The shared wonder of film
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0:01 - 0:05Evidence suggests that humans in all ages and from all cultures
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0:05 - 0:09create their identity in some kind of narrative form.
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0:09 - 0:12From mother to daughter, preacher to congregant,
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0:12 - 0:15teacher to pupil, storyteller to audience.
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0:15 - 0:17Whether in cave paintings
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0:17 - 0:20or the latest uses of the Internet,
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0:20 - 0:24human beings have always told their histories and truths
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0:24 - 0:26through parable and fable.
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0:26 - 0:29We are inveterate storytellers.
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0:29 - 0:34But where, in our increasingly secular and fragmented world,
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0:34 - 0:38do we offer communality of experience,
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0:38 - 0:42unmediated by our own furious consumerism?
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0:42 - 0:46And what narrative, what history,
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0:46 - 0:48what identity, what moral code
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0:48 - 0:52are we imparting to our young?
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0:52 - 0:55Cinema is arguably
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0:55 - 0:57the 20th century's most influential art form.
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0:57 - 0:59Its artists told stories
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0:59 - 1:01across national boundaries,
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1:01 - 1:04in as many languages, genres and philosophies
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1:04 - 1:05as one can imagine.
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1:05 - 1:07Indeed, it is hard to find a subject
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1:07 - 1:09that film has yet to tackle.
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1:09 - 1:11During the last decade
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1:11 - 1:13we've seen a vast integration of global media,
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1:13 - 1:17now dominated by a culture of the Hollywood blockbuster.
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1:17 - 1:19We are increasingly offered a diet
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1:19 - 1:23in which sensation, not story, is king.
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1:23 - 1:25What was common to us all 40 years ago --
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1:25 - 1:28the telling of stories between generations --
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1:28 - 1:30is now rarified.
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1:30 - 1:32As a filmmaker, it worried me.
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1:32 - 1:36As a human being, it puts the fear of God in me.
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1:36 - 1:39What future could the young build
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1:39 - 1:40with so little grasp
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1:40 - 1:42of where they've come from
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1:42 - 1:45and so few narratives of what's possible?
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1:45 - 1:46The irony is palpable;
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1:46 - 1:50technical access has never been greater,
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1:50 - 1:53cultural access never weaker.
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1:53 - 1:57And so in 2006 we set up FILMCLUB,
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1:57 - 2:01an organization that ran weekly film screenings in schools
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2:01 - 2:03followed by discussions.
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2:03 - 2:07If we could raid the annals of 100 years of film,
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2:07 - 2:09maybe we could build a narrative
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2:09 - 2:11that would deliver meaning
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2:11 - 2:14to the fragmented and restless world of the young.
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2:14 - 2:16Given the access to technology,
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2:16 - 2:19even a school in a tiny rural hamlet
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2:19 - 2:23could project a DVD onto a white board.
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2:23 - 2:25In the first nine months
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2:25 - 2:27we ran 25 clubs across the U.K.,
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2:27 - 2:30with kids in age groups between five and 18
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2:30 - 2:33watching a film uninterrupted for 90 minutes.
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2:33 - 2:36The films were curated and contextualized.
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2:36 - 2:38But the choice was theirs,
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2:38 - 2:40and our audience quickly grew
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2:40 - 2:44to choose the richest and most varied diet that we could provide.
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2:44 - 2:47The outcome, immediate.
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2:47 - 2:52It was an education of the most profound and transformative kind.
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2:52 - 2:56In groups as large as 150 and as small as three,
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2:56 - 2:58these young people discovered new places,
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2:58 - 3:00new thoughts, new perspectives.
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3:00 - 3:02By the time the pilot had finished,
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3:02 - 3:05we had the names of a thousand schools
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3:05 - 3:09that wished to join.
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3:09 - 3:11The film that changed my life
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3:11 - 3:16is a 1951 film by Vittorio De Sica, "Miracle in Milan."
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3:16 - 3:17It's a remarkable comment
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3:17 - 3:21on slums, poverty and aspiration.
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3:21 - 3:25I had seen the film on the occasion of my father's 50th birthday.
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3:25 - 3:29Technology then meant we had to hire a viewing cinema,
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3:29 - 3:32find and pay for the print and the projectionist.
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3:32 - 3:34But for my father,
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3:34 - 3:39the emotional and artistic importance of De Sica's vision was so great
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3:39 - 3:42that he chose to celebrate his half-century
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3:42 - 3:46with his three teenage children and 30 of their friends,
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3:46 - 3:47"In order," he said,
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3:47 - 3:51"to pass the baton of concern and hope
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3:51 - 3:53on to the next generation."
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3:53 - 3:56In the last shot of "Miracle in Milan,"
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3:56 - 4:00slum-dwellers float skyward on flying brooms.
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4:00 - 4:02Sixty years after the film was made
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4:02 - 4:05and 30 years after I first saw it,
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4:05 - 4:07I see young faces tilt up in awe,
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4:07 - 4:09their incredulity matching mine.
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4:09 - 4:12And the speed with which they associate it
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4:12 - 4:16with "Slumdog Millionaire" or the favelas in Rio
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4:16 - 4:18speaks to the enduring nature.
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4:18 - 4:22In a FILMCLUB season about democracy and government,
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4:22 - 4:24we screened "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
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4:24 - 4:30Made in 1939, the film is older than most of our members' grandparents.
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4:30 - 4:34Frank Capra's classic values independence and propriety.
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4:34 - 4:36It shows how to do right,
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4:36 - 4:37how to be heroically awkward.
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4:37 - 4:40It is also an expression of faith
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4:40 - 4:44in the political machine as a force of honor.
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4:44 - 4:47Shortly after "Mr. Smith" became a FILMCLUB classic,
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4:47 - 4:52there was a week of all-night filibustering in the House of Lords.
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4:52 - 4:53And it was with great delight
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4:53 - 4:56that we found young people up and down the country
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4:56 - 4:58explaining with authority
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4:58 - 5:00what filibustering was
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5:00 - 5:05and why the Lords might defy their bedtime on a point of principle.
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5:05 - 5:09After all, Jimmy Stewart filibustered for two entire reels.
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5:09 - 5:12In choosing "Hotel Rwanda,"
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5:12 - 5:16they explored genocide of the most brutal kind.
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5:16 - 5:19It provoked tears as well as incisive questions
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5:19 - 5:21about unarmed peace-keeping forces
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5:21 - 5:24and the double-dealing of a Western society
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5:24 - 5:28that picks its moral fights with commodities in mind.
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5:28 - 5:32And when "Schindler's List" demanded that they never forget,
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5:32 - 5:36one child, full of the pain of consciousness, remarked,
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5:36 - 5:37"We already forgot,
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5:37 - 5:41otherwise how did 'Hotel Rwanda' happen?"
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5:41 - 5:45As they watch more films their lives got palpably richer.
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5:45 - 5:49"Pickpocket" started a debate about criminality disenfranchisement.
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5:49 - 5:53"To Sir, with Love" ignited its teen audience.
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5:53 - 5:56They celebrated a change in attitude
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5:56 - 5:58towards non-white Britons,
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5:58 - 6:01but railed against our restless school system
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6:01 - 6:04that does not value collective identity,
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6:04 - 6:10unlike that offered by Sidney Poitier's careful tutelage.
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6:10 - 6:14By now, these thoughtful, opinionated, curious young people
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6:14 - 6:17thought nothing of tackling films of all forms --
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6:17 - 6:18black and white, subtitled,
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6:18 - 6:21documentary, non-narrative, fantasy --
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6:21 - 6:24and thought nothing of writing detailed reviews
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6:24 - 6:27that competed to favor one film over another
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6:27 - 6:31in passionate and increasingly sophisticated prose.
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6:31 - 6:34Six thousand reviews each school week
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6:34 - 6:39vying for the honor of being review of the week.
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6:39 - 6:43From 25 clubs, we became hundreds, then thousands,
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6:43 - 6:46until we were nearly a quarter of a million kids
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6:46 - 6:49in 7,000 clubs right across the country.
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6:49 - 6:52And although the numbers were, and continue to be, extraordinary,
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6:52 - 6:55what became more extraordinary
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6:55 - 6:58was how the experience of critical and curious questioning
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6:58 - 7:01translated into life.
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7:01 - 7:04Some of our kids started talking with their parents,
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7:04 - 7:05others with their teachers,
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7:05 - 7:06or with their friends.
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7:06 - 7:08And those without friends
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7:08 - 7:10started making them.
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7:10 - 7:15The films provided communality across all manner of divide.
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7:15 - 7:19And the stories they held provided a shared experience.
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7:19 - 7:23"Persepolis" brought a daughter closer to her Iranian mother,
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7:23 - 7:27and "Jaws" became the way in which one young boy
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7:27 - 7:30was able to articulate the fear he'd experienced
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7:30 - 7:32in flight from violence
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7:32 - 7:35that killed first his father then his mother,
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7:35 - 7:40the latter thrown overboard on a boat journey.
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7:40 - 7:42Who was right, who wrong?
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7:42 - 7:44What would they do under the same conditions?
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7:44 - 7:45Was the tale told well?
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7:45 - 7:47Was there a hidden message?
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7:47 - 7:50How has the world changed? How could it be different?
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7:50 - 7:55A tsunami of questions flew out of the mouths of children
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7:55 - 7:56who the world didn't think were interested.
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7:56 - 8:00And they themselves had not known they cared.
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8:00 - 8:02And as they wrote and debated,
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8:02 - 8:05rather than seeing the films as artifacts,
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8:05 - 8:10they began to see themselves.
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8:10 - 8:13I have an aunt who is a wonderful storyteller.
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8:13 - 8:15In a moment she can invoke images
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8:15 - 8:19of running barefoot on Table Mountain and playing cops and robbers.
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8:19 - 8:21Quite recently she told me
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8:21 - 8:24that in 1948, two of her sisters and my father
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8:24 - 8:27traveled on a boat to Israel without my grandparents.
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8:27 - 8:31When the sailors mutinied at sea in a demand for humane conditions,
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8:31 - 8:35it was these teenagers that fed the crew.
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8:35 - 8:37I was past 40 when my father died.
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8:37 - 8:40He never mentioned that journey.
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8:40 - 8:43My mother's mother left Europe in a hurry
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8:43 - 8:47without her husband, but with her three-year-old daughter
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8:47 - 8:51and diamonds sewn into the hem of her skirt.
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8:51 - 8:52After two years in hiding,
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8:52 - 8:55my grandfather appeared in London.
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8:55 - 8:57He was never right again.
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8:57 - 9:02And his story was hushed as he assimilated.
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9:02 - 9:06My story started in England
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9:06 - 9:10with a clean slate and the silence of immigrant parents.
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9:10 - 9:12I had "Anne Frank," "The Great Escape,"
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9:12 - 9:14"Shoah," "Triumph of the Will."
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9:14 - 9:17It was Leni Riefenstahl
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9:17 - 9:19in her elegant Nazi propaganda
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9:19 - 9:23who gave context to what the family had to endure.
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9:23 - 9:29These films held what was too hurtful to say out loud,
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9:29 - 9:31and they became more useful to me
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9:31 - 9:34than the whispers of survivors
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9:34 - 9:37and the occasional glimpse of a tattoo
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9:37 - 9:40on a maiden aunt's wrist.
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9:40 - 9:43Purists may feel that fiction dissipates
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9:43 - 9:46the quest of real human understanding,
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9:46 - 9:47that film is too crude
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9:47 - 9:49to tell a complex and detailed history,
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9:49 - 9:54or that filmmakers always serve drama over truth.
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9:54 - 9:57But within the reels lie purpose and meaning.
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9:57 - 10:00As one 12-year-old said after watching "Wizard of Oz,"
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10:00 - 10:02"Every person should watch this,
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10:02 - 10:04because unless you do
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10:04 - 10:09you may not know that you too have a heart."
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10:09 - 10:13We honor reading, why not honor watching with the same passion?
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10:13 - 10:17Consider "Citizen Kane" as valuable as Jane Austen.
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10:17 - 10:20Agree that "Boyz n the Hood," like Tennyson,
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10:20 - 10:24offers an emotional landscape and a heightened understanding
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10:24 - 10:26that work together.
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10:26 - 10:27Each a piece of memorable art,
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10:27 - 10:31each a brick in the wall of who we are.
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10:31 - 10:33And it's okay if we remember Tom Hanks
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10:33 - 10:35better than astronaut Jim Lovell
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10:35 - 10:40or have Ben Kingsley's face superimposed onto that of Gandhi's.
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10:40 - 10:44And though not real, Eve Harrington, Howard Beale, Mildred Pierce
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10:44 - 10:46are an opportunity to discover
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10:46 - 10:49what it is to be human,
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10:49 - 10:53and no less helpful to understanding our life and times
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10:53 - 10:58as Shakespeare is in illuminating the world of Elizabethan England.
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10:58 - 11:00We guessed that film,
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11:00 - 11:02whose stories are a meeting place
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11:02 - 11:04of drama, music, literature and human experience,
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11:04 - 11:09would engage and inspire the young people participating in FILMCLUB.
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11:09 - 11:10What we could not have foreseen
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11:10 - 11:12was the measurable improvements
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11:12 - 11:16in behavior, confidence and academic achievement.
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11:16 - 11:20Once-reluctant students now race to school, talk to their teachers,
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11:20 - 11:21fight, not on the playground,
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11:21 - 11:24but to choose next week's film --
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11:24 - 11:27young people who have found self-definition, ambition
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11:27 - 11:31and an appetite for education and social engagement
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11:31 - 11:34from the stories they have witnessed.
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11:34 - 11:38Our members defy the binary description
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11:38 - 11:41of how we so often describe our young.
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11:41 - 11:46They are neither feral nor myopically self-absorbed.
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11:46 - 11:47They are, like other young people,
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11:47 - 11:51negotiating a world with infinite choice,
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11:51 - 11:55but little culture of how to find meaningful experience.
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11:55 - 11:58We appeared surprised at the behaviors
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11:58 - 12:00of those who define themselves
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12:00 - 12:02by the size of the tick on their shoes,
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12:02 - 12:07yet acquisition has been the narrative we have offered.
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12:07 - 12:08If we want different values
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12:08 - 12:12we have to tell a different story,
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12:12 - 12:16a story that understands that an individual narrative
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12:16 - 12:20is an essential component of a person's identity,
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12:20 - 12:21that a collective narrative
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12:21 - 12:25is an essential component of a cultural identity,
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12:25 - 12:29and without it it is impossible to imagine yourself
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12:29 - 12:31as part of a group.
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12:31 - 12:34Because when these people get home
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12:34 - 12:36after a screening of "Rear Window"
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12:36 - 12:39and raise their gaze to the building next door,
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12:39 - 12:43they have the tools to wonder who, apart from them,
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12:43 - 12:44is out there
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12:44 - 12:47and what is their story.
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12:47 - 12:48Thank you.
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12:48 - 12:51(Applause)
- Title:
- The shared wonder of film
- Speaker:
- Beeban Kidron
- Description:
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Movies have the power to create a shared narrative experience and to shape memories and worldviews. British film director Beeban Kidron invokes iconic film scenes -- from Miracle in Milan to Boyz n the Hood -- as she shows how her group FILMCLUB shares great films with kids.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 13:12
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The shared wonder of film | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for The shared wonder of film | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The shared wonder of film | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for The shared wonder of film | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for The shared wonder of film | ||
Timothy Covell edited English subtitles for The shared wonder of film | ||
Timothy Covell added a translation |