Film has an impact.
Back in 2014, I was hired to direct and edit a feature film called Sugar! Sugar! is a film about a 50-year old housewife who decides to follow her dreams of being in a rock band while her husband tries to get elected to a political office for the first time. The film is really about how women are often thought of as “done” once they hit “a certain age” and how that mindset holds so many people back.
I went to a number of film festivals with this film. I always like to speak with audience members outside of the Q&A to really hear what they think about the film and how the film impacted them. At one of the film festivals, a woman came up to me and said, “Do you like my haircut?” It was a short cut and it did look great on her so even though I was surprised at the question, I responded that I did, very much. She said, “It’s all thanks to Sugar!”. You see she had always had long hair and thought she was too old to change her look and go for a modern style. She watched Sugar! and it empowered her to get her hair cut the way she wanted and not the way she thought she should have it styled. And that gave her confidence. Who knows where that confidence will take her?
I wandered into conversations with other “older” women after screenings and many of them were chattering not about the characters or the storyline but about what they were going to do when they got home, “start that online business and sell the pile of jewelry that I made”, “learn how to dance”, “volunteer at a political organization”, the list goes on and on. The film didn’t put new ideas into their heads. The film simply pushed them to take the first step towards their goals. Who knows what impact each of those women will have on the world? Who else will they inspire?
And this film is a small indie film. Imagine what bigger films like THE GREAT DICTATOR (Charles Chaplin), PHILADELPHIA (Jonathan Demme), BICYCLE THIEVES (Vittorio De Sica), GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT (Elia Kazan), IMITATION OF LIFE (Douglas Sirk), FAR FROM HEAVEN (Todd Haynes), BABE (Chris Noonan), WALL-E (Andrew Stanton) and many more accomplish with their messaging. All of these films put a societal problem in front of the masses. Maybe half of the people watching were not impacted by the films. They were set in their ways. Okay, fine. But then look at the other half. If the other half was affected and changed in some ways and just half of those people (25% of audience members) left the theatre and did something about the issue placed in front of them, imagine how society shifted in its overall viewpoint of the topics covered.
Imagine if more and more films were about the types of things the films listed above are about, homophobia, systemic racism, anti-semitism, animal rights, climate change and classism. Imagine how many people could be impacted to think differently or join a movement. There is so much power in film.
Some people are lost in hate and will not come out of it. Some people pretend to be “good Christians” but don’t actually want to help fix the socio-economic issues in this country and are full of condemnation of people different from them. I get it. But many people just don’t understand what is happening in the world. They are wrapped up in their own lives. Maybe they have never met a black person. Maybe they never met a Jew. Maybe they never actually spoke to a member of the LGBTQ community. Films are a way of introducing these people to those they see as different and showing them that they are not all that different after all. Once people start seeing “the others” as “the same as me in so many ways” then things can change.
I know I rant about this a lot. But it just seems like mainstream films (even many indie films) revolve around horror and killing. What does that inspire? I don’t believe in censorship so if that's what you want to do, have at it. I just think we are missing opportunities to be changers and not just makers.
How do you do this? It’s honestly very simple. Take the issue that gives you the most pain and frustration and put that issue at the heart of your screenplay and ultimately your film. Don’t just make it a backdrop as an excuse to kill people off; that’s a copout. Go all the way. Focus on it, get into it. Show the impact, not the made up apocalyptic death scenes we have all seen too many times. That’s all. It’s just another step of authenticity. Authenticity of what matters to you. If you are still stuck on how to start, watch the films listed in this blog post and in other blog posts of mine. They show and don’t tell the impact of these issues on the people affected by them. And this moves people and that inspires change.