Filmmaking in Context

The film industry wants to make money. It is the very nature of 'Industry'. This driver leads to a large number of films being made for what audiences want, because people pay for what they want.  A filmmaker though is not an industry. He or she is a human being with a unique set of responsibilities.  Finding ways to live up to those responsibilities within a money making industry is the context filmmakers have always existed within. Finding the balance is an art.

The Master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa 'wanted a young audience, he wanted to teach, he wanted to teach morality.' This is a filmmaker who was responsible to his audience and to the greater context of post war Japan.

I wonder now that 'Star Wars' is to be revisited where and what is the context of responsibility for Disney? When George Lucas made the original films was he not showing the world the strength of independence? His example led to a proliferation of popular filmmaking outside of Hollywood and outside the status quo.

The great challenge now then is for large corporations, driving the work, to identify their context and responsibility to the world. It is hard enough for an individuals to do this. The problem is made increasingly complex when answering to large staff, investors and share holders. The problem though is not impossible.   The complexity of large group holding responsibility just as well as pioneering individuals have in the past is the context we work in today. That is everyone's challenge.