Empathy and the Movies
We go to the movies for escapism. To be transported. We go to forget the troubles in our lives for just a few hours. To have a good scare. A few laughs. A good cry. Whereas the big studio films that come out of the Hollywood system are simply out to make a profit, Independent films strive to do one thing above all else: tell a good story. As independent filmmakers, we are passionate about telling stories we find compelling and hope that audiences will also. Independent films are where we go to think and feel challenged. Films have always been about telling stories, but have we lost that in place of just "entertainment"?
So many people go to the movies for mindless entertainment. By the time they've left the theater though, their brains are mush instead of being engaged. While there is a place for "just entertainment", isn't the Film Medium meant for so much more? Are we wasting a powerful tool on brain-numbing visuals that could inspire instead of dull the mind?
Film is an art and thus a communication device. We communicate with each other through various forms, and at times have difficulty truly expressing how we feel as human beings. To me, filmmaking is a tool of reaching out to others and expressing ourselves in the best way we know possible. To get our message across. To understand one another. To me, film is about empathy.
As Film Critic Roger Ebert once said, ‘Movies are the most powerful empathy machine in all the arts. When I go to a great movie I can live somebody else’s life for a while."
To me what's great about film, is not that it's just enjoyable and meaningless entertainment. Great film truly has the power to inspire and create empathy for the viewer. To put you in the place of someone else and see through their eyes and feel what they feel. Whether you agree with their actions is beside the point. We are there to observe, take in, and understand why a character is the way they are.
Let's bring storytelling back to filmmaking. Let's tell a great story first and foremost, and the technicalities can come second...not first. Let's create a world in which we understand each other better, even when we disagree. Films have the power to do this.
Empathy: It's something the world needs more of and films shouldn't strive to do anything less.
