The art of my generation

I'm really interested in what kind of Art my generation produces, especially the films. My generation, those say 20-28 (a generation they say is 25 years, but I don't feel I have much in common with 1 year olds), I feel are a sort of bi-polar generation. On the one hand I see a generation of young people committed to public service and generally committed to the saving the world (that's the east coast part of me) and then I see a generation as equally self involved, under-educated and under-responsible (the west coast).

In a way I think it's easy to draw parallels between these times and the times of the late 1970s. We have oil issues that don't seem to be getting solved, we have crises in the middle east that we're helpless to change and the body politic seems to be growing restless, cynical, and we feel like there's nothing we can do about it. These feelings aren't unique, and they don't speak for everyone - I'm sure some people don't quite care what's going on - but insofar as these feelings are new to us, they are important.

Whereas the film climate in the mid 1970s, before Jaws and Star Wars came out - was one of cynicism, politicking, and feminism. Those two films came out and changed the film culture forever, the blockbuster was born. When I look at the climate of films today, it seems as if we're not quite in the same world. While we have a growing concern for the way the world is going, (far more nebulous than any time in history as there is no more real enemy and the real enemy is hard to find - you can't put a face on global warming) our films don't seem to reflect that. Our films are still fairly big popcorn movies, a hold over from the late '70s and early 80's. We'll have to wait until the fall to get into the more political things. But is important to know that we can't just make fun movies that will capture people's imaginations in the same way that those first blockbusters did because those types movies are being made today. But we can't necessarily make the scathing political films we might want to because those films are also being made to some extent as well.

So then the question begs itself, what kinds of films will we make, given the opportunity? Well, first of all, our parents generation will have to retire or quit or something to give us a chance. While the kings of that generation aren't hurting for money, it's going to be hard for them to slow down. Nonetheless, in 10 years we'll be in our primes and they will be that much older. So what?

While I see the general climate of my generation as being politically moderate to apathetic, there is another section that is quite politically active. The problem is that we've come up in a time when the most political members of our generation are split in their political ideologies quite fervently.

My fear is that our films will be polarized. I see our artists, in many cases, either being too far on the left, or being too apathetic to make a statement, whatever it might be. Therefore, I can't predict what we might do. Will we continue to muddle in the current state of Hollywood affairs, will we be political partisans, or will we find a new and original relationship to cinema, storytelling, and the interpretations of our times. If nothing else, we continue to make films because they serve as documents of our own times. I hope our films about Vietnam are made with an observational tone (if not an emotional one) but I hope that we should be able to see more clearly and accurately the events of the 20th century, because we weren't blinded by the politics of the time. Oliver Stone, therefore, has no place here (which is not to say that his films aren't important or valuable). Will we even go back and examine history, or will be preach about the Iraq war and oil prices?

Our challenge is going to be in finding honesty and peace in our films and our decisions as artists and filmmakers. We must not be blinded by desire to create propaganda, right or left wing, but instead be driven to be moved and compelled by the facts, and dare I say it, truth, whatever that means. Let us not give in to the maudlin, or the over-intellectualized preaching that comes with standing completely apart from history. Let us be moved and understand the times, and then, if we are actually artists we might be able to interpret events for the benefit of a society as a whole. Then again, we might not actually be artists, we might have chosen to do this because it seemed fun. Hopefully not.

-cjfer-