By Stuart Adelberg
Film Can Change the World
Since joining the Avon Theatre Film Center, I have written frequently about the unique and extraordinary power of film. I have pointed out how film transports an audience to a different time and place, opens our hearts and minds to new experiences, inserts us, temporarily, into another world. As an art form, film can help spark our imaginations like nothing else as we are given license to envision ourselves living in some heroic, historic, or magical person’s shoes.
The above may seem to be hyperbole offered by someone encouraging you to recognize and celebrate the remarkable value of film. But recently the entire world has seen this value play out in very real terms, not as entertainment, but rather as an expose on some of our society’s most relentless and troubling issues. This was not fantasy, but a horrible real event with life changing consequences, and we were all there. I am referring, of course, to the trial and conviction of Derek Chauvin.
The death of George Floyd is sadly not the first or last tragic event of its kind. We may or may not have formed opinions in the past about right or wrong, innocence or guilt, based on witness testimony, first-hand accounts of participants, and media reports. But this time was very different. I have no legal expertise and I was not present to hear what was said in the courtroom. But I, with millions of others, witnessed the event myself on video. I did not need anyone to tell me what happened, as I, like all of you, was there, and the emotions I felt were as real as they could possibly be.
Though I would never equate the video of this tragedy with a film produced for our enjoyment, the extraordinary power of film to place each of us in that time and place, to allow us to experience an event as if we were in attendance was shown, once again, to make a remarkable difference and to move each of us in a dramatic way. Attorneys and witnesses can tell us their versions of what may have occurred before or after this event and what might have led the participants to act in the ways that they did, and we can choose for ourselves what to believe. But no one can tell you a different version of what you saw or how it made you feel. I do not know if the video was a major influence that led jurors to rule the way that they did, but I personally believe that it changed the way millions of viewers saw this incident and will impact perspectives on issues of race and social justice for years to come.
I know that this is just one circumstance, but real change has to begin somewhere. It is my sincere hope and genuine belief that this episode holds some important lessons for us all. To create and sustain a just and compassionate society, we need to find the place in each of us that gives us the power to walk in another’s shoes, to think what another might think, to feel what may be in someone else’s heart. In this instance, it was film that helped get us there. Let’s hope the journey continues.
