Movies of another culture

Today I have managed to sit down and relax with a couple of movies. I used to watch movies all the time but I have been preoccupied with blogging and World of Warcraft over the past year plus. Well, since I have reduced blogging down tremendously and quit World of Warcraft completely, I have found the time to rediscover an old love.

I tend to watch all types of movies. There are some I love and some I hate. But today, I have managed to get into not one but two Indian movies. This is India Indian, not Native American Indian. The first movie, called "The Journey", was about an Indian school headmaster who moves in with his son in Pittsburgh. You are privvy to the family interaction and the cultural boundaries Americans do not see. I actually liked this movie even though IMDB readers only give it 5.7 stars. The ending could have used more work.

The second Indian movie was apparently a blockbuster in India named "Lagaan". Now this movie had better ratings and according to my Indian co-workers, was nominated for an Oscar. This movie lost me a few times only because I do not know all of the rules of Cricket. It was actually well acted and entertaining (music number and all), with a happy and at the same time depressing ending. If you have a chance to see it, do. If nothing else, it is supposed to be a textboard example of the classic Indian movie making style.

This brings me to my point (as I almost always have one). Why is it as Americans, we tend to stay within the confort and boundaries of our own house? What do I mean? Well, how much do you really know about India's people, culture, religions? What do you know about Somalia, Equador or Iceland? For that matter, what do we know about anything else that is going on but what we are spoon-fed by the media?

Do we want to learn how other cultures live? Do we want to understand what they have had to live through? Does anyone even know the name of their mayor?

Let's take a quick assessment:

Who is your mayor?
How many colonies were there when the United States was formed?
Where was the first established European settlement in the "new world"?
How many people lived here when the Mayflower landed?
If you were counting Presidents, which one are we on? What's his name?

Now to really expand your horizons:

What is the currency, language and population in Palau?
How many provinces and territories are there in Canada? What is Nunavut considered?
Where is Cape Horn?
What country is in charge of Antarctica?
How many people were killed in Rwanda between April and June 1994? Here's a hint.

I can bet you know the important things though:

Where is the closest Wal-Mart?
How many people won the last Powerball and with how many tickets?
Who did Meredith from Gray's Anatomy have sex with this week?
Who won the Super Bowl?
How many rolls of toilet paper do you have in the bathroom right now?

Now don't get me wrong, that last list was all very important, but if I were to weigh the amount of people killed in Rwanda with the amount of people who won the Powerball, I would think people should know those answers. People of America will continue to have a blind eye. It is too depressing to think we as a people could just ignore it.

So, watch a movie.

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