Roboticism vs. Nature
Let's get on it, filmers.
Dahling,
Isn’t the world so magical and beautiful and sent from heaven? Except the parts not sent from heaven.
And how about art? Isn’t it lovely? Except the art that is trying to tell us something without really telling us anything worthwhile—just alarming us a whole bunch and making us feel angry? Let’s talk about this!
Listen, babycakes, I have all these ideas, and one of them is that we create an independent—or major, who knows—film channel of short films, and discussions with artists about their films. And we have a physical space people gather to talk about art and life, because it is in the discussion that we so often learn amazing things and understand varying points of view and feel the synergy of new life flowing.
Classrooms are wonderful places where these conversations can occur, but the more robotic our society gets, the more classrooms just become retail organizations where it is all about “customer experience” and “customer satisfaction.” (Students and parents are the customers.) Gone, largely, are the days when a teacher teaches you something through challenging you intellectually and through knowing your worth outside a dollar amount—through taxes or tuition or earning their salary. Think back to Mr. Miyagi and Daniel, in that karate movie. (I love that Karate Kid!) Did Mr. Miyagi teach Daniel because he was getting paid a salary, and did he provide a syllabus or rubric? No, because Daniel was getting beat up pretty bad! Daniel just had a real and good reason to learn karate—he saw its worth and value in his day-to-day life—and he had to trust Mr. Miyagi and keep doing what Mr. Miyagi told him to do, even when it didn’t make sense. Eventually, it all did make sense, and Daniel beat those other karate jerks in the championship, ay? And conquered his own fears and self-imposed limitations. And also cleaned things that needed washing! Yay! He learned the essence and source of karate, not just a bunch of cool kicks and moves that make people scared of him. But in those days, Daniel didn’t have a smartphone to complain about Mr. Miyagi on social media or his friends, saying “This jackass expects me to do all this weird stuff.” Also, Daniel’s single mother was so busy trying to earn a living she didn’t know Daniel was washing Mr. Miyagi’s cars for free. In the 21st century of Real Housewives, perhaps Daniel’s mom would be calling Mr. Miyagi and saying, “How much are you going to pay my son to keep washing your cars? I am not letting my son show up to your house for free labor.” And the karate lessons would have been over.
Anyway, my point, dahling, is that we live in a society that is threatened daily with the option of becoming more robotic, triggered, and reactive, OR more human and heart-centered. Which will you choose? I hope it’s heart. And I hope that heart infuses your art.
Heart and art, does that rhyme? Wow, yay!
Therefore, the first rules of Film Club are this:
Don’t become a robot.
AND
Don’t become a robot.
AND
Identify who are the robots and who are the humans, and STAY HUMAN.
Movies become life, dahling. Artists are the visionaries who see the future. We must listen to them and integrate their lessons into our souls. But only the human artists, not the robotic ones.
Therefore, do not mimic others. Be your own original self. What that requires is knowing yourself and your influences, and recognizing the difference of mimicry vs. homage, of celebration vs. copy, of humanity vs. robots.
There is no formula to being a human being, dahling. Life is not The Algorithm Show.
I will leave you with this, teaching artist that I am.
Here are two videos I presented once, to adolescents in a college classroom. We were exploring the topic of surveillance states, the ways that people are watched and monitored, and how this overlaps with equality in our system, which includes—but is not limited to—sexual and racial equality. Film and the success of a film, we all know, is interwoven with issues of class, race, and gender—both on the screen and behind the screen. So is government, business, and religion, too.
This first little film/video I share below is a music video called “This is America,” starring the rap-artist Childish Gambino. He is—so my students told me—pointing out the problems in America that are related to murder and racism and black and white people.
The second little film/video is poetry art called “One: Becoming (Swim by Titilope Sonuga.)” Titilope Sonuga is a Nigerian-born woman poet who lives in Canada, who sets her poetry to music, and the video is a black woman dancing in the forest, while Sonuga’s voice speaks poetry as voiceover.
Which one opens up a window or door in your soul that can enact real and powerful change in you, rooted in love and from your heart? Does one video accomplish this better than the other? Is it both? Neither?
Tell me, tell me, tell me! I am wondering!
Just please do this:
Pay attention to your body when you watch each, darling. What happens in your body? And please, ignore the numbers of views, likes, followers, etc. This is essential for our little film club.
Keep breathing. If you feel up to it after, let’s get coffee and discuss. I love film and conversation.
Sincerely,
Ms. Wonderful