Megan Newcomb
Blog 5
How does film and its medium of visual storytelling affect viewers differently than print? Consider a film of your choice relating to a human rights tragedy (like “Shake Hands with the Devil”) and respond to Dawes’ question: How can bearing witness to and documenting the fracture of bodies in genocide both diminish and amplify its damage? In Dawes’ words, “genocide and war after all, are all about our power over other people’s bodies.” To some extent, does the medium of film echo this power?
Film and the medium of visual storytelling affect viewers differently than print does because it leaves nothing to the imagination. In a book you are required to take what you read and paint a picture with it. This could lead to skewed views and judgement because most likely the reader hasn’t been through that story before. It can be powerful but it can also miss the mark because of this need for imagination. If the reader hasn’t been through something like what they read it can be hard to imagine just what the author was trying to portray. With a film or visual story that changes. It isn’t always for the better because this can be skewed or dramatized as well but usually this helps the viewer paint the picture so that they can focus on the emotion and story rather than the details that make up the story. Visual story telling also has the benefit of working with multiple senses whereas print does not. With visual storytelling you can work with sight and sound rather than sight alone. This means you can direct the viewer into a specific mood that you want them to be in just with the help with audio cues or music.
In reference to the question though it’s a complex question. Yes, the medium of film does echo this idea of power and very much so power over other peoples bodies. Bearing witness or documenting tragedies do give the viewers power of some kind. It is easy to take lessons from something that has not impacted your life. So it can amplify the damage done to the victims because the viewers can easily look at that take a lesson from it and then forget about it the next day. It isn’t lasting and it doesn’t help when the film medium is flooded with so many documentaries like it. It has happened so many times in history where in the moment people can be fired up about the injustice that they see in the documentary but then the next day lose interest in it because these things don’t impact their lives. This is not to say that the damage isn’t also diminished by visual storytelling. Even if only a few people are impacted by these stories on a deeper level it still helps. They choose to make a difference and to end the injustice they see and that means providing help for those who still suffer from these tragedies. In some ways it is equally important to get the story out and get people talking as it is to step up and help. So while these aren’t typically the immediate solution they do bring about long term changes in societies affected by things like genocide.