Qualities Of Better Films #32 of 32: IMPASSIONED POINT OF VIEW
Filmmaking should be a scary proposition for anyone who undertakes it. To project your feelings, your attitude, your hopes and your horrors up on a large screen to a big audience is very brave. Cinema is made to be a dialogue with an audience; recruiting an audience is part of the process. If it is not screened in front of crowds, I personally think it is something other than cinema. But what does it mean to get to screen your and your collaborator’s work in front of a crowd?
When filmmakers are given such a chance, only a few somehow choose to actually say something. If people assemble, I think they want to walk away with more than an escape from something. The audience wants to know what the filmmakers care about – this is one of the pleasures of viewing. When film comes with an awareness of the world or a hope for something more, it is taking on more and challenging an audience to come with it. This quality is there in my favorite films.