Promoting Global Tolerance through the Film Industry - Essay Example

?Visual Arts and Film Studies "Promoting global tolerance through the film industry - What are the religious, cultural, racial and ethnic characteristics modern films seek to portray and could these be made better?" Introduction The media is a very powerful tool that has a lot of influence all the world over. It is on record how the use of the media has been used to propagate various acts of evil including genocide and civil war in Rwanda and other parts of the world (Gellately and Stoltzfus, 2001, p.74). Equally disturbing is how the media has been so powerful in bringing about ethnic and religious conflicts in other parts of the world. But in much the same way, the media, of which film and television production is part could be used to propagate a lot of good acts and correct several wrongs (Hirschfeld, 2006, 69). It is in light of this that this present research work in the film and television industry is being conducted to identify ways by which movies could be used to foster global tolerance. By global tolerance, reference is being made to ethnic, religious, racial and cultural tolerance. In the current industry research therefore, I shall interview key players in the movies industry to seek from them ways by which movies can play the role of uniting the world and promoting global tolerance. Again, views shall be sought from the interviewees on whether or not it is necessary to have a regulatory body that should censor movies to ensure that their themes are directed towards the promotion of global tolerance. Furthermore, the efforts that have been put in place by movie makers so far shall be analysed. Sample I selected one movie director, who is also a renowned scriptwriter and a film critic, who also doubled as a renowned film producer. The movie director and writer is Lenny Harvey, who works for Ultimate Paradise Movie Productions whiles the critic and producer is Frank Adams, who works for Graphic Motion Studio. I estimated that Harvey and Adams were people who knew all about movie production from its pre-production stage to the production stage and then the post production stage. To this effect, they were in an excellent position to provide useful data that were based on facts to the various questions that I had for them. The two interviewees were selected from two different movie production houses, which were Ultimate Paradise Movie Production in Texas and Graphic Motion Studio in Los Angeles. This was done to ensure fairness in the data collection procedure. Again, while answering questions from the interview, the interviewees were made to make references to only films and movies that had been done by other people and not to use their own works as reference points. This was also done to ensure a very high level of fairness and elimination of biases in the responds received from them. Data Collection Procedure As indicated earlier, I made use of interview as a data collection instrument for the research.The interview was considered very appropriate because the general approach to the research was a qualitative approach instead of a quantitative approach. Because this was a qualitative research, I wanted the data collection procedure to be based on ethical sentiments and awareness creation instead of statistical fact finding. This means that the use of interview was to afford I to ask a lot of leading questions that would set the tone of the research for a brainstorming exercise, aimed at finding an intervention to solve an existing problem. The interview conducted was a face to face interview that involved me, visiting the interviewees on a set date. This was done after permission was sought from the interviewees to seek their consent for the interview through a formal letter. An average of one hour was spent with each interviewee where I asked the interviewees various questions that bordered on how the movie industry can be used to sensitize the whole world on the need to ensure global tolerance in terms of cultural, ethical, racial and religious awareness and acceptance. Before the actual interview section, I had collected some secondary data from books, journals and articles that related to the research topic. This was done to ensure that the data analysis and discussion to be done by I would be based on empirical facts and literature. Results and Findings What informs Choice of Storyline The storyline of every movie is very instrumental in laying out the actual message that the movie has for its viewers. In essence, the theme of the movie is in the storyline (Plant, 2006). It is for this reason that some experts even believe that the beauty of a movie should be judged by its storyline (Rossino, 2003). Due to this general idea taken from the secondary data source, I asked the interviewees in the course of the interview to outline the factors that informed the choice of a particular storyline in move production. For example a question was posted as: “What do you look out for in accepting and rejecting scripts from writers?” This was important to know because movie storylines can be used to score a lot of points in terms of promoting global tolerance. According to the interviewees, most storylines were based on current happenings around the globe. For instance in an era where gay rights has become a very controversial issue, it would not be surprising that most movies will start channelling their storylines towards that direction. Adams therefore responded that “I will first ensure that the storyline carries a message that will not only appeal to me or the writer himself but to the unseen public.” Again, it was realised that the choice of most storylines are informed by demand from viewers. Generally, movie makers are able to tell the line of story viewers prefer most by analysing the responds received from existing movies. It is for this reason that there has been what has been known as seasonal movies that portray trends like sci-fi, cartoons, magic and so on. So if for instance Harry Porter does well as a movie, most movie makers will now start chasing child magic based storylines. What these findings generally imply is that there are only few movie makers who intentionally craft stories to serve the purposes of correcting wrong impressions on racial, ethnic, cultural or religious grounds. Rather, most movie makers would dance to the tune of the market rhythms. Feedback from Patrons on Movie Storylines Generally, the kind of reception that a particular movie will receive in a particular country or viewership depends on the agreement that the storyline has with the cultural, religious and ethnic believes of the group of people around. Clearly, no one will accept a movie that casts insinuations on their belief and faith. Because everyone holds his or her faith and believes in high esteem, they would always expect a very high level of tolerance from outsiders towards them. Because of this, I proceeded to find out the effect that storylines have on the movie industry, especially in terms of sales. I therefore asked a question like, “Through your various social media forums and other review blogs, what kind of feedback do you receive from the public on the movies you make?” From this, it was realised that movies that portrayed global balance and sought to promote global tolerance attracted fatter sales. In my estimation, the more a group of people accept a movie, they more they will purchase the movies and the more the movie makers will make profits. Further enquiry revealed that globally balanced movies attracted fatter sales because they had wider market size. For instance a movie that does a very good blending of various cultural settings like Islam, Christianity and Jew will be most probably more successful to sell in all the regions of Arab, Israel and Italy than a movie that shows bias and partiality against some of these religious groups. The same assertion applies to racial balance in movies. Harvey for instance stated that “I gain wider market even to the Arab countries when I use characters who portray good teachings about Islam.” With a very good storyline that portrays very good image of diverse race and cultural backgrounds, the probability that such movies will have very good reception in most countries (Sorge, 1986, p.84). The role of movies in fostering Global Tolerance Movies are very powerful tools for fostering global tolerance. The single reason why movies can do this better is because of the international audience they have. To this end, I posted a question as, “why do you think movies can be used as tools for promoting global tolerance?” straight away, Harvey pointed out that “movies can be used for this role because movies reach a lot of patrons than an other item in the media like news items”. Adams added that “movies are bought and watched over and over again, creating lasting impression in the lives of people.” With the advent of technology, which has made global access to movies a very common and easy situation, newly produced movies in any part of the world are able to gain international recognition and popularity within seconds. This means that should film makers put in more efforts in ensuring that they use they storylines to propagate stories of cultural, religious and ethnic tolerance, the scope of reach of these messages are going to be far reaching and impactful. It is therefore admonished that instead of film makers to just take up current happenings and developing stories out of them, they should be in a position to seek for the positive aspects of such events and situations only. They can also use their movies to correct impressions about such events and happenings. In the course of the interview, it was revealed that on the average, a blockbuster movie released in Hollywood or Britain reaches as many as ninety (90) countries. What this means is that should movie makers in such popular production houses try to trigger awareness creation on particular race or religion or cultural background, they are going to have a lot of people on the opposing side, who would come to appreciate and understand the basic practices and reasons behind the other side that they perhaps hated the most. Should there be censorship on enforcing global tolerance through movies Having noted the kind of impact that movies can play in enhancing global tolerance through the message that they carry, the interviewees were asked if there was the need to have a censorship enforcement program that checked all movies produced to ensure that the movies conformed to lay down standards on global tolerance. I therefore posed the question that “do you think it is high time the movie industry in America had a censorship board that would check global tolerance of the movies produced?” I wanted to know from interviewees if there should be a ban against the use of movies to promote specific ethnic, cultural and religious groups against others. According to the interviewees, such laws would defeat the need for movies to be diverse and versatile. Harvey said no, explaining that “such restrictions will kill creativity.” They however appreciated the fact that some levels of sensitisation rather than censorship should be in place. By sensitisation, movie makers should be educated on the risk on using movies to castigate other people’s faith and beliefs. Then on the other hand, they should be equipped to appreciate the fact that if movies are used to teach the public on the need to accept other people’s faith and beliefs, the benefit will be to the filmmakers themselves. It is hoped that if filmmakers would on their own come to accept the need to propagate the message of global tolerance through movies, they will have greater commitment towards championing of global tolerance and do it in a clear conscience than when they are forced to do it (Taylor, 2004, p.24). Conclusion As a matter of urgency, global tolerance is so important for the world at this time than ever. This point is made against the background that acts of terrorism have been associated with the lack of understanding that exists in the practice of various religious and cultural movements (Zayas, 1994, p. 53). It has also been associated with disrespect for certain racial and religious following (Taylor, 2004, p. 23). This means that if movies are used as tools for the promotion of religious, racial and cultural tolerance, certain acts of terrorism and violence that are associated with lack of understanding for other people’s beliefs will be curtailed. Having made this point, a number of strategies will be suggested for use by movie makers. These include using their storylines to educate the public on other people’s culture and religious. They should also make their cast very diversifying and well represented with the use of actors from different cultural and religious backgrounds. Again, they should use their concepts and stories to clear some stereotypes against other people that are considered to be misconceptions. REFERENCE LIST Gellately R. and Stoltzfus N, eds, 2001, Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Examines the Nazi campaign against “unwanted populations.” Hirschfeld G, ed., 2060,The Policies of Genocide: Jews and Soviet Prisoners of War in Nazi Germany. Boston, MA: Allen &Unwin. The links betweenthe fate of the Jews and the Soviet prisoners. Norman M. N, 1995, The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press. Plant R, 2006, The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War against Homosexuals.New York: Owl, The persecution and killing of homosexuals, described by a refugee of the Nazi regime. Rossino A. B., 2003,Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. First-rate survey of the Nazi rampage in Poland, which served as a trial run for the war against the Soviet Union. Sorge M. K,, 1986,The Other Price of Hitler’s War: German Military and CivilianLosses Resulting from World War II. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Taylor F, 2004, Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945. New York:HarperCollins. In-depth study of the Allied fire-bombing of thehistoric German city. Zayas A. M, 1994, A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the EastEuropean Germans, 1944–1950. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994. Read More