Using film as an historical anodyne

 

The first film about the 9/11 events opens later this month. Some feel they are not ready to see the past depicted in film.

From article in Chicago Tribune titled: "9/11 film opens painful chapter"

"Movies about painful chapters in American life "help people empathize and open up a dialogue on things that are deeply felt, but also deeply covered," said Yale University sociologist Ronald Eyerman. "Crying may be necessary, anger as well."That's because historical accounts of such events as Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust or Sept. 11 may provide the facts, but film puts faces on those calamities."By bringing us into the feelings and most importantly the actions of these characters, it's allowing us to understand what happened," Braun said. "It can articulate or make sense of an historical experience and do it through the emotions."

In the proper context, films help us externalize the internal by projecting it on the screen. The difficulty is having a consensus of how and what to externalize, since everyone's "memory theater" is different.