A Look at the Oscar Winners

At the 82nd Academy Awards, several of the year's big winners highlighted some important causes, either in overt or subtle ways.

Let's start with the little film that could: The Hurt Locker swept the awards, picking up Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing. Unfortunately, a lot of the buzz has been pitting Kathryn Bigelow against ex-husband, Avatar director James Cameron, and amping up her film's David-and-Goliath victory over Cameron's blockbuster. The more important buzz, however, is about the historic moment that her win represents: Bigelow is the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director. Bigelow herself has expressed reluctance about hyping up the feminist side of her win. I think it's important to acknowledge that a woman was recognized for making an amazing film, with brilliantly executed and suspenseful sequences like this:



Check out my last post to see why The Hurt Locker ranks on my list of the top ten most important war films.

Precious, based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire, was another little film that rocketed to the top and won big at festivals around the world, before winning an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Actress Mo'Nique, previously known for coarse comedy performances, won an Academy Award for her dramatic performance. She is the fourth black actress to win in the Best Supporting Actress category. Precious is not an easy film to swallow: its main character, played by Gabourey Sidibe, is an obese, illiterate 16-year-old African American girl in Harlem, who has been impregnated twice by her father and abused physically, mentally and sexually by her mother (Mo'Nique). It unflinchingly shows us situations that we would rather not acknowledge exist in America and I'm thrilled that these issues got exposure at the Oscars.

Sandra Bullock, romantic comedy darling, won for Best Actress for her dramatic performance in The Blind Side, the true story of football player Michael Oher. Like Precious, the movie highlights American poverty with its portrayal of an impoverished African-American foster child, who is adopted by a suburban family and discovers a talent for football.

The Short Documentary Winner, Music By Prudence, also tackles poverty, this time out of America. The film depicts the life of Prudence Mabhena, a Zimbabwean girl with a debilitating condition called arthrogryposis, who escapes her abusive upbringing thanks to a scholarship she received for her singing talents. In The Blind Side and Precious, the main characters also end up embracing education in the end, with Precious resolving to take the GED and Michael Oher embracing a college education with a football scholarship.

Crazy Heart, a movie about a country singer trying to turn his life around, for which Jeff Bridges won the Best Supporting Actor award, is not usually heralded as a cause-based movie. I've chosen to include it because it features a major story line in which the main character struggles with severe alcoholism. I've never seen such a vivid and gritty portrayal of the life of an alcoholic - we see Bridges throwing up on himself and driving his car off the road in a stupor. Its a multifaceted look at the issue, even if the ending, in my opinion, ties up his recovery too neatly and easily.

The most obvious cause-related winner, of course, is The Cove, a personal favorite of mine. See my post for a more in-depth look at why The Cove is one of the most important documentaries, environmental or otherwise, to come along in a while. Participant Media, producers of one of the most famous Oscar-winning docs, An Inconvenient Truth, did it again with this win. Their documentary Food, Inc., was also in the running. Both The Cove and Food, Inc. have been helping to make feature documentaries mainstream, something that, in my opinion, needs to happen without Michael Moore's name attached.

Avatar is being talked about more for what it didn't win than what it did, which was Oscars for Visual Effects, Cinematography and Art Direction. Despite missing out on other awards, it nevertheless remains an appealing commentary on anti-militarism, conservation, and tolerance. It's easy to see, even from the trailer, why it swept the technical awards:



For all these movies, although Avatar hardly needs more viewers, I hope that these wins will draw more attention to the causes at the root of each story. It would be nice to see the media give some attention to the issues in between the red carpet coverage.

The Top Ten Most Important Environmental Films (So Far)

Every week, I'm going to be posting a Top Ten List highlighting a certain genre of cause-driven filmmaking. Of course, my choices will be colored by the perspective of my generation, but I'd like to think that the same things matter to people who are older or younger.

What I'm really striving to figure out is not necessarily what makes a film entertaining, visually pleasing or profitable, but what makes it "important." This is my interpretation of what it means for a film to be "important:

- Impact on the audience. Do people who see this film actually go out and change anything about their lives?
- Staying power. Are people still talking about it more than 15 minutes after seeing it?
- Popularity. Unfortunately, change can hinge on how many people see a film, which is why these lists might not contain less famous, smaller films that are equally good.
- Actual change taking place. Whether the film revolutionizes its entire field or gets one innocent man released from prison (see The Thin Blue Line), I believe that the full potential of the medium is finally realized when change takes place in the wake of a film.

So here we go, with one of my pet causes:

The Top Ten Most Important Environmental Films (So Far)

10. Winged Migration (2001)
I was babysitting my professor's three-year-old son the other day, who is a big animal lover, and he was completely entranced by this detailed French documentary about the migrations of numerous species of birds across the hemispheres. Its gorgeous photography and empathic portrayal of the peculiarities of birds made a significant impact on audiences worldwide.

9. March of the Penguins (2005)
This documentary, also originally in French, also about the migration of birds, won the Academy Award in 2005 for Best Documentary Feature. The movie presented the struggles of the penguins in a very human way, squeezing empathy from its audience. Although it didn't have an overtly environmental message, it was a vivid representation of the intricacies of animal life at the far ends of the earth, and a great reminder of all that we have to lose.

8. The Cove (2009)
See my post below for a more detailed explanation of why I appreciate The Cove so much. Most importantly for these purposes, this documentary about dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan, showed that environmental documentaries can be made in fresh, exciting ways. Its spy-thriller feel and adventurous tone did something entirely new with the genre.

7. Wall E (2008)
Surprisingly, Wall E's director, Andrew Stanton, maintains that he never set out to make an environmental film with this blockbuster animation from Pixar. Yet the message is undeniable in the film's powerful visuals of an Earth devastated and abandoned by the unsustainable actions of humans. It is a cautionary tale that reached both young and old audiences.

6. Food, Inc. (2008)
Food, Inc., which was just nominated for an Academy Award, is more than just an environmental film. It tackles the entire corrupt industry of food production in America, effectively disgusting audiences throughout the country with its portrayal of factory farming. However, I think the side effect of its message will be that more people will be eating sustainably, locally, organically and even vegetarian. And this could be one of the most important environmental changes we see.

5. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
This blockbuster is kind of a silly film, showing an extremely exaggerated alternate reality in which the projected effects of global warming happen in a couple of days. But the apocalyptic images of Manhattan sinking under the ocean and most of America perishing in cataclysmic storms made a vivid impression on a lot of viewers who might not previously have been able to imagine climate change as a physical manifestation.

4. Avatar (2009)
Avatar, the highest grossing film in history, is the only environmental movie on this list that actually doesn't take place on Earth. Unlike Andrew Stanton, director James Cameron was fully aware of the environmental message in his movie, and has called attention to our loss of biodiversity and the effects of climate change. Check out my last post to see how the plot of the movie is being played out on Earth. Avatar is important because its revolutionary visuals conveyed the most realistic and tangible sense of environmental beauty yet (ironically, because the plants don't actually exist), and also because so very many people saw it.

3. Erin Brokovich
In Erin Brokovich, we are shown how environmental issues can affect humans very directly and very intensely. In the movie, based on a true story, Julia Roberts' uncovers the industrial poisoning of a small town's water supply, which severely threatens the health of the entire community. Her award winning performance drew viewers around the world, who learned to be more aware of the reality of industrial pollution.

2. An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
This documentary by Al Gore is probably the most famous environmental film of our time (and the most lucrative, bringing in an unprecedented $50 million for a documentary). The polarizing scientific evidence it contained brought the climate change debate to a head and is almost always cited, either with derision or in awe, when the issue comes up. Without it, it is hard to say where the climate change movement would be today.

1. FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)
This might seem like a surprising pick for a list with so many hard-hitters, but hear me out. If you mention the name "FernGully" in a room full of 20-somethings today, you will get the same positive and nostalgic reaction everywhere. Kids loved this animated movie about a fairy trying to save her rainforest home from both a lumber company and an evil spirit named Hexxus who gains power from pollution and resembles oil sludge. This was a highly popular movie with a strongly environmental message that came out to young audiences before the "green" movement was anticipated. The 20-somethings that were wowed by FernGully when they were impressionable children absorbed the message that forests, biodiversity and conservation are good, and that pollution, destruction and greed are bad. This movie effectively primed my generation to now look at movies like Avatar and An Inconvenient Truth with the mental framework of nature being inherently good and important to preserve. Fern Gully wasn't alone in this; movies like The Lion King and Pocahontas had a more subtle pro-nature lean. Yet FernGully was alone in personifying pollution as arguably one of the scariest, evil villains of animated entertainment. For a lot of people my age, seeing FernGully was the first time we were ever lead to think about conservation and the importance of a world outside of our human one.

Does this bring back any fond memories?

A Documentary that Worked: Ingredients of 'The Cove'

My faith in the power of documentaries to change the world has been flagging lately. As a film student on the documentary track, this is pretty unfortunate. Even really great films seem to stick with my peers for only about 10-15 minutes before fading into the media-filled abyss that is the consciousness of my generation.

But every once in a while, a film comes a long to challenge my disillusion. 2009’s The Cove is one of those, and I’m happy to see it be nominated for an Academy Award. This film from Roadside Attractions and Participant Media gained fame for pulling off a unique and cool spy thriller feel in what otherwise might have been just another preachy nature documentary. The Cove is about the international dolphin capture and slaughter trade as practiced in Taiji, Japan, and centers around a team of animal advocates and filmmakers intent on getting footage of the dolphin murders. And they do, which makes The Cove one of the most disturbing horror movies I’ve ever seen.

Yet what is important about The Cove, and its widespread success, is that it actually had a tangible, real-world effect on the cause that it was exposing. Although dolphin capture still took place in Taiji, the town announced its intention to release the dolphins not selected for captivity instead of slaughtering them. Because of The Cove, Taiji was under the scrutiny of animal lovers around the world, and really didn’t have any other choice.

So what can we learn from this real-world success? What ingredients does The Cove have that other, less effective documentaries don’t?

- Dolphins. Everybody has a soft spot for dolphins, and for some reason that psychologists and philosophers probably have an answer for, a lot of us are capable of feeling more empathy for them than for the flawed members of our own species.

- A subject horrible enough that the filmmakers don’t have to try to artificially prompt the emotion of the audience. Just drop the words “23,000 dolphins a year” and the image from and underwater camera flooded with blood, and we’re sold on the suspense.

- A protagonist who has repented his evil deeds and is trying to atone for them. Our historically Puritanical nation loves this kind of stuff. Richard O’Barry used to capture and train dolphins (notably for the TV show Flipper, which first sparked America’s love for performing sea animals), and now, after one of his dolphins “committed suicide” in his arms, devotes his life to preventing the capture and slaughter of dolphins around the world.

- The absence of the moralizing, lecturing tone associated with many documentaries. The Cove disguises its message in the narrative arc of a Bourne Identity- type of movie. It catches its audience by surprise and they even forget they are learning something important as they watch. For my jaded generation, at least, this is a welcome change.

- Awesome production quality. The editing is careful, the score is moody and beautiful, and the photography, especially the creepy underwater shots, is great.

- Finally, intelligent marketing. As a former Participant Media intern, I personally called what seemed like every surf shop in the nation and mailed them posters and promotional postcards. Participant’s Social Action Department targeted surfers and other people pre-disposed to caring about dolphins and animals in general. It was also marketed as an adventurous, righteous rampage and not a morality tale.

I think filmmakers and audiences alike can learn from what The Cove accomplished, and the fresh approach it brought to the sometimes-dry art of documentary filmmaking. I know I’ll be rooting for it at the Oscars, as well as keeping an eye on the town of Taiji for years to come.

Check out the trailer:

What Makes A Film Important?

Every once in awhile you'll get into a discussion with a friend or relative about a film that you love. Your friend will say something like, "I appreciate why it's a great film, I appreciate why it's important, but it just turned me off."

I hear this often about A Clockwork Orange, a film that's certainly in my top 20 of all time, and one that's often cited in the Important But... category. So, the questions are: What makes a film important? Can a film be socially important without addressing a specific cause, such as Clockwork, or are efforts better spent on a film about a cause, such as The Cove.

I would argue that social relevance can apply to nearly any film that addresses issues of the moment. Therefore, nearly all war films have social relevance, as they are either commenting on a current war, as in The Hurt Locker, or using a previous war to make a statement about war in general, as in Paths of Glory. I feel that that's the point of this blog, to point out films that are in some way relevant to the Causecast community, whether they directly approach a present issue or simply give us a new perspective on the nature of human rights, the environment, poverty or youth activism. In this way, Children of Men and Hotel Rwanda are as socially relevant as Food, Inc.

What films do you think are particularly important? Also -- in future posts I'll be discussing what prominent social issues have been inadequately presented in film, and what kind of film you'd make about it if you could.