Awareness Arises Action

The armchair activism of documentary film, as Rikki talked about on Monday, is what I think is the most effective way to reach out to the masses. The documentary itself provides awareness and knowledge of certain issues that most likely need to change for the better. If a phone number is provided at the end of such a film, it is a way to unite a group of committed citizens together in order to work toward moving forward with solutions and progressing toward positive change.

We all know a text message isn’t going to save starving babies or rape victims. But providing immediate contact information to communicate with those who are interested in taking action—even if that action is simply sending a text—is effective in that it gives viewers the opportunity to choose what to do with the new awareness and knowledge.

As Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

A text message may seem inactive, but it may just be the next step for rounding up that small group of people who are actually willing and wanting to take further action to help.

On the other hand, to be justifiably wary about the benefits of the call to action, as Jans mentioned, seems to be just human nature. We question how this or that is going to help uncorrupt the FDA or a military justice system, for example. But I believe it is this realm of thinking that holds people back from the attempt to even try. If skepticism rules it kills the potential to even budge toward change.

I believe the desire to know comes along with (maybe subconsciously) the desire to act. I do not necessarily think documentaries are watched just to know or just to act -- it's a combination. When an audience is informed about a situation or issue, many people are then able to sympathize or even empathize with what was shown on screen. Whether it’s a campus shooting at Columbine high school or the riots in Cairo, the vicarious experience (as Scott Carrier talked about) helps us address these topics more sympathetically and therefore more respectfully, because the footage is just sample taste of what that may have been like. And because the power of visuals (images and film footage) trigger emotional responses in us, the potential to respond in some way seems more likely that just appealing to our emotions for the fun of it. So even if one begins watching documentaries just for the sake or pleasure of knowing, I think eventually it is inevitable that the awareness will arise action of some kind.

All in all, even if some documentaries instigate inactive social activism, I think those who seek and watch documentaries have the desire to be informed and the desire to know for the purpose of improvement of some kind—whether personal improvement, societal or global. Once certain information is known, it’s difficult to ignore the facts and seems almost impossible to erase the visuals. That’s why docs have the power to change an audience; and the change—whether it is in attitude, perspective, or physical doing (active or inactive)— is still stepping forward in some way.