Never Enough

Filmmaker, Elizabeth Barret gives substance to the controversial topics of representation and an artist's moral responsibility, and I really, really appreciate it. The topics are so often talked about in theoretical terms; yet, it is rarely dealt with the level of respect and self-evaluation as Barret does. The most honest observation made by Barret, though it is only mentioned briefly, is that although an artist my approach the subjects with the ultimate goal of bringing social change, it is likely that Hugh O’Connor approached Mason Eldridge because of a photographic interest and, in another word, exoticism, with his face still covered in coal and playing with his little daughter. Is it possible that in the face of a photogenic subject, O’Connor put aside the moral effort to bring realistic, complete representation of the Appalachia? The controversy brings Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother to my mind. Does the photograph really brings awareness to the issue of depression and arouse social change or is it another exotic depiction of the other who has a beautifully windblown face that is filled with a rare mix of melancholy and dignity as a mother?
“Can filmmakers show poverty without shaming the people portrayed?” Barret asks. This is an essential question, but also one that does not have a absolute answer. And, it only brings more questions to my mind. Could the attention brought by filmmakers in fact makes the people now see their tattered clothes as something to be ashamed of instead of an accepted fact of life. I often think about art with a social mission as one that has the same responsibility as a charity. I know of a teacher who went to Nepal and found that there is inadequate medical care so that little kids’ wounds are rarely healed. He then gathered up his students and carefully applied Neosporin and Band-Aids on the little knees and the little faces. But then, the kids began seeing the wounds that they have never really seen before, and kids with more wounds became the subject of mockery.
The moral weight on the shoulder of any community artists is extremely heavy.