Julija Aleksaitytė
Part 1

 

INTRODUCTORY PART

My topic is “Cinematography has a positive impact on people’s tolerance” and my aim was to look into the social side of tolerance. Social side of the word ‘tolerance’ includes aspects like attitude towards LGBT+ community, general empathy and how watching movies might increase your level of knowledge. Also, one of the goals was to find a list of movies that not only have the ability to make an impact, but are made for the cause of forcing discussion and calling out the overflowing ignorance in our society.

   

 

KEY TERMS

LGBT+ community - LGBT, or GLBT, is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. The abbreviation is often seen with the plus sign because the community also includes pansexuals, demisexuals, questioning people, asexuals, etc.
Entertainment media - media that entertains people, like television and films.
Cinematography – part of the entertainment media that is specifically discussing films.
Empathy- the ability to share someone else's feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person's situation
Ignorance - the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information, etc.
Academy Award for the Best Picture - Best Picture is considered the premier award of the Academy Awards, as it represents all the directing, acting, music composing, writing, editing, and other efforts put forth into a film production.

MULTI-PARAGRAPH SUMMAR

It is often believed that cinematography has a positive impact on people’s minds. But does it really make an impact and if so, are one of the main social tolerance skills, like attitude towards other sexualities, understanding people,  learning empathy, also improving during the process?

One of the main things proven by various examinations was that the whole entertainment media has an impact on people’s minds. Children were brought to theatres (research published in Education Next – first source), where they watched different artworks. The goal was to test if the children improved after seeing the pieces and the research showed a positive answer because the students found out more about the plot showed in the productions (they watched Hamlet and A Christmas Carol), their vocabulary increased and they improved the ability to understand others by learning from characters’ actions and words. Theatre performances, as well as works in other media platforms like cinema, are scientifically proven to make an influence.

Even though it is often said that live performance (theatre, live concert, and other live media platforms) gives more benefits than recorded media, films are not that far from theatre.  It is often noticeable that watching movies might become a great escape from the cruel world around us, but this happens for a reason, which is that we imagine ourselves being in the same place as the occurring character (Ebert’s theory, that is confirmed by Dr. Jim Coan – third source): „We “immerse ourselves in the perspective of another person,” Coan said. “And in doing that, we start to subtly accrue those perspectives into our own universe ... and that’s how empathy is generated.”” In addition, we also learn from the body language, conversations, the solutions made by showed characters (fifth source, talking about other physical and psychological factors).

Another aspect that is often brought up in today’s society is people’s attitude towards LGBT+ community and last year, it was a vivid topic in cinematography world. The Academy Award for the Best Picture winning movie “Moonlight” has been talked about for months because of its content and the main idea (ideas about the movie “Moonlight” are both mine and taken from the fourth source). The film presents three stages in the life of the main character Chiron. Chiron deals with difficulties of exploring his own identity, understanding his sexuality and is often greeted with both psychological and physical abuse. This movie holds a really important place in the equality fight of LGBT+ community because it’s openly discussing the topic and managed to find a way to many people’s hearts if it appeared in high rankings to win the award. If cinema work carries out a discussion, the impact has been already made and knowing the importance of the topic only strengthens not only the discussion but the impact as well.

Living in a world full of unexpected turns of events, we are obligated to learn from everything we have. Improving tolerance skills, empathy, understanding others is by any means difficult, but watching movies that apparently make a difference in our minds can be a huge step towards a better future. 

CREDITS AND REFERENCES

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141016165953.htm  discussing the fact that live theatre is more beneficial than movies or books.

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/movies-that-inspire-empathy#; http://missliberty.com/tag/social-tolerance/  (both) movies to increase empathy and social tolerance (1st for children, 2nd for adults)

http://innerself.com/content/personal/attitudes-transformed/behavior/10808-can-watching-movies-increase-your-empathy-for-others.html   ”We “immerse ourselves in the perspective of another person,” Coan said. “And in doing that, we start to subtly accrue those perspectives into our own universe ... and that’s how empathy is generated.””

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/15/its-impossible-to-be-vulnerable-how-moonlight-reflects-being-a-black-gay-man-in-the-us  talking about the Oscar winning movie “Moonlight” and its impact on the audience and on the cast

http://www.debate.org/debates/Cinema-has-a-great-impact-on-society./1/  “ The cinema can be used as an instrument to help people get rid of obscurantism and also to guide them along the right path. It can help in removing ignorance from our society.” “ In a nutshell, cinema attendance can be both a personally expressive experience, good fun, and therapeutic at the same time.“

http://www.preservearticles.com/201106037452/short-essay-on-the-impact-of-cinema-on-social-life.html  “These films increase our knowledge, broaden our outlook. Social pictures throw light on social evils as untouchability, unemployment and the curse of widowhood, etc.”