tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55542626816951381052024-03-05T21:52:50.128-08:00Heartland Truly Moving PicturesHeartland Truly Moving Pictures seeks to recognize and honor filmmakers whose work explores the human journey by expressing hope and emphasizing the best of the human spirit.The Heartland Film Festival runs each October in Indianapolis screening independent films from around the world.The organization's Truly Moving Picture Award was created to honor films released theatrically that align with Heartland's mission.This award is given throughout the year.These are my personal reviews.tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-57732440299064815972014-06-10T17:17:00.002-07:002014-06-10T17:17:30.181-07:00Why stories matter ...<div class="section post-header">
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<span class="hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_meta_field hs_cos_wrapper_type_text" data-hs-cos-general-type="meta_field" data-hs-cos-type="text" id="hs_cos_wrapper_name">The Psychology of Stories: The Storytelling Formula Our Brains Crave</span></h1>
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by <a class="author-link" href="http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/author/shane-jones" style="color: #3288e6; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Shane Jones</a></h4>
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April 28, 2014 at 1:00 PM</div>
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<span class="hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_meta_field hs_cos_wrapper_type_rich_text" data-hs-cos-general-type="meta_field" data-hs-cos-type="rich_text" id="hs_cos_wrapper_post_body"><div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1em;">
<img align="right" alt="storytelling-book" src="http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/53/file-704589300-jpg/Blog_Thinkstock_Images/storytelling-book.jpg?t=1402444393059" style="border: 0px; float: right; max-width: 45%; padding: 0px 0px 10px 30px;" />Told any good stories lately?</div>
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No? Well you might want to start.</div>
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Stories are more than simple fairy tales. Turns out, they actually alter our brains, and can even change the way we think and act.</div>
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Storytelling is a community act that involves sharing knowledge and values. It's one of the most unifying elements of mankind, central to human existence, taking place in every known culture in the world.</div>
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Here’s the psychology behind stories, and how you can craft a story for your brand that engages your customers and drives conversions.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">The Psychology of Stories</span></h2>
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Your brain is programmed to recognize patterns of information (human faces, letters, music notes, etc.) and assign them meaning (your mother’s face, the alphabet, the Star Spangled Banner, etc.)</div>
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Stories, too, are recognizable patterns, and we use them to find meaning in the world around us. We see ourselves in them, and the stories we hear become personal to us.</div>
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Stories are so near and dear to us, in fact, that <span style="font-weight: 700;">we even invent them when they’re not actually there.</span></div>
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In 1944, 34 Massachusetts college students were shown a short film with two triangles and a circle moving across the screen. They were then asked to describe the scene. All but one described the movements with elaborate, human narratives, including:</div>
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<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">The two triangles were men fighting as a woman (the circle) tried to escape.</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">The circle was “worried.”</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">The circle and the little triangle were “innocent young things.”</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">The big triangle felt “rage and frustration.”</li>
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<a href="http://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/courses/agentinteraction/contents/papers/Heider44.pdf" style="color: #3288e6; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">This study</a> demonstrates our tendency to personify abstract shapes and seek ourselves in the objects around us. This is called <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22686500" style="color: #3288e6; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">pareidolia</a>, or “the imagined perception of a pattern or meaning where it does not actually exist.” It’s what happens when you see a face in an electric outlet, or when you see shapes in the clouds.</div>
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Basically, we’re obsessed with the human story and want to hear it all the time.</div>
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Why are we so in love with human stories? Because they activate our minds. Stories can activate parts of our brains that give us sensory experiences and influence our way of thinking.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Stories Create Sensory Experiences</span></h2>
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Forget virtual reality. Our brains can put us inside of stories all on their own.</div>
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When we consume uninteresting information, like listening to a presentation with boring bullet points, a certain part of our brain called the <a href="http://neuroscience.uth.tmc.edu/s4/chapter08.html" style="color: #3288e6; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Wernicke’s area</a> is activated to translate the words into meaning. And that’s about all that happens.</div>
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But when we hear a story, our brains change dramatically. Not only are the language processing parts activated, but so are whatever areas that would be used if you were actually in the story yourself.</div>
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For example, if a delicious entrée makes a cameo in the story, your sensory cortex is activated, making you smell and taste the dish. If the story involves motion, your motor cortex responds. Your brain has the power to take stories and make you experience them as though they were real.</div>
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In this way, you are the main character of every story you ever hear. And that’s perfect, because it means you can tell your brand story -- and everyone in the audience can be the hero.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Stories Influence Our Way of Thinking</span></h2>
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And the brain doesn’t just stop at experiences. When listening to impactful stories, your brain can actually cause you to develop thoughts, opinions, and ideas that align with the person telling the story.</div>
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When we tell stories to others that have really influenced our way of thinking, we can actually have the same effect on our audience, as well. The brains of the storyteller and the story listener can actually synchronize, says Princeton's <a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/science-of-storytelling-why-telling-a-story-is-the-most-powerful-way-to-activate-our-brains" style="color: #3288e6; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Uri Hasson</a>:</div>
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“By simply telling a story, [a person] could plant ideas, thoughts and emotions into the listeners’ brains.”</div>
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By telling a great story, you can actually change the way your audience thinks and even behaves with your brand.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Stories Translate to Sales</span></h2>
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Stories can make your target customers the main characters, and even change the way they think and feel. If you do it right, storytelling could serve to be a really powerful marketing tool.</div>
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As a content marketer or copywriter, you can use stories to better engage your audience and increase your bottom line. If customers can see themselves as characters in your story, they’ll be more likely to adopt your product and experience the happy ending you offer.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">How to Develop Your Story</span></h2>
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But where do you start?</div>
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Unfortunately, most information isn’t nicely packaged in story format. As a marketer, you’ll most likely start with a handful of facts instead. (Our insurance is cheaper than competitors’, our product will help you lose weight, our service will save you time, etc.).</div>
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Though these concepts aren’t stories themselves, they still provide a great storytelling opportunity. By adding context to your stats, you can show your audience who you are and what you offer in a storyline.</div>
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How do you do this? You READ!</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">R-Research Your Target Audience</span></h3>
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The single most important part of your story has nothing to do with the story itself, but the audience you’re telling it to. You can have a great, well-crafted story, but if it doesn’t line up with your audience, it won’t mean a thing for your conversions.</div>
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You need to have a sense of who your prospective customer might be. By interviewing people in your target audience (working moms, college students, small business owners, etc.), you can get an idea of who they are, how they speak, and what they care about. Then you can craft a story with which they might empathize.</div>
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You can use a variety of methods to interview your target market, including surveys, questionnaires, focus groups, social media, etc. Ask them questions about the things that are most important to them, such as their work, families, hobbies, and frustrations.</div>
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You’re kind of working backwards in a way. By getting to know your audience, you’re getting to know the main character of your story. After that, you develop your actual storyline.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">E-Establish Your Story</span></h3>
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Once you’ve done your research, you need to craft a story that corresponds with your findings. This is often the hardest part -- creating a story that the company wants to tell, but that also appeals to consumers.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">The Storytelling Formula</span></h4>
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The best product stories are snapshots of a world improved by using the product or service. You need to set up your story to show:</div>
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<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">A problem that people have, which your product or service can solve</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">A way for someone to easily access that product or service</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">A world in which your product or service has made the problem disappear</li>
</ul>
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But that’s not all you have to do. Remember how we said earlier that the brain recognizes a story as a pattern? You need to also make sure that you present the traditional story structure so that the brain recognizes the pattern and can work its magic.</div>
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That means framing your story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. You also need to include common story elements like character, conflict, resolution, and plot.</div>
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It sounds exhausting, but never fear! There’s an easy formula for spinning all of these elements into a comprehensive story:</div>
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<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">Your beginning should introduce a character with a problem that your product or service will resolve. That problem is the conflict.</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">The middle should involve a character adopting your solution. This is the high point of your story’s plot.</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">The ending should show the character benefiting from using the solution. That’s your resolution.</li>
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This storytelling formula is by no means unique to telling stories for marketing purposes. In fact, it’s the basic structure of just about every story you’ve ever heard. Consider the fairy tale of Cinderella:</div>
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<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">Cinderella lives with her wicked stepmother and stepsisters and dreams of a better life. (<span style="font-weight: 700;">Beginning</span> - introduces the character and the problem)</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">Cinderella is visited by her fairy godmother and meets her Prince Charming at the ball, leaving one of her glass slippers behind. (<span style="font-weight: 700;">Middle</span> - introduces the solution, drives the plot)</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">Prince Charming uses the glass slipper to find Cinderella, and they live happily ever after. (<span style="font-weight: 700;">End</span> - reaping the benefits of the solution, bringing a sense of resolution)</li>
</ol>
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You can use a similar format for your company story. Take Chipotle’s animated short film, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/chipotle?v=aMfSGt6rHos&feature=pyv&ad=9074644626&kw=chipotle" style="color: #3288e6; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Back to the Start</a>,” for instance. </div>
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“Back to the Start” depicts a farmer who realizes that he needs to change his methods if he wants to cultivate a better world. It tells the story of him going “back to the start” to approach farming in a more natural and sustainable way.</div>
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Here’s what the story looks like from a formula perspective:</div>
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<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">A farmer allows his humane farm to be transformed into a factory-style farm, supplying his product to other industrial factories. (<span style="font-weight: 700;">Beginning</span> - introduces the character and the problem)</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">The farmer realizes the error of his ways and wants to change. (<span style="font-weight: 700;">Middle</span> - introduces the solution, drives the plot)</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.75em;">The farmer goes back toward more sustainable methods and supplies his product to Chipotle. (<span style="font-weight: 700;">End</span> - reaping the benefits of the solution, bringing a sense of resolution)</li>
</ol>
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The spot was Chipotle’s first national ad, and it won the Cannes Film Lions Grand Prix. It aired in 2012 and has gained more than 8 million views on YouTube.</div>
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Why does it work so well? Because it’s more than an ad for a product -- it’s like a trailer for the brand.</div>
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According to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2011/12/20/the-most-unforgettable-ad-campaigns-of-2011/3/" style="color: #3288e6; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Reid Holmes</a>, executive creative director at Campbell Mithun, longer-length online spots like Chipotle’s are “an entertaining way to teach consumers about what you do and who you are as a brand, not just what you sell.” </div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">A-Add Details</span></h3>
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Once you’ve established your framework, you need to add in some little details that give it context and make it seem more authentic.</div>
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A story without personalized details fails to create context, and ultimately fails to make a connection. <a href="http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics?__hstc=20629287.a50c7182394e2d1003a5f5ffa7f7d900.1402445632742.1402445632742.1402445632742.1&__hssc=20629287.1.1402445632743&__hsfp=2673765502" style="color: #3288e6; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">That’s why</a> <span style="font-weight: 700;">people are 14% more likely to interact with a personalized e-mail,</span>and they’re <span style="font-weight: 700;">10% more likely to convert when they receive one.</span></div>
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Don’t miss the mark here. You have customers who align with your brand. Consider things they might enjoy that are non-related to your product or service, and how you can incorporate them into your story.</div>
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Consider Home Depot. Though not necessarily part of a story, Home Depot does a great job adding personal details on its Twitter feed. Not only does the feed promote Home Depot’s deals and specials, but it also promotes non-hardware-related articles that are really successful with Home Depot’s clientele.</div>
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Why? Because customers who align with the Home Depot brand also enjoy DIY projects, contests, and family holidays. And Home Depot knows it. For customers, this makes Home Depot seem less like a company and more like a friend with whom they have things in common.</div>
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You can do this too, based off that research you gathered. Do your customers care about being healthy? Find a way to tie that in to your story. Are your customers mostly parents? Find a way to use that to your advantage. Do your customers face a common struggle that’s unrelated to your product? Incorporate that into the plot somehow.</div>
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This way, you can create a story that advertises your brand the way you want while staying relevant to your customers. Sounds like a recipe for conversions to me.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">D-Distribute</span></h3>
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Finally, you have to get the story out. Just like a show needs an audience, a story needs a listener. Without that audience, your story means nothing.</div>
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Thanks to the internet, there are a dozen ways of distributing your story to the masses. But how do you know which outlet is the best for you? This goes back to the research step. By conducting that research in the beginning, you already gained insight as to where your target audience spends their time.</div>
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Maybe a lot of your audience members spend their time networking on LinkedIn, or maybe they spend hours pinning on Pinterest. Publish your story wherever your audience can most easily “randomly” stumble upon it. I highly recommend making one of those places your own website -- like on your blog. This is space you own, "owned media," and is more reliable than rented space (like ads) or earned media (that you can't count on always receiving).</div>
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This digital age means that you have a lot of flexibility in how you present your story, as well. You can offer articles, videos, cartoons, drawings -- anything you can think of, really, as long as it appeals to your audience. Your mission is to use the web and emerging technologies to engage your audience and drive those conversions.</div>
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Stories are such a great marketing tactic because they’re so universal. Everyone loves a good story, because everyone is programmed to. Stories light up our brains and change our lives. If you tell it right, your brand story can improve people’s lives and your business at the same time.</div>
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tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-32004641632684118812013-11-12T05:07:00.000-08:002013-11-12T05:07:58.284-08:00"... hundreds of studies showing that exposure to media violence ... increases aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and aggressive behavior ..."<br />
<section class="storytopbar-bucket story-headline-module" id="module-position-MvBDPiNRfRA"><h1 itemprop="headline" style="color: #333333; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 32px; line-height: 34px; margin: 0px; padding: 20px 0px 0px 70px;">
Gun violence in PG-13 films tops level in R-rated movies</h1>
</section><section class="storytopbar-bucket story-byline-module" id="module-position-MvBDPiUtPPE"><div class="asset-metabar" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(230, 230, 230); margin: 20px 0px 23px 70px; width: 878px;">
<span class="asset-metabar-author asset-metabar-item" itemprop="name" style="display: inline-block; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 14px; margin: 6px 0px 5px; padding: 2px 10px; position: relative;">Michelle Healy, USA TODAY</span><span class="asset-metabar-time asset-metabar-item nobyline" style="border: 0px; color: #999999; display: inline-block; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 14px; margin: 6px 0px 5px; padding: 2px 10px; position: relative;">12:04 a.m. EST November 11, 2013</span></div>
</section><br />
<div class="asset-double-wide double-wide" itemprop="articleBody" role="main" style="float: left; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative; width: 600px;">
<div class="story-asset story-leadin-asset" id="module-position-MvBDPijETWc" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">
<h2 class="lead-in" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-left: 60px; margin-top: -2px;">
Young people are exposed to considerable gun presence and violence in PG-13 films, which now exceeds the level of gun violence in R-rated films.</h2>
</div>
<div class="story-asset story-metadata-asset" id="module-position-MvBDPiku6TM" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">
<div class="article-metadata-wrap" style="float: left; margin: 0px 30px 0px 60px; position: relative; width: 180px;">
<br />
<section class="storymetadata-bucket expandable-photo-module" id="module-position-MvBDPii5cRg"><aside class="single-photo expandable-collapsed" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin-bottom: 20px; position: relative; z-index: 100;"><div class="image-wrap" style="box-shadow: rgb(200, 200, 200) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; padding: 3px; position: relative;">
<img alt="Batman" class="expand-img-horiz" itemprop="url" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/8547eb53bd189db6d5bd965648a620d271d3bdb2/c=41-0-2117-1561&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/USATODAY/test/2013/11/07/1383871098000-Batman.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 131px; vertical-align: middle;" /><span class="toggle" style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/usat-web-static-9.0.3/images/sprites/asset-sprite.png); background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; bottom: 0px; height: 21px; position: absolute; right: 0px; width: 21px; z-index: 200;"></span></div>
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<span class="credit" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: 400;">(Photo: AP)</span></div>
</aside></section><section class="storymetadata-bucket story-highlights-module" id="module-position-MvBDPiitAvQ"><aside class="comp story-highlights" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><h3 class="hlts" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #999999; font-family: 'Futura Today Bold', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px auto; text-transform: uppercase;">
STORY HIGHLIGHTS</h3>
<ul class="hlt" style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; left: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">
<li class="hlt-item" style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/usat-web-static-9.0.3/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #646464; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">Violence in films has more than doubled since 1950</li>
<li class="hlt-item" style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/usat-web-static-9.0.3/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #646464; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">Gun violence in PG-13-rated films has more than tripled since 1985</li>
<li class="hlt-item" style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/usat-web-static-9.0.3/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; color: #646464; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">Since 2009, PG-13-rated films have contained as much or more violence as R-rated films</li>
</ul>
</aside></section></div>
</div>
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Gun violence in PG-13 movies has more than tripled since 1985, and now exceeds the level found in R-rated movies, a new analysis finds.</div>
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With that increase, big-budget Hollywood movies may be adding fuel to aggressive attitudes and behaviors in young moviegoers, says a new study in December's <i>Pediatrics</i>, published online today.</div>
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Researchers also found that after 1984, when the PG-13 rating was introduced, gun violence declined in G- or PG-rated films; remaining flat in R-rated films; and increased dramatically in PG-13 films. PG-13 is short for "Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13." R-rated movies are restricted to audiences age 17 and older unless accompanied by a parent or guardian.</div>
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Since 2009, the level of gun violence in PG-13 films has been as high as or higher than in R-rated films and has exceeded that level since 2012, the analysis shows.</div>
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For parents, these findings are important because PG-13 rated movies are "the ones that target children, and the violence that is shown contains guns," says Brad Bushman, a professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State University and lead author of the study. And these films are more accessible to young people than ever before, on the Internet and cable TV, says Bushman.</div>
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There have been "hundreds of studies showing that exposure to media violence ... increases aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and aggressive behavior," and decreases feelings of empathy and compassion, he says.</div>
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Studies also have shown "the near presence of a weapon can make people more aggressive," he adds.</div>
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The new study analyzed a database of 945 films sampled from the 30 top-grossing films for each year from 1950 to 2012. Analysts coded each film for the presence of violence and guns during five-minute segments.</div>
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The Motion Picture Association of America has "been allowing violence to slowly but surely creep up in PG-13 to be equal to what's in R," says Daniel Romer, director of the Adolescent Communication Institute of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and a study co-author. If more films with gun violence were rated R, it would show that the industry recognizes the potential harm and that parents should have that information, he says.</div>
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The Motion Picture Association declined to comment on the study.</div>
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Most pediatricians, psychologists and child psychiatrists agree that exposure to depictions of gun violence is unhealthy for children, says pediatrician James Sargent of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.This research offers "more evidence that the (MPAA) system fails in its mission to warn parents and protect children," he says.</div>
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David Horowitz of Media Coalition, Inc., a First Amendment rights group, challenges the study's conclusions about the effects of media violence and its argument that gun violence in films makes young people more violence-prone.</div>
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"At the same time that we're seeing more images of violence or images of guns, actual indicators of real world violence have gone down," says Horowitz. "Crime rates have dropped drastically, crime rates for minors and violent crime rates, all of these indicators of what they are suggesting are the implications of the results of this study don't really show in the real world."</div>
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tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-50649928684361029112013-11-11T16:43:00.000-08:002013-11-12T05:12:09.261-08:00Stories - no culture is known to lack them"The Gift of Adversity" a non-fiction book by Norman E. Rosenthal M.D.<br />
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page 231 "Stories are so fundamental to human lives that no culture is know that lacks them. Listening to stories, we hang on every word, riveted, and we care about the characters almost as if they are real. Two famous anecdotes - both favorites of mine - bring this lesson home.<br />
<br />
When Charles Dickens "The Curiosity Shop" was first published in the United States, it was a serial. Each week's new chapter arrived by ship - and people knew it. When the angelic heroine, Little Nell, lay at death's door, thousands of New Yorkers met the boat. They simply had to know. Did Little Nell die? They called up to the ship's crew. "Is Little Nell Alive?"<br />
<br />
Another famous story is told about a powerful version of "King Lear"produced by the Yiddish Theater in New York City in the early twentieth century. The actor playing Lear, the retired King thrown out of his home by his ungrateful granddaughters, so moved a woman in the audience that she stood up in the theater and chastised the daughters right in the middle of the play. "You should be ashamed of yourselves!" she cried out. Then, turning to lear she said, "You can come stay with us if you like.'" tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-50521218415905214502013-08-30T10:24:00.002-07:002013-08-30T10:25:36.348-07:00Video Games as Storytelling<span class="dateline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: block; font-family: BentonSansRE, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="toLocalTime" data-tlt-epoch-time="1377866400" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">FRIDAY, AUG 30, 2013 08:40 AM EDT</span></span><br />
<h1 style="background-color: white; background-position: 0px 50%; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 40px; line-height: 52px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["navigation", "click", "Video games are the new movies"]" href="http://www.salon.com/2013/08/30/video_games_are_the_new_movies_partner/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Video games are the new movies</a></h1>
<h2 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BentonSansCondMedium, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal !important; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Their storytelling has become increasingly sophisticated -- and Hollywood is taking note</h2>
<span class="byline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: inline-block; font-family: BentonSansBold, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 24px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">BY <a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["author", "click", "Samuel Sattin"]" href="http://www.salon.com/writer/samuel_sattin/" rel="author" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">SAMUEL SATTIN</a></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
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DON’T KNOW about you, but I had to inure myself to modern video games.</div>
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<em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joust, Ice Climber, Bubble Bobble, Ikari Warriors</em>—the titles released during my formative years left far more to the imagination than today’s cinematic pixel-fests. Considering the fact that a new technology was only capable of so much, the majority of early games were relegated to simple puzzle-challenges, 8-Bit topiary mazes skittering with blob monsters, block-heroes, square bullets and ear-wincing sound effects. Complex storylines weren’t necessarily out of the question, but they were hard to convey with anything but splash pages of text and pixilated still shots. Until rather recently design always came first in the world of video games. Even as consoles edged into advancement and narrative arcs developed in quality, the technology of the medium compelled its tinkerers to dive further into its visual potential. This is simply the side effect of working in an industry that leans toward the illustrative end of the entertainment spectrum. For the craft’s sake, image always comes first.</div>
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When we think of storytelling these days, anyway, one of the first things we turn to is cinema. Film and television certainly surpass literature as the primary way Americans choose to imbibe their tales. Television is easy to access and endlessly enthralling, especially now as it robs Hollywood of talent to utilize it better on highbrow networks and Netflix. Although a good novel ensures a more meditative, holistic psychological experience than any good show or film, it’s hard to ignore time as one of the main deciding factors. Marathoning twelve consecutive one-hour episodes can be tempting when measured against squinting your eyes at 120,000 words. As a writer and reader myself, even I must admit the appeal of this bargain.</div>
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Modern video games, however, seem as if they’re attempting to insert themselves into our array of storytelling devices with a fervor unlike ever before. And, they’re doing a damn good job at it: <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Heavy Rain, Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us, Mass Effect—</em>all titles that feature not only brilliant visual motifs, but powerful storytelling, compelling characters, psychological gambits and pithy themes. I get lost for hours, even days, in these narratives. And I see those around me doing the same. My wife—a <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Walking Dead</em> fan who doesn’t even play video games—recently spent hours watching YouTube videos of the Walking Dead game being played by a third party. The reason being, as she said:</div>
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“It’s just as good as the show.”</div>
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As video games become more cinematic, more capable of delivering emotional experiences as opposed to limiting their terrain to puzzle solving or besting your competitor, they move closer to the realm of film itself, threatening an eclipse. The real question then is whether or not the two mediums can retain their own separate identities and continue to play nicely as they near the same horizon, borrowing from each other to the point where their boundaries begin to disappear?</div>
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As a child, most of the differences I noticed between games and film were based on the degree to which they could successfully reflect reality. Playing <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pitfall, </em>while fun, just couldn’t make you feel like <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Indiana Jones, </em>no matter the scale of your imagination.<em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Eye of the Beholder</em> and other first-person action Role Playing Games, while benchmarks of the genre, resembled less <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Skyrim </em>and more <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Skyfox</em>. Therefore, whenever I sat down to play a game in 1987, I felt as if I was doing just that: playing<em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</em>Early gaming technology just didn’t have the means to measure up to what was happening elsewhere in the entertainment world. It certainly wasn’t capable of rendering the accuracy of a well-drawn cartoon. When I first played <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Who Framed Roger Rabbit? </em>on the Nintendo, for instance, after seeing and liking the movie, I remember feeling deeply disappointed. Even the cartridge itself, illustrated with a scene from the film, served as cruel commentary on the broken 16-Bit promise within.</div>
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The funny thing about gaming, however, is that if you dissect it to the bone, you’ll discover that the idea behind is not all that different from the idea behind film. Mainly, to carry the viewer/player through a visual experience that culminates in a meaningful entertainment experience.</div>
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For this reason I find that a lot of new movies are now exhibiting game-like qualities. Interactivity is becoming the norm, and evidence for such can be found in the resurgence of 3D glasses and the proliferation of computer renderings of high-dynamic action sequences that often overshadow substance. One need only look to video games like <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Killzone</em>, <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Resistance</em>, <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Crysis</em>, or <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gears of War</em> to see how gaming’s influence has petered into other forms of visual media. And not always in a healthy manner. If a film is too much like a game, an audience will be dissatisfied because of the simple fact that they can’t actually play it. The <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Silent Hill </em>and <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Resident Evil </em>adaptations are good examples of games that can’t be played. They exhibit far too much of a reliance on the mechanics of the environment, and not nearly enough on the characters that inhabit it, their pathologies and worldviews. The same goes for films like <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Battleship, Transformers</em> and <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Battlefield Los Angeles</em>, whose concentration on computer-generated ephemera seems more similar to carnival rides, digital roller coasters, rather than meaningful narratives<em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</em> If there’s no button to push, then all you are is an observer who wants badly to participate. Even a bad video game gives you a turn.</div>
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Other films provide better examples of this newfound relationship. While watching<em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pacific Rim </em>recently<em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </em>for instance I found myself listening to the voice of GLaDOS (short for Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) in the role of mainframe computer that controls the giant robots, or Jaegers. For those in dire need of explanation, GLaDOS is the artificial intelligence mechanism and main antagonist in the groundbreaking puzzle platform game, <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Portal</em>. The cold, calculated wit of this construct generated a cultural phenomenon that took hold in mainstream gaming culture. Portal’s characters and design subsequently inspired Guillermo Del Toro. So much, in fact, that he hired the voice actress for GLaDOS (Ellen McClain) to do the voiceover in his film. The character was prepackaged, capable of making a seamless translation from one medium into another. Similarly, games like <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bioshock Infinite,</em>along with both the<em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Uncharted </em>and <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Assassin’s Creed </em>franchises, employ full-scale cinematic drama, scenes in which characters profess their inner wants, and struggle to accomplish their dreams. <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Infinite </em>even delivers a finale with a meta-science fiction, time-travel bent that, in my eyes, rendered it not just a ”game” but a fine piece of speculative fiction.</div>
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Regardless of shortfalls, much of what has happened as a result of the gaming world’s borrowing from film has been positive. With science fiction films especially, animation tools used in games have become a producer’s treasure trove.</div>
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For a long time I had a hard time considering video games as anything but outlets for stress-expulsion with colorful designs (imagine my surprise when I heard they’d be installed at MoMa!). I believe there’s a reason, anyway, that game development studios often adapt movies for consoles, as opposed to the other way around. This mimics the way in which film production studios adapt books for the screen—due to the presence of an artistic hierarchy. <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Blade Runner </em>was fashioned for the Commodore 64 in 1985, and <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Karate Kid </em>for the Nintendo in 1987.<em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Friday the 13th, Back to the Future, Dick Tracy…. </em>There are hundreds more. Most film-to-video game adaptations have leaned towards failure in terms of industry-specific success. Not only would a classic film’s structure have to be severely warped in order to encourage the competition found in games, there’s the problem of genre. Mainstream games still tend to deal more with science fiction, fantasy and hard-boiled crime than they do with family sagas. I certainly doubt <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Atonement, Angela’s Ashes </em>or <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pale Fire </em>will be adapted for the PS3 anytime soon, anyway.</div>
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I think that’s why I was so enthralled when I discovered the same voice in <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pacific Rim </em>that I’d become used to in <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Portal. </em>I was amazed at how far game creators had pushed the boundaries of their craft, attracting the attention of filmmakers, actors and an industry rife with history and talent. In the case of <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pacific Rim, </em>GLaDOS’<em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </em>character could pretty much just be lifted from the game world into that of the film world, much like an actor. Superstars are doing game voice-overs all the time. Patrick Stewart played Emperor Septim in <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion</em>. Brian Cox was in both <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Killzone</em>and <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Killzone 2</em>. Billy Bob Thornton and the now departed Dennis Hopper combined talent in <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Deadly Creatures </em>on the Wii. Liam Neeson played the main character’s father in <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fallout 3, </em>and Samuel L. Jackson voiced the game adaptation of <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Afro Samurai. </em>Gary Oldman, Seth Green, Ron Perlman, George Takei. Each delivers his/her lines with conviction, strengthening game play with respectable apt. In this way, this joystick-derived industry is doing something that film never could. By attempting to marry narrative with play they are adding a new dimension to storytelling.</div>
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When the PS4 was revealed recently to an auditorium of astonished gamers, the world was introduced to the future of the industry. Currently being touted as the ”Creative Machine,” its pioneers showcased some of Sony’s astonishing capabilities. This machine would appeal to the booming world of indie gaming, offbeat and often experimental titles released by boutique developers. It would offer improved social platforms, liberal digital licensing, motion detection, and hardware that would enable resolution, speed, and movement unlike anything the world has seen. I found <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Quantum Dream’s </em>Old Man’s Head the best presentation of the evening. This display simply consisted of an old man’s head being projected on a giant screen, and a video performance that simulated the amount of Poly Counts, or facial movement response points, that could be articulated. The spectacle was immense. The industry has evolved from pixilated blocks and blaring synthesizers to animation so real it can reach out and shake your hand. In a demonstration of how far things had come, the old man’s brow furrowed, brightened, crossed, lifted, in manners so minute it was like a cadaver brought to life. His face was blemished in an astonishingly human manner. I imagined playing a game with such a character, having him speak and interact with me. Though I must be honest, the feeling I got was tinged with horror. How will game design, and more importantly, game play, be affected by the ability to achieve such likeness to the natural world? If the genre gives in to its increasing tendency to share in the same tropes, effects and story arcs as film, will the medium I loved since I was a child become impossible to recognize?</div>
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I’m sure that as games evolve, such changes will take getting used to. Eventually I imagine games becoming an amazing tool for real-world applications through which humans can alter aspects of their reality. I don’t think we’ve unlocked the genre’s potential yet by a long shot. Look at where film is roughly a hundred years after it shocked carnival goers, convincing them they were about to be hit by a train. A gamer today – especially an average one like myself – will likely be unconvinced of the future until it is here. But I do think it’s important to remember one’s roots. Multiple mediums can and will collaborate, but they should never fail to remember their past once in a while. Being separate but equal is where true potential is unlocked, impacting the future of creativity. The novel has properly maintained its place and importance in contrast to the popularity of film. There’s a reason why people often find film adaptations of brilliant books lackluster and insufficient. Because one can simply go where the other cannot, and that’s a good thing for the future of entertainment.</div>
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tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-11280899437654930262013-08-26T06:17:00.002-07:002013-08-26T06:17:17.233-07:00"Does Media Violence Lead to the Real Thing?"<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />
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August 23, 2013</div>
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<nyt_headline type=" " version="1.0">Does Media Violence Lead to the Real Thing?</nyt_headline></h1>
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By <span itemprop="author creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">VASILIS K. POZIOS</span>, <span itemprop="author creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">PRAVEEN R. KAMBAM</span> and <span itemprop="author creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">H. ERIC BENDER</span></h6>
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EARLIER this summer the actor Jim Carrey, a star of the new superhero movie “Kick-Ass 2,” tweeted that he was distancing himself from the film because, in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, “in all good conscience I cannot support” the movie’s extensive and graphically violent scenes.</div>
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Mark Millar, a creator of the “Kick-Ass” comic book series and one of the movie’s executive producers, <a href="http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/24/jim-carrey-withdraws-support-of-his-movie-kick-ass-2/" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;">responded</a> that he has “never quite bought the notion that violence in fiction leads to violence in real life any more than <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/complete_coverage/harry_potter/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;" title="Recent and archival news about Harry Potter.">Harry Potter</a> casting a spell creates more boy wizards in real life.”</div>
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While Mr. Carrey’s point of view has its adherents, most people reflexively agree with Mr. Millar. After all, the logic goes, millions of Americans see violent imagery in films and on TV every day, but vanishingly few become killers.</div>
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But a growing body of research indicates that this reasoning may be off base. Exposure to violent imagery does not preordain violence, but it is a risk factor. We would never say: “I’ve smoked cigarettes for a long time, and I don’t have lung cancer. Therefore there’s no link between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer.” So why use such flawed reasoning when it comes to media violence?</div>
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There is now consensus that exposure to media violence is linked to actual violent behavior — a link found by many scholars to be on par with the correlation of exposure to secondhand smoke and the risk of lung cancer. In a meta-analysis of 217 studies published between 1957 and 1990, the psychologists George Comstock and Haejung Paik <a href="http://futureofchildren.org/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=32&articleid=58&sectionid=270" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;">found</a> that the short-term effect of exposure to media violence on actual physical violence against a person was moderate to large in strength.</div>
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Mr. Comstock and Ms. Paik also conducted a meta-analysis of studies that looked at the correlation between habitual viewing of violent media and aggressive behavior at a point in time. They found 200 studies showing a moderate, positive relationship between watching television violence and physical aggression against another person.</div>
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Other studies have followed consumption of violent media and its behavioral effects throughout a person’s lifetime. In a meta-analysis of 42 studies involving nearly 5,000 participants, the psychologists Craig A. Anderson and Brad J. Bushman found a statistically significant small-to-moderate-strength relationship between watching violent media and acts of aggression or violence later in life.</div>
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In a study published in the journal Pediatrics this year, the researchers Lindsay A. Robertson, Helena M. McAnally and Robert J. Hancox <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/02/13/peds.2012-1582.full.pdf+html" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;">showed</a> that watching excessive amounts of TV as a child or adolescent — in which most of the content contains violence — was causally associated with antisocial behavior in early adulthood. (An excessive amount here means more than two hours per weekday.)</div>
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The question of causation, however, remains contested. What’s missing are studies on whether watching violent media directly leads to committing extreme violence. Because of the relative rarity of acts like school shootings and because of the ethical prohibitions on developing studies that definitively prove causation of such events, this is no surprise.</div>
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Of course, the absence of evidence of a causative link is not evidence of its absence. Indeed, in 2005, The Lancet published a comprehensive review of the literature on media violence to date. The bottom line: The weight of the studies supports the position that exposure to media violence leads to aggression, desensitization toward violence and lack of sympathy for victims of violence, particularly in children.</div>
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In fact the surgeon general, the National Institute of Mental Health and multiple professional organizations — including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association — all consider media violence exposure a risk factor for actual violence.</div>
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To be fair, some question whether the correlations are significant enough to justify considering media violence a substantial public health issue. And violent behavior is a complex issue with a host of other risk factors.</div>
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But although exposure to violent media isn’t the only or even the strongest risk factor for violence, it’s more easily modified than other risk factors (like being male or having a low socioeconomic status or low I.Q.).</div>
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Certainly, many questions remain and more research needs to be done to determine what specific factors drive a person to commit acts of violence and what role media violence might play.</div>
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But first we have to consider how best to address those questions. To prevent and treat public health issues like AIDS, cancer and heart disease, we focus on modifying factors correlated with an increased risk of a bad outcome. Similarly, we should strive to identify risk factors for violence and determine how they interact, who may be particularly affected by such factors and what can be done to reduce modifiable risk factors.</div>
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Naturally, debate over media violence stirs up strong emotions because it raises concerns about the balance between public safety and freedom of speech.</div>
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Even if violent media are conclusively found to cause real-life violence, we as a society may still decide that we are not willing to regulate violent content. That’s our right. But before we make that decision, we should rely on evidence, not instinct.</div>
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Vasilis K. Pozios, Praveen R. Kambam and H. Eric Bender are forensic psychiatrists and the founders of the consulting group <a href="http://www.broadcastthought.com/meet-the-doctors/" style="color: #666699; font-size: 15px !important; line-height: 22px; text-decoration: none;">Broadcast Thought</a>.</div>
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tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-88513798835291518252013-08-18T07:45:00.000-07:002013-08-18T07:45:03.559-07:00Games - power to do good or evil<span class="dateline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: block; font-family: BentonSansRE, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="toLocalTime" data-tlt-epoch-time="1376782200" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">SATURDAY, AUG 17, 2013 07:30 PM EDT</span></span><br />
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<a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["navigation", "click", "For video games, a moral reckoning is coming"]" href="http://www.salon.com/2013/08/17/for_video_games_a_moral_reckoning_is_coming/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For video games, a moral reckoning is coming</a></h1>
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As games get closer to complete realism, developers have to decide whether to use that power for good or evil</h2>
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She was created with a computer program, but she looked real. The proportions were correct, the hair looked lifelike – the skin even had pockmarks and imperfections. For some reason, however, it felt a bit off. Maybe it was the eyes, maybe it was the way she moved, but the overall effect was, in a word, creepy. This phenomenon is called the “uncanny valley,” and for some game developers, it’s the final barrier between fantasy and reality.</div>
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The “uncanny valley” refers to one’s psychological response to a visual representation – say, for example, a character in a video game. As the visual representation becomes more realistic and complex, a player’s psychological response becomes more positive – he or she begins to identify with the character’s human qualities. At a certain point, however, the dynamic shifts – the more lifelike the character is, the more unsettling that character becomes – and the player will feel disgust. Unless the character is a completely flawless rendition; then it’s outside the valley and everything’s fine.</div>
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The human eye is very good at detecting fakeness, and for a long time developers confronted this dilemma; they were able to create characters that were lifelike, but not perfectly lifelike. Technology, however, is moving at an exponential rate, and developers may soon escape the uncanny valley, creating something virtual that looks like flesh and blood.</div>
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What issues does this raise, at the point where artificial and real become muddled? And what responsibilities do developers have towards players if they decide to simultaneously push the boundaries of technology and gratuitousness?</div>
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Violence in video games has always been a given – in Contra, released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987, a player killed hundreds of virtual people with a variety of machine guns. In early games, however, the violence, no matter how ubiquitous, was strangely quaint. It was difficult to be viscerally affected by such rudimentary graphics: a bunch of pixels shooting a pixel at another bunch of pixels.</div>
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Only five years later, Mortal Kombat was released in arcades. It was bloody, with dramatic ways of killing your opponent, but what set Mortal Kombat apart from other games was its photo-realism – real actors’ heads and bodies represented playable characters. Digitized voices screamed out when characters got hurt or killed. This wasn’t a matter of square pixels – blood was beginning to look like blood.</div>
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Fast-forward to the present day, and there’s no question that violence in gaming can be painful and tasteless. Take 2007’s Manhunt 2, where a main objective is to execute one’s enemies with a variety of instruments – a pair of scissors, a bat, a scythe and a hacksaw, to name just a few. Or, take 2012’s Max Payne 3; sure, the player is shooting bad guys the entire time, but the game lingers on its violence in near-pornographic fashion. There are zoom-in shots, freeze frames, slow-mo splatters and low-shot angles of every major kill. Realism is one thing, but context also matters; no one would argue that this romanticizing of violence is necessary to creating a believable experience.</div>
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And then there are sandbox games, which give players the free will to do wrong. In 2010’s Red Dead Redemption, the player ties a prostitute to the railroad tracks. When she’s ground up by the oncoming train, the player earns a trophy for this specific “achievement.”</div>
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No, a player doesn’t have to do this in order to win the game. But that doesn’t really matter. The act of putting it in the game to begin with is where the moral justification fails. It’s not a space marine killing aliens, or a plumber stomping on cartoonish turtles – it’s a person killing people, and it’s supposed to look real.</div>
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Studies on violent video games have not supported the notion of psychological damage. Human empathy develops during the first years of life, way before the person can even pick up a controller. It continues to develop during childhood and adolescence as a result of many factors, such as parental relationships, environmental variables and an assortment of life experiences. To target video games as the main culprit of violent behavior seems simplistic at best.</div>
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“On one hand, it seems common sense to think that exposure to violence can desensitize the observer,” says Dr. Jean Decety, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Chicago. “On the other hand, humans are very resilient and adapt quickly to different social contexts. Most of the soldiers torturing detainees in Iraq were probably caring people when they interacted with their loved ones. Probably a minority of them were psychopaths and enjoyed doing so, but this is a minority. I think that most healthy individuals do not confuse games and simulations with reality.”</div>
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“There is no solid evidence from brain research that video games lead to antisocial behavior,” Decety continued. “It is one thing to say that video games impact brain circuits – they do – but such a response is transient.”</div>
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“I am not sure that [realism in games] will lead to any sort of long-term damage of any sort, once we control for individual differences and potential vulnerability,” Decety says. “Individual differences in empathy will likely outweigh any type of effect from a particular video game.”</div>
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So, we’re left with the ethical principle of the issue, something that critics of video games rarely talk about. Realistic depictions of violence, without moral justification, are distasteful – although video games may not directly create violence, they can contribute to a culture of violence, where depictions of pain and suffering become commonplace and acceptable. And furthermore, why not aspire to something higher than a visceral thrill? Game developers should use violence, if they use it at all, to serve an ethical narrative, rather than making it an end in itself.</div>
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For David Cage, the founder and creative mind behind game development company Quantic Dream, narrative has always been the top priority. Cage’s last game, 2007’s Heavy Rain, was visually groundbreaking for its time, earning critical praise for its expressive characters. But more importantly to Cage, it meditated upon complex themes more often seen in film: the love between a father and son, moral quandaries about the worth of a single life, and the emotional cost of trusting others.</div>
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“[Early] films started with violent scenes, because the technology didn’t allow for anything subtle,” Cage says. “This is exactly where video games are today. We have not yet fully understood that technology is ready for more meaningful experiences. We need to have talent and something to say, which is unfortunately rarely the case.”</div>
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Cage was the buzz at this June’s Electronic Entertainment Expo when he presented a new tech demo for the Playstation 4. Tech demos show off a game developer’s graphics capability; last year, Cage’s award-winning demo was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhoYLp8CtXI" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: red; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Kara</a>, an emotional meta-commentary on a robot that gains the ability to feel. This year’s demo was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqeuHGESZBA" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: red; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Dark Sorcerer</a>, starring a computer -generated sorcerer and his goblin apprentice and playing out in real time. A hackneyed fantasy narrative eventually reveals itself to be a film set: the CGI characters are revealed to be actors, portraying the roles of a sorcerer and a goblin. It was weird and creative, but most importantly, it was funny, and the humor came not only from the words the characters were reciting, but also from the gestures and facial expressions – the actions and reactions that sprang from the back-and-forth rhythm of a conversation. Non-verbal communication – this was new for a medium that has relied on the most blunt of narratives – fists to faces, bullets to bodies – to tell the majority of its tales.</div>
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Cage’s upcoming game, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9D1N-MHwog" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: red; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Beyond: Two Souls</a>, portrays 15 years in the life of its female protagonist, tracing her struggles from childhood to young adulthood. The game places emphasis upon choice and emotional conflict, and its realism gives texture and subtlety to these concepts. Realism, when applied judiciously, can affirm morality, and the modern game developer has the ethical choice of whether or not to elevate the discourse. For Cage, the decision has always been clear.</div>
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“Sometimes I am surprised at the little sense of responsibility that can be seen in some games,” Cage states. “Some of them give the feeling that they were made by a bunch of teenagers laughing out loud as they were making it. I am dreaming of a day when video games won’t need violence anymore to create interesting experiences. We will then have some credibility beyond our little world and be respected as adults in an interesting, creative medium.”</div>
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“Games have no choice if they want to continue to exist in the coming years,” he adds. “They will have to grow up.”</div>
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tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-19320041272930235022013-07-03T17:58:00.000-07:002013-07-03T17:58:39.086-07:00Steve Jobs and Storytelling and 1994 and Pixar and "toy story"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi73EUmqZoq6UC-nNULqUovyBfnualX-nYlbkC_bIo0Sf0e3gC5wTU_jlJpSIqqfbOiD13Fp-Rxo5hYnIadq_5C20XGS_YKDDmuE1r3_NMhlKsdgn4DSdMItrP-00U0_hxnqOfrn6hkjhcI/s558/Screen+shot+2013-07-03+at+8.57.03+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi73EUmqZoq6UC-nNULqUovyBfnualX-nYlbkC_bIo0Sf0e3gC5wTU_jlJpSIqqfbOiD13Fp-Rxo5hYnIadq_5C20XGS_YKDDmuE1r3_NMhlKsdgn4DSdMItrP-00U0_hxnqOfrn6hkjhcI/s400/Screen+shot+2013-07-03+at+8.57.03+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-6334863314527996342013-06-19T08:42:00.000-07:002013-06-19T08:43:29.626-07:00Book - "The Power of Story" by Jim Loehrpage 69<br />
"Because of our unique capacity for language, however, human beings needn't experience something directly to understand it, partially or sometimes even fully. Unlike other living creatures, which learn solely from their own experiences, man learns both from his own experience as well as-through storytelling- the experiences of others. Someone tells us a story and we are touched, we sympathize, we empathize, we are outraged, we understand. We come to conclusions."tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-41286712192685058092013-03-27T17:18:00.002-07:002013-03-27T17:19:52.500-07:00"Influence" by Robert B. Cialdini"The Powerful influence of filmed examples in changing the behavior of children can be used as therapy for various other problems. Some striking evidence is available in the research of Psychologist Robert O'Connor (1972) on socially withdrawn preschool children.We have all seen children of this sort; terribly shy, standing alone at the fringes of the games and groupings of their peers. O'Connor was worried that this early behavior was the beginning of what was to become a long-term pattern of isolation, which in turn could create persistent difficulties in social comfort and adjustment through adulthood. In an attempt to reverse the pattern, O'Connor made a film containing 11 different scenes in a nursery-school setting. Each scene began by showing a different solitary child watching some social activity then actively participating, to everyone's enjoyment. O'Connor selected a group of the most severely withdrawn children from four pre-schools and showed them the film. The impact was impressive.After watching the film, the isolates immediately began to interact with their peers at a level equal to the normal children in the schools. Even more astonishing was what O'Connor found when he returned to the schools six weeks later to observe. While the withdrawn children who had not seenO'Connor's film remained as isolated as ever, those who had viewed it were now leading their schools in amount of social activity. It seems that this 23-minute movie, viewed just once, was enough to reverse a potential lifelong pattern of maladaptive behavior. Such is the potency of the prinicple of social proof." tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-23918223460988562082012-07-31T04:25:00.001-07:002012-07-31T04:25:28.334-07:00George Gerbner - Media Violence Researcher<br />
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January 3, 2006</div>
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<nyt_headline type=" " version="1.0">George Gerbner, 86, Researcher Who Studied Violence on TV, Is Dead</nyt_headline></h1>
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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS</div>
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PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 2 (AP) - George Gerbner, a researcher who for decades studied violence on television and how it shapes perceptions of society, died on Dec. 24 at his home here. He was 86.</div>
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The cause was cancer, his daughter-in-law Kathie McDermott said.</div>
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Mr. Gerbner, who was dean emeritus of the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, studied television for more than three decades.</div>
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He founded the Cultural Indicators Research Project in 1968 to track changes in television content and how those changes affect viewers' perceptions of the world. Its database has information on more than 3,000 television programs and 35,000 characters.</div>
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Mr. Gerbner said people no longer learned their cultural identity from their family, schools, churches and communities but instead from "a handful of conglomerates who have something to sell."</div>
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He coined the phrase "mean world syndrome," a phenomenon in which people who watch large amounts of television are more likely to believe that the world is an unforgiving and frightening place.</div>
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"Fearful people are more dependent, more easily manipulated and controlled, more susceptible to deceptively simple, strong, tough measures and hard-line postures," he testified before a Congressional subcommittee on communications in 1981. "They may accept and even welcome repression if it promises to relieve their insecurities. That is the deeper problem of violence-laden television."</div>
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Born in Budapest in 1919, Mr. Gerbner intended to study folklore at the University of Budapest but was forced to flee fascist Hungary in 1939.</div>
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With the help of his brother, the filmmaker Laszlo Benedek, he came to the United States. Mr. Gerbner graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a journalism degree and worked briefly at The San Francisco Chronicle.</div>
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He joined the United States Army in 1942 and served in World War II.</div>
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Mr. Gerbner worked as a professor and researcher at the Institute for Communications Research at the University of Illinois from 1956 until 1964, when he accepted a position at Penn. After leaving Penn in 1990, he founded the Cultural Environment Movement, an advocacy group working for greater diversity in media.</div>
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He taught at Temple University and Villanova University.</div>
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Mr. Gerbner is survived by two sons, John and Thomas, and five grandchildren. His wife of 59 years, Ilona, died Dec. 8.</div>
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</nyt_text>tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-51312641999741244122012-02-11T05:20:00.000-08:002012-02-11T05:22:33.961-08:00STORIES lead to BELIEFS leads to ACTION<span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"Our actions are determined by our beliefs. And our beliefs are shaped by the stories we tell ourselves."</span><div><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Charles Eisenstein</span></div>tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-39741349608532173162011-12-11T16:05:00.000-08:002011-12-11T16:09:43.885-08:00"...Homo sapiens might be homo narrens, the storytellingperson."<h1 style="font-size: 2.4em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.083em; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The Art of Listening</h1><nyt_byline style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><h6 class="byline" style="margin-top: 2px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(128, 128, 128); font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.2em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; ">By HENNING MANKELL NY Times article 12-11-2011</h6></nyt_byline><nyt_text style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><div id="articleBody"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><nyt_correction_top></nyt_correction_top></span><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">Maputo, Mozambique</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">I CAME to Africa with one purpose: I wanted to see the world outside the perspective of European egocentricity. I could have chosen Asia or South America. I ended up in Africa because the plane ticket there was cheapest.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">I came and I stayed. For nearly 25 years I’ve lived off and on in Mozambique. Time has passed, and I’m no longer young; in fact, I’m approaching old age. But my motive for living this straddled existence, with one foot in African sand and the other in European snow, in the melancholy region of Norrland in Sweden where I grew up, has to do with wanting to see clearly, to understand.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">The simplest way to explain what I’ve learned from my life in Africa is through a parable about why human beings have two ears but only one tongue. Why is this? Probably so that we have to listen twice as much as we speak.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">In Africa listening is a guiding principle. It’s a principle that’s been lost in the constant chatter of the Western world, where no one seems to have the time or even the desire to listen to anyone else. From my own experience, I’ve noticed how much faster I have to answer a question during a TV interview than I did 10, maybe even 5, years ago. It’s as if we have completely lost the ability to listen. We talk and talk, and we end up frightened by silence, the refuge of those who are at a loss for an answer.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">I’m old enough to remember when South American literature emerged in popular consciousness and changed forever our view of the human condition and what it means to be human. Now, I think it’s Africa’s turn.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">Everywhere, people on the African continent write and tell stories. Soon, African literature seems likely to burst onto the world scene — much as South American literature did some years ago when Gabriel García Márquez and others led a tumultuous and highly emotional revolt against ingrained truth. Soon an African literary outpouring will offer a new perspective on the human condition. The Mozambican author Mia Couto has, for example, created an African magic realism that mixes written language with the great oral traditions of Africa.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">If we are capable of listening, we’re going to discover that many African narratives have completely different structures than we’re used to. I over-simplify, of course. Yet everybody knows that there is truth in what I’m saying: Western literature is normally linear; it proceeds from beginning to end without major digressions in space or time.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">That’s not the case in Africa. Here, instead of linear narrative, there is unrestrained and exuberant storytelling that skips back and forth in time and blends together past and present. Someone who may have died long ago can intervene without any fuss in a conversation between two people who are very much alive. Just as an example.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">The nomads who still inhabit the Kalahari Desert are said to tell one another stories on their daylong wanderings, during which they search for edible roots and animals to hunt. Often they have more than one story going at the same time. Sometimes they have three or four stories running in parallel. But before they return to the spot where they will spend the night, they manage either to intertwine the stories or split them apart for good, giving each its own ending.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">A number of years ago I sat down on a stone bench outside the Teatro Avenida in Maputo, Mozambique, where I work as an artistic consultant. It was a hot day, and we were taking a break from rehearsals so we fled outside, hoping that a cool breeze would drift past. The theater’s air-conditioning system had long since stopped functioning. It must have been over 100 degrees inside while we were working.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">Two old African men were sitting on that bench, but there was room for me, too. In Africa people share more than just water in a brotherly or sisterly fashion. Even when it comes to shade, people are generous.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">I heard the two men talking about a third old man who had recently died. One of them said, “I was visiting him at his home. He started to tell me an amazing story about something that had happened to him when he was young. But it was a long story. Night came, and we decided that I should come back the next day to hear the rest. But when I arrived, he was dead.”</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">The man fell silent. I decided not to leave that bench until I heard how the other man would respond to what he’d heard. I had an instinctive feeling that it would prove to be important.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">Finally he, too, spoke.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">“That’s not a good way to die — before you’ve told the end of your story.”</p><p style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >It struck me as I listened to those two men that a truer nomination for our species than Homo sapiens might be Homo narrans, the storytelling person. What differentiates us from animals is the fact that we can listen to other people’s dreams, fears, joys, sorrows, desires and defeats — and they in turn can listen to ours.</span></b></p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">Many people make the mistake of confusing information with knowledge. They are not the same thing. Knowledge involves the interpretation of information. Knowledge involves listening.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">So if I am right that we are storytelling creatures, and as long as we permit ourselves to be quiet for a while now and then, the eternal narrative will continue.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">Many words will be written on the wind and the sand, or end up in some obscure digital vault. But the storytelling will go on until the last human being stops listening. Then we can send the great chronicle of humanity out into the endless universe.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; ">Who knows? Maybe someone is out there, willing to listen ...</p><nyt_author_id style="font-size: 13px; "><div class="authorIdentification" style="margin-bottom: 2.8em; "><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 15px !important; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: italic; ">Henning Mankell is the <a href="http://www.henningmankell.com/" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; line-height: 22px; ">author</a> of many books, including the Wallander novels. This article was translated from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally from the Swedish.</p></div></nyt_author_id><nyt_correction_bottom style="font-size: 13px; "><div class="articleCorrection" style="margin-bottom: 2.8em; "></div></nyt_correction_bottom><span class="Apple-style-span" ><nyt_update_bottom></nyt_update_bottom></span></div></nyt_text>tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-16747404625500763972011-09-16T10:31:00.000-07:002011-09-16T10:34:08.962-07:00Is Sponge Bob Destroying Kids' Minds - or Accelerating Their Intelligence<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(33, 33, 33); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><div class="post-body" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(33, 33, 33); font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; position: relative; "><div class="body" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">By Amara D. Angelica</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Young children who watch fast-paced, fantastical television shows may become “handicapped” in their readiness for learning, says a new <a title="University of Virginia" href="http://www.virginia.edu/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(117, 162, 217); text-decoration: none; ">University of Virginia</a> <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-09/uov-fft090911.php" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(117, 162, 217); text-decoration: none; ">study</a>.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">U.Va. psychologists tested 4-year-old children immediately after they had watched nine minutes of the popular show “SpongeBob SquarePants” and found that their “executive function” — the ability to pay attention, follow rules, remember what they were told, solve problems, and moderate behavior — had been severely compromised.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">“At school, they have to behave properly, they need to sit at a table and eat properly, they need to be respectful, and all of that requires executive functions,” said U.Va. psychology professor Angeline Lillard.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">“It is possible that the fast pacing, where characters are constantly in motion from one thing to the next, and extreme fantasy, where the characters do things that make no sense in the real world, may disrupt the child’s ability to concentrate immediately afterward. Another possibility is that children identify with unfocused and frenetic characters, and then adopt their characteristics.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">OK, here’s another possibility: schools are just too damn boring and repressive, and it’s unhealthy to keep kids immobilized like prisoners. Can teachers — who were brainwashed as children to sit quietly, follow the rules, take mind-numbing drugs if they move around, and learn to be good little quiet robots — ever keep up with kids whose minds have been sped up way beyond them?</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Here’s an idea: what if we replaced schools — modeled on 19th century factories and churches — with fast-paced animated learning environments using AI-enhanced video games, robot cartoon characters, and educational social networks, so kids can grow up with the ability to handle the wildly accelerating computerized world of the future?</p><div><br /></div></div></div><div class="post-meta" style="margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 11px; "></div></span>tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-87856551590496866692011-09-08T06:41:00.000-07:002011-09-08T06:45:11.375-07:00TV Reality Show Inspires Tree Planting<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 13px; font-size: small; "><div class="content-wrap" style="float: none; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; width: auto; "><div class="gel-content"><div class="gel-pane gpagediv" style="width: auto; "><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; "><b>Smith: He Saw the Light and Now He's Planting Trees</b></p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">Indianapolis Star 9-8-2011 Erika D. Smith</p></div></div></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 13px; font-size: small; "><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">By day, he's a certified public accountant with Crowe Horwath LLP.</p><div><br /></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(44, 44, 44); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 13px; font-size: small; "><div class="content-wrap" style="float: none; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; width: auto; "><div class="gel-content"><div class="gel-pane gpagediv" style="width: auto; "><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">By early evening and sometimes by early morning, he's a one-man tree-planting machine.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">He's Captain Planet!</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">Just kidding.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">He's David Feinberg, an Indianapolis man who was once so annoyed by environmentalists that he would go out of his way <i>not</i> to recycle. I'm talking deliberately bypassing recycling bins for the trash.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">Yet for reasons loosely tied to his love of a TV show (OK, not the cheesy 1990s cartoon "Captain Planet and the Planeteers"), he's decided to plant a tree in a different Indianapolis neighborhood every day this month.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">It's an odd project, but it proves that anyone with a little time, money and gumption can do something to improve his or her community. For the small things that can make a big impact, there's no need to wait for help.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">"I like to refer to myself as a born-again environmentalist," Feinberg said while digging a hole in an Eastside neighborhood Tuesday.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">Next to him, a 5-foot-tall American Hornbeam tree, also known as an Ironwood, lay sprawled on the ground. It was tiny compared with the trees around it, but its new home on North DeQuincy Street seemed appropriate.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">"This block is missing one," he said.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">Feinberg has taken an odd path from green heathen to green glorifier.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">It began about five years ago, when a friend who was in the Peace Corps came to stay with him and his wife, Maureen Keller, for a short time.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">Feinberg suddenly found himself outnumbered. His wife and his friend were both big defenders of the environment. Before long, he found himself watching former Vice President Al Gore's documentary on climate change, "An Inconvenient Truth."</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">Feinberg was a changed man.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">He planted a garden in his backyard and began composting. But that wasn't enough.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">One day, his favorite reality TV show, "30 Days," gave him an idea. In the show, people spend 30 days doing something they've never done before, whether it's working for minimum wage or living as a Muslim.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">"I loved that idea," he said, "so I said I'm going to bring all of this together."</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">Feinberg's first challenge: become a vegetarian for a month.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">He figured it was a worthy green goal because it takes more water and other resources to produce meat for consumption than to grow vegetables.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">His second challenge: become a locavore -- or localvore -- for a month.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">For the uninitiated, that means he used only products made in Indiana for one month. I'm talking everything from locally grown food to locally made deodorant to gas from Greenfield's GasAmerica. The only products he couldn't find were salt and hair gel.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">And now Feinberg is on to his third challenge: plant a tree every day for a month.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">He made use of his contacts at Keep Indianapolis Beautiful to persuade the nonprofit to supply all 30 trees, most of which are of species native to Indiana.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">Keep Indianapolis Beautiful also helped narrow a list of locations for the trees based on various social and economic factors. So if you see a guy with dark hair and glasses planting a tree on the Near Eastside, in Herron-Morton or along Binford Boulevard, that's Feinberg.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">"It takes about a half-hour to plant a tree," he said. "I read somewhere that people spend 30 minutes a day on Facebook. Plant a tree instead."</p><p style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 160px; ">Or, as Captain Planet would say: "The power is yours!"</p><div><br /></div></div></div></div></span>tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-65560417534445856402011-08-21T08:09:00.000-07:002011-08-21T08:33:07.542-07:00Plan B 4.0 Mobilizing To Save Civilization by Lester R. Brown - TV and Radio Dramas Change Behavior"While the attention of researchers has focused on the role of formal education in reducing fertility,<b> soap operas on radio and television</b> can even more quickly change people's attitudes about reproductive health, gender equity, family size, and environmental protection. A well-written <b>soap opera</b> can gave profound near-term effect on population growth. It costs relatively little and can proceed even while formal educational systems are being expanded.<div>
<br /></div><div>The Power of this approach was pioneered by Miguel Sabido, a vice president of Televis, Mexico's national television network, when he did a series of <b>soap opera</b> segments on illiteracy. The day after one of the characters in his <b>soap opera</b> visited a literacy office wanting to learn how to read and write, a quarter-million people showed up at these offices in Mexico City. Eventually 840,000 Mexicans enrolled in literacy courses after watching the series.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Sabido dealt with contraception in a soap opera entitled Acompaname, which translates as Come With Me. Over the span of a decade this drama series helped reduce Mexico's birth rate by 34%.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Other groups outside Mexico quickly picked up this approach. The U.S.-based Population Media Center (PMC) headed by William Ryerson, has initiated projects in some 15 countries and is planning launches in several others. The PMC's work in Ethiopia over the last several years provides a telling example. Their <b>radio serial dramas</b> broadcast in Amharic and Oromiffa have addressed issues of reproductive health and gender equity, such as HIV/AIDS, family planning, and the education of girls. A survey two years after the broadcasts began in 2002 found that 63% of new clients seeking reproductive health care at Ethiopia's 48 service centers had listened to one of PMC's dramas.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Among married women in the Amhara region of Ethiopia who listened to the dramas, there was a 55-percent increase in those using family planning. Male listeners sought HIV tests at a rate four times that of non-listeners, while female listeners were tested at three times the rate of female non-listeners. The average number of children per woman in the region dropped from 5.4 to 4.3. And demand for Contraceptives increased 157 percent." </div>tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-72265641457162006282011-08-07T14:01:00.000-07:002011-08-07T14:03:11.322-07:00Drew Westen - NY Times - Why stories matter"The stories our leaders tell us matter, probably almost as much as the stories our parents tell us as children, because they orient us to what is, what could be, and what should be; to the worldviews they hold and to the values they hold sacred. Our brains evolved to “expect” stories with a particular structure, with protagonists and villains, a hill to be climbed or a battle to be fought. Our species existed for more than 100,000 years before the earliest signs of literacy, and another 5,000 years would pass before the majority of humans would know how to read and write.<br /><br />Stories were the primary way our ancestors transmitted knowledge and values. Today we seek movies, novels and “news stories” that put the events of the day in a form that our brains evolved to find compelling and memorable. Children crave bedtime stories; the holy books of the three great monotheistic religions are written in parables; and as research in cognitive science has shown, lawyers whose closing arguments tell a story win jury trials against their legal adversaries who just lay out 'the facts of the case.' "tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-74604137596114372452010-09-06T16:29:00.000-07:002010-09-06T16:30:24.105-07:00Made in DagenhamI saw this film September 2nd of 2010 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.<br /><br />In 1968 in Dagenham, England, a small number of women went on strike against Ford. The workers at the huge Ford finishing plant were overwhelmingly male. These women were striking for two reasons. First, their jobs were re-classified from semi-skilled to unskilled. Second, regardless of the job classification, they simply made a substantial percentage less than men whose positions were graded the same.<br /><br />No one was on their side – not the Ford management (obviously), not the male-dominated union leadership, not their husbands and significant others, and not the government. And, these women were workers, not labor activists. They were truly amateurs.<br /><br />They persevered and struggled. They showed daring and restraint – they showed courage and fear – they showed strength and weakness – they sacrificed and were oh so human in their once-in-a-lifetime chance to try to make a difference.<br /><br />The story is told simply without tricks. But the story is interesting and matters because you slowly begin to care for the characters and you want things to end right. <br /><br />We know today that women have a legal right to earn equal pay for equal work. You have to watch this movie to see if the women of Dagenham obtained that right.<br /><br />FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-54532847151060885252010-08-10T09:45:00.000-07:002010-08-10T09:46:46.375-07:00FlippedI saw this film in late March, of 2010 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the <a href="http://www.trulymovingpictures.org">Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award</a>. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.<br /><br />This is a coming of age film set initially and briefly in the late 1950s and mostly in the early 1960s. The boy, Bryce, is chased by his neighbor girl, Juli. And is he chased! Juli is immediately smitten or “flipped” by Bryce’s eyes and the story unfolds.<br /><br />What is unusual about the story telling is that each major event is played back twice – once through the eyes and voice of Bryce and once through the eyes and voice of Juli. It’s the same scene, but you wouldn’t know that from their differing viewpoints.<br /><br />Juli is the adventurous and interesting one. Bryce just wants to fit in at their Junior High School. Juli slowly begins to unlike Bryce and Bryce slowly begins to appreciate Juli. Will they ever meet at the same emotional place at the same time? That is the drama and story.<br /><br />The art direction and era are right on. It is the Eisenhower and Kennedy years in look, and even in feel. The wives are subordinate to the husbands. The children are mostly respectful to their parents. And the teachers teach and the students learn. But, you can see the seeds being laid for the rebellious war babies of the late1960s.<br /><br />Rob Reiner is a talented director for romances – “When Harry Met Sally.” And he is a talented director for handling young actors – “Stand By Me.” He combines these talents to help us understand the better part of the human condition; that is, love, respect, sacrifice, forgiveness, and honor. And we have fun and laugh along the way. This is like the TV program, “Wonder Years” – but heightened and deepened.<br /><br />FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-63901698350836627422010-07-24T16:45:00.000-07:002010-07-24T16:47:50.249-07:00Ramona and BeezusI saw this film on May 12th of 2010 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the <a href="http://www.TrulyMovingPictures.org">Heartland Truly Moving Picture</a> Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.<br /><br />Ramona and Beezus are sisters. Ramona is in grade school and Beezus is in high school. They get along pretty good for being quite different ages, but their real conflict comes with Ramona’s unique skill of getting into trouble or doing inappropriate things. Beezus, on the other hand, is the perfect daughter and sister.<br /><br />Ramona is not mean spirited. She is a daydreamer and has an overactive imagination and has trouble focusing. This puts her into difficult situations. Oh yes, and she is unlucky too.<br /><br />The small problems of Ramona quickly get dwarfed by the big problem of her Dad losing his job through no fault of his own. He has a hard time getting another job, and this causes financial and emotional stress for the whole family. This is the focus of the movie.<br /><br />This is a delightful and funny and entertaining movie for young grade school children. It teaches many important lessons that are worth knowing and reinforcing. The most important lesson is that families have their ups and downs. But if they all remember they love each other and treat each other with respect, something positive can emerge from the downs or hard times.<br /><br />FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-75702074013770397822010-05-21T08:03:00.000-07:002010-05-21T08:05:17.136-07:00Storytelling is vital to being a human being<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">"A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens--second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives, from the small accounts of our day's events to the vast incommunicable constructs of psychopaths."</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:sans-serif, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:sans-serif, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Reynolds Price</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:sans-serif, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><i>A Palpable God</i></span></span></div>tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-24967915111089808892010-03-08T10:25:00.000-08:002010-03-08T10:26:55.927-08:00How To Train Your DragonI saw this film in early March, of 2010 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the <a href="http://www.TrulyMovingPictures.org">Heartland Truly Moving Picture</a> Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.<br /><br />It’s in 3-D and it’s gorgeous animation. But what really matters is the story. And it’s a good one. At first it seems the main story is about a Viking colony equally distant from nowhere, which is being constantly attacked by a wide variety of marauding dragons. It’s a full time job trying to keep the dragons at bay and the Viking warriors are often out on their boats hunting their wily and ferocious opponents.<br /><br />But really the story is about a father and chief of the Vikings who has a young son, Hiccup, who is small and who is a slick, sarcastic talker and who doesn’t take orders well, but still seeks respect from his impressive father. At first, his Father will not let his son be a warrior Viking, but later relents to have Hiccup train with the other youngsters. But the young boy gets sidetracked and instead of wanting to kill dragons, the boy befriends them and seeks to understand them.<br /><br />A young and inexperienced son seeking approval of a strong father is an often-told tale. Sons often act foolishly trying to impress their fathers. And fathers often ignore the strivings of their sons. In this case, there is honor and courage on all sides and it is inspiring to watch the father and son wrestle with their relationship.<br /><br />And yes, about the dragons – they ARE ferocious and talented and aggressive warriors.<br />But their motivations are a mystery that unfolds slowly. And that’s the fun of this film.<br /><br />FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-1051605632019286352010-01-05T12:56:00.000-08:002010-01-05T12:57:10.971-08:00A Shine of Rainbows<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I saw this film in December, of 2009 in Indianapolis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am one of the judges for the Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Heartland gave that award to this film.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Tomas is a young boy that is bullied and unhappy at an orphanage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He is suddenly and mysteriously adopted by a childless couple, who live simply and modestly on a very remote Irish island.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Mother, although in ill health, is a woman of astounding positive energy and beauty and sets herself to healing the mental and physical scars of the boy’s unfortunate upbringing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Father meanwhile loves his wife dearly, but is far less excited by the recovering, damaged boy.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Intertwined with this awkward triangle relationship is light fantasy and legend and mystery of the gorgeous Irish coast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Irish coast is so beautifully rendered that it is like a fourth character.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">There is suddenly a great change in circumstances and two parts of the triangle have to come to terms with this tragedy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It takes courage and resolve and change and love.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The three actors of the triangle are vivid and hold your attention and each ultimately moves you emotionally in three different ways.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:276.75pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-52172214296215351302009-11-10T06:59:00.000-08:002009-11-10T07:00:59.516-08:00David Brooks on why humans need stories<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><div class="timestamp" style="margin-top: 15px; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold; ">November 10, 2009</div><div class="kicker" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 15px; "><nyt_kicker>OP-ED COLUMNIST</nyt_kicker></div><h1 style="font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 3px; "><nyt_headline version="1.0" type=" ">The Rush to Therapy</nyt_headline></h1><nyt_byline version="1.0" type=" "><div class="byline" style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt; ">By <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/davidbrooks/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More Articles by David Brooks" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); ">DAVID BROOKS</a></div></nyt_byline><nyt_text><div id="articleBody"><p style="color: black; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px; ">We’re all born late. We’re born into history that is well under way. We’re born into cultures, nations and languages that we didn’t choose. On top of that, we’re born with certain brain chemicals and genetic predispositions that we can’t control. We’re thrust into social conditions that we detest. Often, we react in ways we regret even while we’re doing them.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px; ">But unlike the other animals, people do have a drive to seek coherence and meaning. We have a need to tell ourselves stories that explain it all. We use these stories to supply the metaphysics, without which life seems pointless and empty.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px; ">Among all the things we don’t control, we do have some control over our stories. We do have a conscious say in selecting the narrative we will use to make sense of the world. Individual responsibility is contained in the act of selecting and constantly revising the master narrative we tell about ourselves.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px; ">The stories we select help us, in turn, to interpret the world. They guide us to pay attention to certain things and ignore other things. They lead us to see certain things as sacred and other things as disgusting. They are the frameworks that shape our desires and goals. So while story selection may seem vague and intellectual, it’s actually very powerful. The most important power we have is the power to help select the lens through which we see reality.</p><p style="color: black; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px; ">Most people select stories that lead toward cooperation and goodness. But over the past few decades a malevolent narrative has emerged.</p></div></nyt_text></span>tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-62038900566475847692009-10-22T10:46:00.000-07:002009-10-22T10:47:55.776-07:00Eagle Hunter's Son<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I am a judge for the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This feature film is a Crystal Heart Award Winner and is eligible to be the Grand Prize Winner in October of 2009.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Heartland Film Festival is a non-profit that honors Truly Moving Pictures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:276.75pt">Tarek is an enigmatic and brooding young Arab man who has chosen to be a suicide bomber attacking Tel Aviv.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But there has been a malfunction of his explosive equipment and he has to spend a weekend in Tel Aviv waiting until his problem is fixed.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:276.75pt">While trying to fix his deadly gear, he makes Jewish people connections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They include an elder couple who welcome him to their home and feed him and confide in him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Tarek also meets a young attractive Jewish shopkeeper who is harassed by young conservative Jews who dislike her modern and stylish ways.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:276.75pt">Now Tarek has a dilemma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was easier to randomly kill via a terrorism act when you don’t know your enemy well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is another matter to know the type of people you are about to kill or injure or psychologically scar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What will Tarek ultimately decide to do?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:276.75pt">This is a taut and compelling tale rolling to its inexorable ending that is both anticipated and unanticipated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Jewish friends show their humanity to their enemy (?) by giving up their prejudices and acting kindly to Tarek.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Tarek shows his humanity in an unusual but altruistic and compassionate and courageous way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>You begin to understand why the Arab-Israeli conflict is so hard to unravel and negotiate.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:276.75pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:276.75pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554262681695138105.post-41883016944120700352009-10-22T10:45:00.000-07:002009-10-22T10:46:35.821-07:00For My Father<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I am a judge for the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This feature film is a Crystal Heart Award Winner and is eligible to be the Grand Prize Winner in October of 2009.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Heartland Film Festival is a non-profit that honors Truly Moving Pictures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:276.75pt">Tarek is an enigmatic and brooding young Arab man who has chosen to be a suicide bomber attacking Tel Aviv.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But there has been a malfunction of his explosive equipment and he has to spend a weekend in Tel Aviv waiting until his problem is fixed.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:276.75pt">While trying to fix his deadly gear, he makes Jewish people connections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They include an elder couple who welcome him to their home and feed him and confide in him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Tarek also meets a young attractive Jewish shopkeeper who is harassed by young conservative Jews who dislike her modern and stylish ways.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:276.75pt">Now Tarek has a dilemma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was easier to randomly kill via a terrorism act when you don’t know your enemy well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is another matter to know the type of people you are about to kill or injure or psychologically scar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What will Tarek ultimately decide to do?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:276.75pt">This is a taut and compelling tale rolling to its inexorable ending that is both anticipated and unanticipated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Jewish friends show their humanity to their enemy (?) by giving up their prejudices and acting kindly to Tarek.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Tarek shows his humanity in an unusual but altruistic and compassionate and courageous way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>You begin to understand why the Arab-Israeli conflict is so hard to unravel and negotiate.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.</p> <!--EndFragment-->tollinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12432199647502731469noreply@blogger.com0