Suite Talk:  a Film on World Peace

            The endeavor of bringing peace between the nations of the world has been a conscious effort ever since initiatives such as the League of Nations or the UN were put in place.  Just as the process of globalization is inevitable, the necessity of unifying the world’s people must be treated as such, if we are to sustain a civilization with increasing needs and afflictions.
            Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan recently emphasized the importance that “the international community find unity of purpose around a common security agenda… which can only be achieved if States show understanding and respect for global realities, and for the needs of others.”  Projects such as the Millenium Development Goals, whereby all 191 members of the UN have pledged to achieve a certain agenda by 2015, testify to the feasibility of world-unifying efforts.  These are initial steps towards the adoption of a genuine universal framework necessary for World Peace.  Any such efforts, however, are received by certain facets of society by skepticism.  If popular support and participation is to be gained for this movement, the paralysis of will that has struck the generations must be reversed by a wide-spread understanding of global realities.  The objective of my film “Suite Talk” is to identify the misconceptions that a particular generation and social class have about those realities.
            The technical methods used for this film were simple.  I entered a natural setting where four youth were engaged in playing a videogame.  After setting up some minimal lighting, I was able to tape them in a non-obtrusive manner so that they were barely aware of the presence of the camera and felt free to speak their minds.  The filming lasted about 90 minutes, and I interjected once in a while with simple or provocative questions to gear the conversation in certain directions.  I also allowed plenty of space for non-related conversations to develop so that the audience would have a more fleshed-out portrait of the youth, each of their characters and their backgrounds.  Slowly we arrived at the subject of world peace, and even then I allowed a certain level of playfulness.
Once I was satisfied with the amount of footage, I edited the film down to 9 minutes, trying to replicate the flow of the conversation in a more abridged manner.  After 7 hours of work, I felt I had a film that presented quite objectively the opinions and mind-frame of those particular youth.  The environment felt natural enough that the viewers could acknowledge the genuine nature of the ideas, and that such opinions are wide-spread and ingrained in much of the American culture.  From there, one could assess the psyche of the youth, perhaps as a way of identifying the roots of disbelief, skepticism or simply naivety towards the effort of World Peace.
            Certain points can be highlighted briefly here, such as the belief that human beings are incorrigibly selfish and aggressive.  Three of the four characters expressed such conviction quite bluntly.  One suggested that such characteristics are not necessarily problematic, and felt content in living by such standards.  The glorification of material pursuits was a main subject of discussion, although cherishing familiar and personal values seemed of more importance to at least three of the characters.  All of these ideas finally lead to the reluctance on all sides to entertain the possibility of subordinating national self-interest to the requirements of world order, and an unwillingness to face courageously the far-reaching implications of establishing a united world authority.
            Although the psychology of the individuals cannot be completely surmised without further inquiry, it is fair to conclude that – as with any individuals of similar generation and background – the youth in the video express good intentions, benevolence, and a capacity to at least understand the realities that immediately surround them.  Perhaps a cause of the previously mentioned “paralysis of will” is the narrow perspective on world affairs afforded by material comfort and lack of in-depth media exposure.  The emergence of a youth movement for the dissemination of a new participatory or at least investigative spirit could be the most important step to establish nation-wide popular support of efforts such as the Millennium Development Goals, and a general belief in an effective process towards World Peace.

 

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