Conversation Cafe

You might ask, is advertising revenue targeted at men? Women “control $12 trillion of the overall $18.4 trillion in global consumer spending. I looked for the first two films I could say were mainly targeted at women within the all time top grossing films. Here’s how long I had to wait before I found the first two: Mamma Mia! At No88 and Ghost at No121 Which means that women go and see men (and children’s) stories. Why is that? Is it solely because there is nothing else to watch? What are we missing out on in our global human culture if the female voice is so underrepresented? This has to be a key direction for future storytelling? Quality non-fiction storytelling: The invisibles It is hard to produce quality fiction from the sidelines, but nothing stops documentarians from producing quality films, When are these films ever on TV? How many quality films are made, ready to watch, but left unseen? I went to the largest UK documentary film festival a few years back and saw many films I would have loved to see on TV. Original stories that were entertaining, human and revealing. They are there safely tucked away on the internet, for people to stumble upon. How can we make these more mainstream? Two examples: For example, a young Iraki filmmaker is given the chance of a lifetime to work on the film set of ‘Everything is Illuminated’. The story of such a rare ‘exchange’ is so inspiring that a North American woman filmmaker decides to follow him during his work experience. Unexpectedly, she discovers slowly but surely his manipulative, selfish nature, wanting to promote his own interests over those of the people who generously gave him a chance. The film culminates in his bending of the truth to the British Government to get asylum and happily borrowing more money from kindhearted strangers, touched by his story, to go on to study at film school. (http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/operationfilmmaker/film.html) The short interviews of several Muslim UK citizens upon their return from Gantanamo and speaking with a peaceful voice with no hint of anger or injustice about the torture they suffered, what helped them survive, the small pleasures on first arriving and how they now see America, as a country of many good people led into horrifying acts by a few. These few men speak with a voice that sounds like it comes straight from their inner, stripped bare by the horrific experiences of Gantanamo life. They are men at peace, barely days after their release. (ACLU.org - Justice Denied: Voices from Guantanamo).