Towards tolerance

"I saw the towers fall" said American Lutheran Bishop Stephen Bouman from New York. This was one of the captivating phrases which lit up the 2nd International Content Summit at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival.

Forsaking the dark, exciting world of the cinema for the modern, bright conference hall of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, I responded to the invitation to a seminar which had accompanied the registration documentation for this year's Berlinale. I was interested by the proposed subject, "Film, Values and Society", but alerted also by the distinguished panel lined up to share their wisdom on a subject which must preoccupy many in their relationship with today's cinema.

So what is the International Content Summit? It is a forum where distinguished guests are invited to discuss contemporary issues which surround the cinema industry and society. Organised jointly by the BANFF Television foundation, Canada, the Bundersverband Deutscher Fernsehproduzenten e.V., the Canadian Embassy, Berlin, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Forum Berlin, and the Berlinale, this seminar was animated by the President and CEO of the Banff Television Foundation, Canada, Mr W. Paterson Ferns.

The letter of invitation set the scene: "Over the past decades, travelling through the world of film has become an increasingly exciting and fascinating activity. Today, film is an integral part of social life and an essential cultural element in forging identities. It is particularly in times of political upheaval that film becomes an important channel for information and mediation".

With 9/11 much in mind and the war in Irak looming, Keith Spicer from the Institute for Media, Peace and Security at the University of Peace, in Paris, set the cat among the pigeons with the bold declaration that the war in the Balkans, was conceived by intellectuals, artists, and cultural leaders. "War starts in the minds of men!", he said and film makers should look rather to church, family and schools for a lead in sourcing values. What he did not address, however, was how and where to begin to educate those errant intellectuals and artists! Maybe seminars such as this one is the starting point as I felt there was an air of unease among the participants with Spicer's point.

Bishop Bouman, picking up on the Berlinale theme "Towards Tolerance", told the audience that in his counselling of those affected by the 2001 attack on the twin towers in New York, he had been struck by the need for story-telling. He remarked on how many real-life stories remain untold. He believed that film-makers should be able to go beyond tolerance to actually connect with the issues which concern society - poverty, for one - the enormous gap between rich and poor, where he felt it was difficult to put these two categories of people in the same room.

Udi Aloni, the New York based Jewish documentary film-maker, added his touch of spice by declaring that the disease of the West is arrogance. I happen to largely agree with him and it was remarkable, with five out of six people on the panel being either theologians or having had theological training of some sort, that Udi's other declaration concerning the concept of "the dying God" was not really picked up for discussion.

Other panel participants included Thomas Kruger, President of Deutschen Kindershilfswerk e.V.; Professor Dr. Johanna Haberer, from the University of Nuremberg, and Professor Dr. Miriam Meckel, State Secretary for Europe and the media from North-West Westphalia. It was Haberer who directly addressed the theme of the day asking the basic question: "What are values?". An outworn concept? An overworked concern? She felt that films do not address values but raise questions. Like many of us she felt the longing for clarity between good and evil and rejected the simple answers to complicated questions, as exemplified in >The Lord of the Rings<.

Clearly 9/11 changed the world. Meckel did not put it exactly like that, but she was concerned between reality and fiction. The question of virtual reality is something that we are all having to deal with in more depth and Meckel reflected the reactions of some to 9/11, who thought they were seeing a film - "virtual reality" - and could not understand that the television screen was depicting "real" events.

Kruger expressed his concern that film was not being used as it should be in the curriculum of schools. The moving image, he said, was one of the most important inventions of the 20th century. Film fantasises conflict before it happens - how then can this be used to influence the values of society from an early impressionable age?

In the discussion my mind wandered to the concept of ideas. The only way to combat bad, evil, unsocial ideas is with better ideas, based on the true values of society. Trying to illustrate the innate goodness rather than the inherent evil in people. Surely it is in the cinema above all other media, where the battle to destroy the creation of enemy images must be addressed, for it is that image of the enemy, pumped up by sensationalist newspapers, soap-box orators and prejudiced and opinionated informers, which has led to so many of the deadly conflicts which ravage our planet today.

The 2nd Content Summit certainly helped clarify my thinking on how social values can be and are applied in today's cinema. This seminar was a very worthwhile diversion from the viewing of films - especially when faced with a ticket-less afternoon.