"Can Movies Change Your Mind?"

"What if no more movies were made? It don't seem to work anyhow. It doesn't matter whether it's coming from the left or going to the right, I think by now we can say with some certainty that a movie won't change the outcome of an election. Movies don't make presidents. Ballots make presidents. From Soviet propaganda in the 1920's to the Nazi's of the 1930's, these films were never aimed at any constituency. If anything, they prompted their international political adversaries to swift reaction, fuelled by utter disgust. You'll never work here again! Yeah right. I'm not naming names. Tell me about something new under the sun. Say what you will about Hollywood, but the United States has the greatest film history of all the world. One could almost say: these Americans are really quite the exhibitionists, sharing their society and all that comes with that like they do. The supremacy of American cinema is so evident, that it's usually Hollywood vs. the rest, which means world cinema, which means every other nation. There are people who think it could just as well be bad vs. good films. But I say: Hollywood is the one prime example of world cinema. Just take a look at all the American films that were made by (originally) non-Americans. Hollywood has been a magnet for international talent since it's conception. The counter examples of that would be India specifically and France to a high extent. These are nation's cinemas which have been fairly closed to and shielded of from foreign influences for a long time now. It is true that American cinema has been predominantly influential all over. Only in the 1920's as it was still struggling to become the undisputed number 1, German UfA was still a respected rival and Hollywood later on sheltered a lot of refugees from the war. After the collapse of the studio system, Hollywood was to take crisis and turn it into possibility. 1965 was about the nearest European cinema ever came at overthrowing American dominion, because under influence in the next ten years American cinema would see overall quality take flight. But it was a manager's nightmare, so to dissolve the anarchy American cinema got split up in two: commercial and independent. Currently these two have grown so tight, it's almost like American politics itself. A film is even appraised democratically nowadays. Which is very confusing to me, because has money not always told us what a good film was? Or was it the smelly aristocracy of the establishment, with their overweight awards and showcase ceremonies. The film critic could never speak for the people, but the nouveau riches on film front (read: internet media) have already succeeded to some kind of hierarchy, which is an implicit compromise to democracy. All these voices out there are indeed stupefying. Ask yourself if anybody ever really has changed your mind about a film. No accounting for taste. Then ask yourself if a film has ever changed your mind, about anything. Personally I behold the right to change my mind. For example, I'm thinking that film, and the audio-visual medium in general, is very much a white medium. It was invented, developed and exploited by white people. In over a century it has become white man's manipulation, as well as white man's exposure. But the camera is curious as a cat, so it's always looking for new material. It also needs people to pick it up and put it on. Real life incidents have always been hard to catch, but the abundance of cameras has produced images which surpass any director's imagination. Our view on the world has really opened up, and it keeps on doing so. Nowadays everybody's writing, making music, filming. Internet is breaking up all the media barriers and miraculously democracy once again seizes opportunity to fight another day. It is exposed in all it's beauty and ugliness. At any rating, it's all about favouritism."