Global cinema is creating a language for conversation
about significant issues.
(i) Each
year, there are films which evoke deep emotion about
themes like globalization and cultural change,
Zhang Ziarui's quiet masterpiece When Ruoma
was Seventeen showed globalization, this time,
in the hands of a Beijing photographer who plays
Enya tapes. It shows the complexities
of a traditional society like the Hani culture of
Ruoma confronting the modern world.
Nonzee Nimibutr's Baytong created the
world where Islam and Buddhism intersect in southern
Thailand
and made a powerful statement about the nature of
cultural intersections in a globalizing world.
Film transforms worldviews and it is worth
noting specific films whose political importance frame
the 21st century political debate
http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/filmguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=0573 http://www.asianfilms.org/china/ruoma.html
(ii)
Film has also become a magnificent and powerful
vehicle for teaching history, for debating historical
accuracy and historical perspectives.
It is a vehicle for teaching history and transforming
our perspectives on how learning interpretive skills
can be accomplished without deteriorating into moral
relativism.
http://www.historyinfilm.com/calendar/aug00.htm
(iii)
The entrepreneurial
economics of film has made the creation of a film
industry a fundamental part of economic growth, whether
the Brazilian digital industry or the cottage industry
in
Kurdistan
which has grown up around
the introduction of foreign investment and job creation
in film-making. The South Korean film
industry has become a cutting-edge cultural force
in Asia, demonstrating the potential for a film industry
to provide cultural dynamism while managing globalization.
These trends will
be highlighted as frequently as possible in the accompanying
Global Cinema updates. |