am. I like to think of this
Page 43 and 44: After breakfast I washed the dishes
Page 45 and 46: Fiction Winner Michael Armer The Ba
Page 47 and 48: path away from his troubles. He cou
Page 49 and 50: “Don’t do that,” the voices y
Page 51 and 52: almost to the hostile. She called J
Page 53 and 54: those who have other fish to fry .
Page 55 and 56: unwilling to accept faith. He is ne
Page 57 and 58: Academic Essay Runner-Up Frances Bo
Page 59 and 60: It was fear that caused the passing
Page 61: Academic Essay Honorable Mention Er
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2011 Student Writing Awards Booklet - Santa Fe Community College

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