In this special Guest Voice post, Michael Teodoro G. Ting Jr., a freelance writer and graduate student based in the Philippines, takes a comprehensive look at The Art of Political Cinema worldwide. Due to the length of this exceptional piece, we are running it in several parts.

The Art of Political Cinema

By Michael Teodoro G. Ting Jr.

Memory is anything that can link the mind to a past drama and perform it again to the music and script of a new milieu. – Cirilo F. Bautista, literary critic

Politics is evolving every single day.

In the United States, presidential candidates debate on the economy, healthcare, immigration, national security, and foreign policy. In Latin America, Bishop Fernando Lugo becomes president of Paraguay, ending 61-year rule of the Colorado party. Cuban President Fidel Castro resigns after a 49-year rule while Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Argentine President Cristina Kirchner jointly criticize the United States for imperialistic policies.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin’s anointed successor won in the March elections. In the Balkan region, Serbia has elected a new president while Kosovo declared its independence. The European Union works for a European integration while debating over Kosovo’s secession from Serbia. In Africa, Zimbabwe held violent elections, Kenya and Sudan experienced tribal wars while Tanzania, Rwanda, and South Africa received huge foreign aid. In the Middle East, Afghanistan and Iraq undergo difficult political transitions.

Meanwhile, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations creates the first Human Rights Mechanism in Asia and continues to demand the release of activist Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest by the Myanmar military. In Pakistan, President Pervez Musharaff’s ruling party concedes defeat in the parliamentary elections following the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

In the Philippines, President Gloria Arroyo draws public outrage for gross anomalies in her administration. In China, organizers prepare for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. In the global scale, the United Nations makes several reforms under Ban Ki-moon, the first Asian Secretary-General.

This is raw politics like we see in documentaries and political thrillers. This is reality that inspires our filmmakers and television writers. Life influences art. And art imitates life.

Politics in film and television

Political film and television draw heavily from actual world events, political history, and social conditions. The characters and storyline come from a variety of sources, including the daily news, history books, biographies, and novels. Political drama spans every film and television portrayal of current events, social conditions, and political history. Beyond the luster of entertainment, political dramas seek to educate, agitate, and raise the level of public awareness on a particular issue.

Just like any literary work, the genre may include works of fiction, non-fiction, fiction based on a true story, fiction inspired by true events, or fiction within a factual background. Thus, the art form may range from documentaries, feature films, television series, and even animated and experimental motion pictures.

Documentary films

Documentary films present real stories in a creative journalistic format, with real characters and real problems set in a real environment.

Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 (2003) is easily the most popular and highest grossing documentary film of all time, earning US$200 million worldwide and reaping the Palme d’Or, the highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival. The film examines the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks, particularly the record of the Bush administration and alleged links between the families of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden.

The film assails the American media as not providing accurate and objective analysis of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the resulting casualties. The title alludes to the classic book Fahrenheit 451 about a future totalitarian state where books are banned and paper begins to burn at 451 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature at which freedom burns.

Another successful documentary is An Inconvenient Truth (2006) starring former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. The film is an actual slide show with Gore reviewing the scientific opinion on climate change and discussing the politics and economics of global warming. As the documentary ends, Gore argues that releasing less carbon dioxide and planting more vegetation to consume existing carbon dioxide can reverse the effects of global warming. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, the Humanitas Prize, and other film awards. For his work, Gore reaped the Nobel Peace Prize and the Prince of Asturias Prize for international cooperation.

Other notable political documentaries include Imelda (2003), a sardonic account of the rise, fall, and comeback of notorious former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos; The War Room (1993) which details the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton; Journeys with George (2000) which narrates George W. Bush’s victory in the elections in 2000; Osama (2003) wherein a girl poses as a boy named Osama to expose the cruelty of the Taliban, the first film shot entirely in Afghanistan since 1996 when the Taliban regime banned the creation of all films; Voices of Iraq (2004), a documentary about Iraq that is created by distributing cameras to the subjects to film themselves; Beyond Belief (2007), a documentary about two women who, upon losing their husbands on September 11, 2001, begun to set up humanitarian programs for war widows in Afghanistan; and The World Without US (2008), a documentary exploring what might happen to the world if the United States removed itself from foreign affairs and become an isolationist nation, detailing interviews with experts and different citizens to understand how the United States is viewed, and how the United States has affected the world outside its borders.

Feature films

Political films carved out a niche in the mainstream film industry.

In Lions for Lambs (2007), a cinematic attack is made on the U.S. government’s prosecution of the wars in the Middle East, alluding to incompetent leaders that send brave soldiers into the slaughter of battle. The main characters include a platoon of American soldiers in Afghanistan, an American senator aiming for positive media coverage, a veteran reporter, an idealist college professor, and three college students.

Meanwhile, The Kite Runner (2007) tells the story of an Afghan boy from Kabul who is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend, surrounded by tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan to the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the Taliban regime. Another film, The Terrorist (1998), portrays a period in the life of an Indian woman sent to assassinate a leader in South Asia through a suicide bombing, an allusion to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991 allegedly by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil.

In Y tu mama tambien (2001), two teenage Mexican boys taking a road trip with a woman in her late twenties, set against the backdrop of the political and economic realities of Mexico, specifically during the end of the uninterrupted 70-year line of presidents from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, and the rise of the opposition leader Vicente Fox.

In Vantage Point (2008), the American president is shot upon arrival at a summit on the global war on terror, ensuing much confusion and chaos. Through the differing views of 18 individuals regarding the same 15 minutes prior to and immediately after the shooting, the movie reveals the truth behind the assassination attempt. Similarly, Air Force One (1997) is a political action film where Soviet nationalists infiltrated the U.S. presidential plane and hijacked the American president to force the U.S. government to release a captured tyrannical leader of Kazakhstan.

The Manchurian Candidate (2004) tells the story of a military veteran who discovers that a famous rescue of soldiers by a vice-presidential candidate was just fabricated by a powerful corporation to further his political campaign and advance their self-interests. Another political film, The Contender (2000), tells the dilemma of a female vice-presidential nominee accused of sexual immorality during her college years.

Enemy of the State (1998) is a political thriller film about a group of rogue agents of the National Security Agency who murdered a congressman, and covered up the murder by destroying evidence and intimidating witnesses. The movie deals with issues that were debated during the passage of the USA Patriot Act, an act passed after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the World Trade Center.

Futuristic and science fiction

Films set in the future often integrate science fiction and politics in a dystopian world.

These films include 1984 (1984), a British film based upon George Orwell’s novel which follows the life of Winston Smith in Oceania, a country run by a totalitarian government; V for Vendetta (2006), an action thriller adapted from a graphic novel set in London in a future dystopian society where the mysterious freedom fighter named V seeks sociopolitical change while pursuing his own violent personal vendetta; Equilibrium (2002), an action thriller set in the future dystopian city-state of Libria in which world leaders build a conflict-free society by banning all materials which can stimulate strong emotions such as art, music, and literature, and injecting all citizens with a liquid drug called Prozium collected at distribution centers known as Equilibrium; Children of Men (2006), a futuristic film set in the United Kingdom of 2027 wherein two decades of human infertility have left the human race with less than a century to survive; I Am Legend (2007), a science fiction horror film where a virologist who may be the only surviving non-infected human works to create a cure while living in a city inhabited by mutant victims of the airborn virus; The Island (2005), a film set in 2019 where human clones where brainwashed to believe that they are ordinary humans living in an enclosed utopian community after being rescued from the toxic environment which contaminated most of the outside world; I, Robot (2004), a science fiction film set in Chicago in 2035 where humanoid robots are common and a homicide detective investigates a sapient humanoid robot charged for the murder of its creator in violation of the Three Laws of Robotics; Artificial Intelligence: A.I. (2001), a science fiction film set in the future where an android child with artificial intelligence and an ability to love was sent to a married couple whose son is dying of a rare illness; and Independence Day (1996), a film about the U.S. government’s military and scientific efforts to thwart an attempted alien invasion of Earth.

Films with environmental themes have also been set in political situations.

The Day after Tomorrow (2004) depicts the catastrophic effects of global warming when politicians refused to heed the warnings of a noted paleoclimatogist. Another interesting film, Deep Impact (1998) is a science fiction disaster film about a fictional comet large enough to destroy civilization about to collide with the planet. The U.S. president sends astronauts on the spaceship Messiah to destroy the comet using nuclear weapons. To prevent opportunism in this crisis, all wages and prices are frozen. When attempts failed to destroy the comet, the president announces that special underground shelters will accommodate 200,000 pre-selected scientists, engineers, teachers, artists, soldiers and officials, and 800,000 lottery-selected ordinary citizens. These people will save mankind from extinction. Martial law is declared as selected citizens are notified.

To be continued tomorrow…

Photo is from The Vantage Point

Michael Teodoro G. Ting Jr. is a freelance writer and graduate student based in the Philippines. He is a member of Political Film Society based in California, Socio-Legal Studies Association based in England, and International Studies Association based in Arizona. He enjoys computer games, baking, bonding with cats, and breeding tropical fish.