Only two months in, 2017 has started with a bang. In so many ways. This weekend’s Academy Awards is filled with an ethnic cornucopia like we haven’t seen before. We’ve already lost a couple of wonderful talents in John Hurt, Al Jarreau, Mary Tyler Moore & John Gay. Oh, yeah… & this new guy moved into the office of the President of the United States of America bringing with him a handful of executive orders to extricate a key group of visible minorities on the basis of generalized fear. I’m going to sidestep the obvious politics of America’s new leadership & related social climate here. His most recent executive order, dubbed ‘The Muslim Ban’, is undeniably a blow to American culture, art & perspective.
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Of the many gifts film offers is insight, education, enlightenment. Stories & documentaries come to us from virtually every country on earth. But for the most part, you may never know this if you stay focused on the North American broadcasting & media juggernauts which hardly acknowledge –let alone support –non-American content in any significant sense. Sure, things have become way more accessible in the past decade or so with people making their work available online through Youtube & the likes. Not to mention Netflix, et. al. Also now with the potential reach of social media, the vehicles are there. But the traditional mainstream sources don’t help nearly enough to really proclaim a global perspective or true ‘inclusion’. & it’s too bad. The opportunity to be exposed to what life is like in Tehran through the eyes of a driver in Jafar Panahi’s Taxi. To see the work of a savant like Haile Gerima from Ethiopia. To immerse yourself in the effects of the Vietnam War on it’s surviving descendents in Korea in Kim Ki-Duk’s Address Unknown. To witness the struggles of poverty-stricken youth & gang culture in Tsotsi from South Africa & City of God from Brazil. Or to witness the legendary works of Japan’s late Akira Kurosawa. Or to have the chance to realize the choices a Chilean father makes about his child’s errors might echo your own here in North America.
The international market has shown its value and movie-going might. There are Hollywood’s developing around the world in London, & Nigeria, India & China. & many other countries have outstanding filmmaking schools & offer subsidies to make it possible for creatives to develop their craft. This is why Hollywood now covets overseas releases & distribution so much. It’s ready to try to forge pathways into these markets because of the size of audience available there. & though the diversity bubble of film in America is still nowhere near as inclusive or honest as it could be, it also doesn’t have to be. Not with the strength & quality of work being developed abroad. Access is all that is really missing. So now with the shift in US leadership & the possible implications of the “Muslim Ban”, Hollywood finds itself rethinking its off-shore efforts. & that’s a shame. Because right now, more than ever before, we need to understand how people in other parts of the world live, love, aspire & dream. It’s usually not far off from those of us here in the west.
Maybe Donald Trump should have watched a few of these films too.