By Tina Ly.
And if one of the best way to vehicle messages were movies!
January and February are the busy months for the Golden Globes and Oscars,
should not we reconsider the movies that are being rewarded?
Criteria would be actually the basics of marketing and
communication:
- Intelligibility of the message: is it clear and simple enough to be understood?
- The aftermath: what is the impact on people’s behavior?
- Promotion: is it in line with the message of the movie?
- Distribution in movie theaters: can the movie be watched by many people?
Visual arts, means to carry sustainability message
This is not a new trend to use arts. Since the 18th
century visual art - also known as Romantic Movement for the period (John
CONSTABLE, J.M.W. TURNER) - has been one of the mean used to vehicle messages
related to environmental movement.
Coast of Yorkshire near Whitby - J.M.W. TURNER
La bahia de
Weymouth - John Constable
Pursuing this way of communication, visual arts went also on
our screens and there are numerous movies that are either fully related to
environmental issues, or could be interpreted as so. There are among them movies
accessible for children but in a sense there are probably the most important. Indeed,
as an adult, to change behavior is quite difficult; habits are sticking so hard
to the skin! However, children are continuously learning and such teachings are
benefiting their own future by getting good habits at the very start learnt
from parents of course and from what they see.
In the 20th century, one of the most important
movie treating environmental issues is Princess
Mononoke (1997; Hayao Miyazaki), as the principal character is actually
a forest. Hayao Miyazaki used Japanese mythologies to carry his message:
destruction of nature harmed not only existing fauna and flora but also human
beings.
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… we don’t know yet who are the Oscars winners, but let’s have a look to past super productions
Finding Nemo, Wall-E,
Avatar, these films were quite of a success worldwide; they were all
praised by the public and critics and distributed in most of movie theaters.
1- Finding
Nemo (2003; Lee Unkrich and Andrew Stanton):
The pitch of Finding Nemo was quite basic to understand: Nemo has been captured by a dentist and put in
an aquarium to be then given as a gift the dentist’s niece. Nemo’s father,
Marlin, tries his best to get him back to his real home: the ocean. During Marlin’s
entire journey, the audience discovers the wealth of the ocean and how natural
currents are essential to the cycle of so many living species (East Australian
Current used by the turtles). But unfortunately, the message behind was totally
misunderstood by the public: instead of protecting and preserving the ocean,
demand for tropical fish, especially the clownfish has increased in such a
way that it caused reef species
decimation in Vanuatu and many other reef areas (source: David Fickling, Reefs at risk after Disney film. (The
Guardian, 21 November 2003). On the other hand, there are also
"Individuals [who have released] their pet fish with the best of
intentions, but in the wrong ocean. It is a really bad idea. The incoming fish
can drastically alter the ecological balance of an area” (source: quote from Brice
Semmens, taken from Charles Arthur, 'Finding
Nemo' pets harm ocean ecology. (The Independent, 1 July 2004).
Although Finding Nemo has been rewarded by Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, in 2003, if there were an
award in environmental benefits category, the film would not have probably met
similar success although the intentions were there.
2- Wall-E ( 2008;
Andrew Stanton):
The movie is showing the audience one of the major issues
the world is facing today: accumulation of garbage due to consumption. In the
movie, we understood that Earth became unlivable, at such point that people are
living in spaceships, while robots are tidying the mess left by them.
There are different ways to manage garbage; the most used
being landfill, incineration and recycling. Landfill is the most commonly used;
it consists of burying the disposal of waste material under layers of dirt. In
Turkey 97.8% of our trash (see the graph below) is actually put in landfill,
which let a thin share for recycling… (source: Martin Medina, Talking Trash. (Foreign Policy, No. 168
(Sep. - Oct., 2008), pp. 40-41, published by: Washington Post. Newsweek
Interactive, LLC, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25462335)).
However, the movie shows some hopes as at the end, people
come back to Earth and start to clean up what they left. As a result, people should
not rely on robots to clean what they engender but take responsibility and do
it themselves before it is too late...
3- Avatar (2009; James Cameron):
Although there are
many interpretations that have been made on Avatar
(scarcity of natural resources on Earth, Iraq…); regarding sustainability
aspects, the movie is actually a perfect illustration of the Gaia theory as
defined by James Lovelock: “[…] the Gaia hypothesis views the earth as a single
organism in which the individual elements coexist in a symbiotic relationship.”
(Kemp, Exploring Environment Issues (2004).
In short, the Gaia theory highlights that the entire ecosystem is
interdependent and interconnected; so is the Na’vis inhabitants and Pandora
(their planet). The illustration is emphasized through the connection made
between all living species: Na’vis connect themselves to any living species
thanks to their tail. This is one of the reasons why the Na’vis are caring so
much about their environment. They are fully aware of this connection and even
taught it to Jake, the human using a Na’vi avatar, who then turn to fight to
protect Pandora. Our planet has also natural cycles that exist for millions of
years, but get disrupted because of humans’ actions. Considering Pandora as our
Earth, and knowing this interconnection between the living elements on our
planet, should not we do our best to protect it?
Spread messages through visual arts, and especially through
movies are the probably the best way to reach the biggest audience and thus,
raise more awareness. However, the way a product is marketed and the way used
to communicate on it must be in line. This should be the main rule to care of,
otherwise what is expected from the audience may not happen; they may even
behave in the total opposite.
Turkey is contributing strongly too
Besides movies, lots of documentaries have been made as well
such as An inconvenient truth
(2006; Davis Guggenheim), The 11th Hour (2007; Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen), The Cove (2009; Louie Psihoyos ) etc. And 2012 has been marked by major Turkish documentaries:
Ekümenopolis: City
Wihout Limit [Ekümenopolis: Ucu Olmayan Sehir] (2012; İmre Azem). Istanbul
is sold as a “global city” to the world. But the real matters have been
forgotten: people living in Istanbul. Although,
Regional Developments Programs, supported by the European Union, are being
implemented throughout Turkey, to reduce the economic and social disparities
among the diverse regions of Turkey (source: http://ec.europa.eu/),
the main focus is still put on Istanbul, as it longs for becoming the “finance
hub” of the region. The documentary shows all the impacts of this booming
economy on social and environmental aspects, because there are many especially
when “the first
plan for Istanbul on a metropolitan scale […] noted that the topography and the
geographic nature of the city would only support a maximum population of 5
million. At the time, Istanbul had 3.5 million people living in it. Now we are
15 million, and in 15 years we will be 23 million. Almost 5 times the
sustainable size.” (source: http://www.ekumenopolis.net/)
Polluting Paradise
(2012; Fatih Akın). This documentary focuses on the Turkish village of Çamburnu
in Sürmene,
which has been turned into a rubbish dump. It has been a project carried over 5
years (starting from 2005) by the director Fatih Akın. The documentary has been
now presented during different festivals, starting with the Festival de Cannes
(France, 18 May 2012), then Athens Film Festival (Greece, 20 September 2012),
Hamburg Film Festival, (German, 28 September 2012), FilmEkimi (Turkey, 5
October 2012) and the Göteborg International Film Festival (Sweden, 25 January
2013) (source: http://www.imdb.com/). I
could not watch it yet but I’m looking forward to it.
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