The Green Knight

03/30/23 • 51 min

The Green Knight (2021) is a surreal retelling of the 14th century poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Directed by David Lowery, the film departs from its source material to present a compelling account of a man's mission to become a knight, live up to a legend, and face his own mortality.

The King Arthur legend is a fitting end to our season on Chosen Ones - a king who was destined to rule the Britons, fighting the invading Saxons and whom, it is said, will one day return to once again save his people. Yet in this film, we are shown the cost of living up to one's own legend, the ways in which stories are weaved around protagonists, and what being chosen may ultimately mean.

Join us as we wrap up Season One of Gods & Moviemakers. We talk about Arthurian legends, representing the past on screen, religion and magic, and of course, chosen ones. Be sure to look out for future releases and announcements concerning holiday tie-in episodes and Season Two, coming late 2023.

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Subscribers will gain access to extra content after each main episode broadcast. Become a subscriber at https://plus.acast.com/s/godsandmoviemakers.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Raya & the Last Dragon (2021)

When Raya and the Last Dragon premiered in 2021, it gave us Disney’s first South-East Asian princess, and joined a small minority of Western films centring South-East Asian people, culture and society. News of the film, therefore, drew a lot of excitement from SE Asian people (and those with SE Asian heritage) looking for representation in Western media. The film’s reception was more mixed however, with many feeling it just didn’t quite get things right.

In this episode, we’re joined by doctoral candidate, Piyawit Moonkham, to talk about Raya and SE Asian representation, specifically, that of the Naga, a semi-divine serpent found in Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain traditions. As the Naga was the inspiration for the eponymous Dragon, we focused our questions on that. Join us as Piyawit explains how Naga differ from Western and East Asian dragons, where the Naga myth came from and how it functions in SE Asian belief systems, and how Raya represented this important part of SE Asian culture.

Glossary:

Heterarchy - A power structure that exists outside or adjacent to established power structures within societies, or within organised groups, in which authority is distributed rather than centralized around one individual / group. ("Power" as broadly understood relating to status, influence or responsibilities)

Mythscape - The way in which people understand their surrounding landscape through myth.

Episode Credits:

Many thanks to Piyawit Moonkham for his time and expertise. Piyawit is a Ph.D. Candidate (ABD) in Archaeological Anthropology at Washington State University. His research focuses on human use of social space, built environment, and natural landscape through a diachronic investigation of spatial patterns of historical monuments, myths, and local folklores in Northern Thailand and Mainland Southeast Asia. His article “Ethnohistorical Archaeology and the Mythscape of the Naga in Chiang Saen Basin, Thailand” was published last year in Trans-Regional and -National Studies of South East Asia. You can find Piyawit on Twitter @JiwMoonkham

Update: Since recording with us, Piyawit has successfully defending his doctorate. Congratulations Dr. Moonkham!

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Next Episode

Raya and the Last Dragon & Pedagogy

In this bonus episode on Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), we talk to Dr Piyawit Moonkham about teaching anthropology with film, how his students get to try out anthropological methods and skills through film analysis, and the insight we gain when we rewatch.

If you haven't listened to our main episode on Raya and the Last Dragon, we recommend doing so first, so you have the full context for our discussion.

Many thanks to Dr. Moonkham for his extra time.

Subscribers will gain access to extra content after each main episode broadcast. Become a subscriber at https://plus.acast.com/s/godsandmoviemakers.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.