Global Oneness

Something about this Global Oneness video is so true but so meaningless.  Where is the line between lofty truth and meaningless generalities and rhetoric?  And why is it that some people hear truth and some people hear meaninglessness in the same message?  The imagery in this video is stunning, and inspires some global tale of desperation, adventure, poverty with the contrast of big city opulence.  But it also begs to be mocked, just a little bit. Or perhaps it’s just my conservative education that makes me laugh a little at these idealistic visions of “global oneness.”  Instead of talking about global peace, let’s just deal with the concrete problems, one at a time, on a local level, helping real individuals.

Part of Slumdog Millionaire’s success was it’s vibrant portrayal of India’s slum culture.  It found beauty in the trash.  Did it romanticize it too much, or did it simply capture the childlike exuberance, despite the filth?  It intimately brought us into another world, opening our eyes to the universality of human love (and brutality and selfishness).  And it worked, because we knew our characters’ histories and childhood dreams. The central claim that I took from Slumdog was that beauty exists everywhere, for all people and that a loving providence prevails when/if we embrace selfless love.

But when a story becomes too archetypal it loses grounding in the gritty details that make it real and thus, universal. Something about this little video is too universal and lacks grounding in a clear argument.

My mom shared this with me via her blog.

NOTRO FILMS – pirateria en españa

A great Spanish distribution company that I hope to know better: Notro Films.  The director of the company, Jose Maria Irisarri, had this to say last year (if you read Spanish):

Strong words about the criminality of piracy.  Notice that the article has a very low user rating on ElPais.es.  These quotes are obviously coming from somebody who is interested in the profitability of DVD and box office sales.

Irisarria was my professor for a course I recently took at the Universidad de Navarra.  (The promo video I recently made for UNav).