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Having thought about the volume and complexity of work that goes into making a short film, I was drawn also to thinking about the origins of the ideas within the film. Who and what planted the seeds of this story in my mind? TRAUMA is only a 6-minute film with no dialogue, it cannot pretend to explore any subject deeply, at best it can hope to distil ideas into images that might touch people emotionally, if only for a brief moment.
I've put together this hidden page as a way of looking at some of the themes that the film is built around in a little more depth...
There's a Salman Rushdie quote that sums up the futility (but also the function) of the excercise of this page, and this website, nicely:
Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine"
This book explores the birth of what Klein calls "disaster capitalism". Her words to describe the subject matter are better than mine:
"The Shock Doctrine vividly shows how disaster capitalism – the rapid-fire corporate reengineering of societies still reeling from shock – did not begin with September 11, 2001. The book traces its origins back fifty years, to the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman, which produced many of the leading neo-conservative and neo-liberal thinkers whose influence is still profound in Washington today"
The departure point for the book, and disaster capitalism, are a series of experiments carried out in the 1950s by the CIA, that showed that torture and states of extreme shock could leave the human mind somewhat powerless and open to suggestion... The first five minutes of this documentary, based on the book describe the experiments:
The Red and the Black (Le Rouge et le Noir)
Anthropologist Michael Houseman's experiment demonstrating how group thinking and dynamics can be influenced with the combination of violence and "secrets" that are commonly found in initiation ceremonies (click here to download the article)
Le processus initiatique et les relations de secret et de violence qui en constituent l'armature récurrente, servent ici de point de départ pour une réflexion générale sur le rituel. (Cliquez ici pour télécharger l'article)
Nous vendons des cerveaux disponibles...
En juillet 2004, le président de TF1, aurait fait le lien à titre confidentiel entre la télévision et les industriels : « Ce que nous vendons à Coca-Cola, c’est du temps de cerveau humain disponible ». Rapporté publiquement, la presse établit la place du sectateur comme un gibier pour les intérêts financiers des grandes marques...
On achète bien des cerveaux...
Extrait du livre de Marie Bénilde sur la publicité et les médias.
Cliquez ici.
Milgrams obedience study...
In the 1960s, Stanley Milgram conducted a series of experiments to understand to what extent we, as human beings, will defer our moral judgement to someone in a position of authority.
The results were terrifying.
Watch the short documentary above, and read Richard Chin's article on the experiments here.
The Media Education Foundation
The Media Education Foundation asks us to think critically about how the media we are exposed to affects our thoughts and behavior. Their website is a great resource, and Sut Jhally’s introductory video is worth watching…
Click here to view the video and explore their archive
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