The most significant film of the new millennium?

Bit of a brash statement there I know, but stick with me on this one. I do not say things like this lightly. I’m a film lover, a filmmaker and I’ve studied and read plenty on the subject of film and its place in history.

I also despise (but can’t stop myself from reading) the latest polls published in the latest rag on the top whatever number of films of all time. Most of the time you feel these polls are designed merely to spark up Big Brother style cat-fight controversy. Boogie Nights and Moulin Rouge better than Schindler’s List? - p-leeeyazzz!

I am not talking here about the best or most popular film of the new millennium, but as the title suggests, the most significant. Significant films are the ones that changed things. The ones that led the way. The ones that marked a watershed between what came before and what followed.

So while the Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory may not beat even the latest Will Ferrell comedy for sheer entertainment value, it is no doubt one of the most significant films of all time. I don’t know anyone who has seen The Jazz Singer, but I can’t think of anyone who would deny its significance. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is unlikely to appear in the cabinets of your friends and loved ones, but those cabinets are no doubt filled with titles that owe a lot to its existence.

As with the latter, it is often hard to point out the beginnings of a certain style of filmmaking, one that eventually enters the collective consciousness. But the line can always be traced back to a movie such as this that ‘started it all’.

It didn’t invent itself out of thin air. It too had its own influences. But it used the new tools available to create something new and exciting; something that would itself greatly influence artists going forward.

And so it is with Zeitgeist: The Movie. However it does not just create a new genre or display new tools. It is far more interesting than that.

There is enough information out there already about this little gem so there is no point in me introducing it or explaining it. You can find the official site here and the YouTube site here. And you can no doubt have plenty of arguments elsewhere online about its contents.

The evidence it displays and the arguments it makes fascinate me as a lover of stories, history, humanity and film. People need this information. Why is it not in the general public sphere? Who is controlling the flow of information? Who has to gain from us not knowing or talking about it?

We are moving from a world where the media has always been in the hands of a few, into a world where the tools to create and disseminate ‘high culture’ content are in the hands of the masses. This is a good thing. It is necessary for democracy. It is necessary for the evolution of a healthy storytelling culture. And in a world where global business and politics are constantly merging, it is important that the individual be given a chance to have his or her say.

It is not what the film says but rather what it is and what it represents that make it so significant. It shows certain characteristics that I believe will become defining in the future of filmmaking worldwide. And it does so in a blaze of cinematic glory.

First of all the film is free and freely available. In a world where the tools to make and distribute audio-visual content have forever been in the hands of big business interests, this signifies a whole new mentality to the medium, one that is picking up momentum.

Secondly, it was made for comparatively very little money, something that draws into question the whole financial reality of this kind of movie making. The message to filmmakers here is ‘you don’t need the backing of major financiers to tell your story in the public arena’. This will allow for the creation of a system that encourages individual voices, one that is more in tune with what people are actually talking about.

The tools it uses to weave its tale are also freely available. Anyone with access to a computer can now make and disseminate this kind of content. It has yet to truly find its audience, but as the next generation grows with online user generated content as part of its mental geography, things will pick up pace.

Film, television, radio, books and newspapers - these are considered the media of high culture in today’s global society. These create ‘the scene’. They inform us of ‘what is going on’. The institutions of high culture have to date held the power in their hands to disseminate information to the masses. This has proven a hugely powerful tool, and it is hard to argue that leaving it in the hands of a few interested parties has aided true democracy over the past 100 odd years.

Now it seems we are seeing the evolution of a system where the media of high culture are placed squarely in the hands of the individual. Rather than sitting at home consuming information, citizens actually get to have a voice. Its madness really and it will hurt a lot of powerful people. But an informed and involved electorate is a pre-requisite of a healthy democracy so sorry guys.

So what are we seeing as a result of this in terms of content?

Well we are seeing films like Zeitgeist: The Movie. This guy has something very important to say, and before where he would have written a book or started a blog, he can now make a powerful film and release it to a global audience.

The film is part of a much wider movement or plan, and it works as a powerful way of advertising the ideas behind it. There is no other medium on earth more powerful than audio-visual content (ask anyone in CNN or Fox).

The narrative is not designed to merely create controversy or to point fingers. This gentleman is trying to open people’s eyes. This is the voice of an individual calling a community to arms against the madness that persists. And there are many more people out their just like him.

If you have this tool you have a way of:

- speaking to a captive global audience

- of making yourself heard

- of pushing for change

- of making a difference.

And guess what? YOU DO!

Those people who watched the Lumiere brothers’ first got the chance to see something different, something new, something fantastical. Here was a tool that could film their everyday existence. Since then that medium has been in the hands of circus clowns, artists, and big business. Now it is in yours.

That is the meaning behind this movie and others like it. That is the significance of it. That is how it will be remembered going forward. Film can now at last become a tool that allows the individual to be heard. As a lover of history, of humanity, of film and culture, this is a hugely exciting prospect.

The system whereby content created in such a manner is able to affect the public consciousness on a daily basis is not there yet. The platform does not yet exist. Individuals have not found their voice yet, and communities do not have a solid platform where they can source and interact with it. But it is coming. And it will be a lot more powerful than your Bebo’s, your YouTube’s and your Facebooks.

I believe firmly in the idea that, with the massive problems we now face on a global basis, the individual has 2 basic choices. To live their lives within the systems that surround them as best they can, regardless of the fact that they find them abhorrent, and know that they themselves are good. Or to work at affecting change and ensuring that the grand systems in which they live are good.

The first choice has the potential to create a lot of good people living within a shit storm of bad systems. The second, a mass of great people working towards the evolution of grand systems.

The question at this stage is, ‘what will you do with that tool?’ Will you just use it to make nice a home movie of your daughters wedding and bang it up on YouTube for all your family to watch? Or will you prove to yourself that you are a strong human being able to affect change by speaking out and making yourself heard?

The choice is yours.