A Modern Movie Screening Pairs with Social Activism
Looking at motion picture as only a source of entertainment, or a way to skip reading the book, is certainly a limiting perspective on the phenomena of viewing film. There are many aspects to film viewing, and many different ways to even go about it. This essay will discuss a specific movie screening that the author attended, and look at the effects of this movie particularly as well as discuss the history of the media consumed.
The motion picture attended was appropriately named “Where Hope Grows” for the co-star, who suffers from Downs’ Syndrome. The movie is a part of a larger organization, The National Inclusion Project, which works on bridging the gap between those with disabilities and the world around them.
The medium here is the motion picture. The motion picture and the history behind it can be found in Czitrom’s piece where he talks about the introduction of the story film, and eventually moving into feature films around WWI. The film we saw was a film meant to spread awareness and tell a story about an issue through mass communication.
In his article, Turow states mass communication as “the industrialized production, reproduction, and multiple distribution of messages through technological devices.” The usefulness of this form of mass communication is the ability to reach many audiences in short period of time, especially in this case when the film hits a note of social activism and may create more awareness of a budding issue within American society.
“The mushrooming growth of movies and other commercial amusements thus signaled a weakness and perhaps a fundamental shift in the values of American civilization” (Czitrom, 164). I believe that this particular movie was actually fighting to help strengthen the values of the American civilization. There was a real problem addressed. Czitrom doesn’t state a particular direction or feeling towards this shifting of the values of American civilization, but popular opinion is not a positive one. Mostly in society, it’s believed that the shift towards commercial amusements has depleted American values greatly.
Lewis Mumford, quoted in the article by Randall Engle (pg. 1), would believe that films often contribute to human development. Films can often be used, and have often been used, to address a problem in society. In this instance, this remained true, and really contributed to the development of those in attendance. Historically, motion pictures also seek to have some emotional qualities that get the audience invested in the initial purpose of the movie. Addressing mental illness, this movie had great emotional qualities.
Depending on the exposure to movies in the past, one might think to a Silver Linings Playbook type example of mental illness. A romantic-comedy attempting to show an anger displacement in a good light is one of the most popular films because of the cast, but also because of the fact it makes people feel good by the end. Most movie-goers desire something that can make them feel good, and it’s hypothesized that movies concerning mental illness need to do exactly that.
In this image, we see the two co-stars riding in the car during one scene in the movie. This is one of the best scenes of the movie, in which a lot of bonding happens between the two main characters. R.Y. and A.M. Pavlovic state in their article that, “Mental illness remains highly stigmatized in society. Cinematography is a potent source of psychiatric images” (1). If consumers receive a lot of their information about mental illness from cinema, it would certainly be ideal to portray the illness as exciting and unique as opposed to frowned upon or disliked.
When speaking about Jacqueline Zimmerman, Irwin Schneider says “Zimmerman describes more than 70 american movies,…, and limits herself to movies that she believes treat mental illness sympathetically and honestly. Zimmerman intentionally does not deal with movies that exploit the subject of the mentally ill…of which there are many.” Zimmerman would certainly applaud this movie, because of its work at bridging the gap, just as the National Inclusion Project says they attempt to do.
Prior to the beginning of the event, there was a significant amount of ambient noise from the people in the room talking with each other. There were friends and strangers making even deeper, or new, connections. Movie screenings are an interesting spin on motion pictures, as the screenings provide a more social element to the movie-going experience. This social element contributes to the overall movie experience because it allows others to more openly react to the movie without worrying what the other people beside them might be thinking!
“Indeed, [agencies] do not operate at random. They require the organizing ideology that gives a certain form, shape, and order to agencies and physical artifacts” (Kim 73). The quote from Pyungho Kim is stating that those involved with the event, usually the creators, are already all connected because they are able to relate over a common issue. The common issue here, mental illness in film, is then used to create an organization, a film, take in donations, and work towards the greater good. This movie screening stems from a truly good group of people working to bring awareness to an issue in society.
There was minimal signage up, only to direct people outside which doors to go into. Everyone that was there knew what he or she was there for and almost exactly why he or she was there. The room itself was fairly minimalist, only with chairs around the room and screen at the front. This was a very simple layout that created ease of maneuvering through the space and created less distractions.
Based on this information, I believe the medium was supposed to be consumed in a distraction-free environment. The motion picture was meant to be consumed so that each person viewing was able to understand the message of the medium and what it meant to convey. The movie itself was heavy, but had fun lines and moments sprinkled in. With a lot of distractions, audience may have missed the fun scenes, or may not have received the full affect that was intended with the original work.
In this medium, the employees and volunteers were solely meant to make sure everyone in attendance knew about the film and the organization that sponsored the film. Mostly everyone present was a volunteer, which shows that this is an organization and a cause that they are passionate about. Given the happiness of the volunteers to be there, I would say that contributed positively to the experience as a whole.
The volunteers may not have been actively interacting and maintaining the space, but they ensured that the consumers had a comfortable viewing experience. The volunteers were also viewing the movie themselves, ergo their ability to make it comfortable for everyone also determined whether it would be comfortable for them or not. The viewing experience is largely dependent upon the environment in which the media is consumed, I believe. This means that an uncomfortable environment could have actually detracted from the perceived quality of the film itself, even though they aren’t directly correlated.
The perceived quality of the film, even when comfortable, has a lot to do with the media literacy of the consumer, whether passive or active. A lot of consumers in society today know what to expect when walking into a film. This has been of course influenced by years and years of media exposure, and specifically of being exposed to this medium specifically. Jim Wehmeyer states in his article about media literacy that, “Media literacy is about individual ‘reactions’ and aired ‘points of view,’ it seems,”. This means that the film is practically half the battle, the rest of media literacy are the emotions that each individual experiences during their exposure to the medium. The demonstrating of media literacy in this screening was more than likely gauged by how moved each person felt following their exposure to this cinema.
There aren’t many written rules as far as interacting with motion pictures, other than watch and be respectful. In this instance, though, a written rule may have been to silence or turn off all electronic devices, as a volunteer made an announcement before the movie began. But within the being respectful aspect in motion pictures, the kind of respect needed may differ based on the genre of motion film being consumed. In this case, there was a need to have sensitivity to things such as the “r-word” (retarded), as well as be somewhat informed to the prevalence of issues in society today towards acclimating individuals with intellectual disabilities into the world around them.
Because films often provide individuals’ only experience of people with IDD (Intellectual Developmental Disabilities), cinematic representations can often influence audience perceptions. Thus, films can help inform public perceptions about desired and appropriate occupational participation for people with IDD (Renwick et al. 1).
The quote by Renwick et al. describes exactly what this film as well as this organization, National Inclusion Project, seek to do. There may be more movies coming, as was said at the screening, but they had to start somewhere. In the eyes of many, this was the best place to start and they are going nowhere but up from this point on.
The preceding conditions may inform us as to the different styles in which a motion picture may be consumed. Film is not just a one-on-one experience, or just a social experience, but instead there are aspects of both. Movie screenings such as this one rely on more of the social involvement aspect, given that there’s a lot of interaction with individuals while attending the event.
“Where Hope Grows” was overall an amazing film to attend, and had many positive affects on all the consumers. The topic itself is heavy and could easily be depressing, but the creators of the film did a good job of ensuring that this topic wasn’t too heavy, but was also heavy enough to force the consumers to learn some new information. As a social experience and a class assignment, this event was very beneficial to furthering knowledge and possibly beginning to foster a passion for properly addressing and interacting with individuals with IDD in everyday interactions.
