Origin Story

The Wizard of Oz changed John Waters’ life forever. He first saw the movie as a child at the Senator Theater in Baltimore and was immediately obsessed. Waters credits the line "Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness?” as the single piece of dialogue that inspired his life’s work. He says he still whispers it to himself sometimes before he goes to sleep. It’s hard to believe that the man who was once crowned the Prince of Puke and introduced the world to Divine could have his life changed by a movie featuring the Lollipop Guild. But he, like so many of us, was transformed by the power of film.

Movies are one of the strongest threads in the tapestry of our lives. I realize the cheesiness of that statement should come with its own cracker; but it doesn’t make the statement any less true. We all have cherished memories of being transported to exciting new worlds through a celluloid portal. These experiences are so strong they have been converted into cultural currency. How many friendships have been established by the timely delivery of a line from Caddyshack?

When films are evaluated they are done so primarily on the merits of their entertainment value. We want to know if a particular film is going to be worth our money or time. Very rarely do we go to a theater saying “Well gee, I hope this film challenges my entire world view and makes me end up feeling like a horrible person.” If we did then Requiem for a Dream would be on cable a lot more.

Cinema at its very worst is a distraction, but at its very best it can be revelatory (or any number of clichés you see on movie posters). Great movies succeed in shaking us to our core; they force us to confront uncomfortable questions and situations. My intention with this blog is to create a place to examine films that ask those difficult questions, particularly as they relate to human rights.

I do not intend this to be a place for film reviews. I won’t be judging the films on their artistic merits, but rather examining films through a human rights lens. I am of course a film nerd, so some judgment might seep through. That being said, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Reader, and Life is Beautiful are all shit films. You will never find any discussion about these or any films that treat genocide as melodrama.

Of course not everything here will be a discussion of high-brow, pretentious, foreign art films. Yes, there will be those. But The Cabin in the Woods, besides eviscerating horror tropes and featuring probably the world’s first murderous unicorn, has something interesting things to say about the banality of evil. The grand-daddy of the found footage genre, Cannibal Holocaust, is unintentionally a fascinating glimpse into how the Western world views indigenous cultures. I’m sure Road House has something to say about property rights. Or the right for a man to wear only tank tops. No discussion of human rights or cinema is really complete without Patrick Swayze.

I can still remember walking out of a crowded theater in the winter of 1999, having just left a screening of P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia. My mind was still trying to process the images on the screen, attempting to make sense of the last 188 minutes. I never thought that a film could pose so many questions, deny so many answers, and induce such a raw emotional response.  It was confusing and enthralling all at once. It was the moment I feel in love with movies and I never looked back.