The manifesto makes several important declarations and voices valuable opinions, however I think that it presents filmmakers and audiences in opposition with one another.
It does not consider that filmmakers may become a part of the audience and that members of the audience can become filmmakers. Or, that people may at once be both filmmakers and audience, through more participatory cinema. In the search to make cinema more political I propose that we consider the idea that this image of one producer and one consumer should be shattered, the division destroyed.
I would like to specifically respond to the statement:
“YouTube may give us a brief respite from our own lives, but thus far, it is not apparent that cat videos have inspired anything more than a moment of entertainment. AS STUDENTS OF FILM STUDIES, WE NEED TO APPROACH THIS BARRAGE OF MATERIAL WITH A POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY NOT TO LET THE SPIRIT OF CINEMA AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM GET BURIED UNDER THE “CLUTTER”. [1]
Perhaps cat videos are not purposefully politically minded, but other YouTube videos are certainly made with the intention of political activism.
For example, a community of people who identify as “Nerdfighters” [2] work “to increase awesome and decreasing world suck.” The goal is essentially to inspire people to be active in making everyday life better. It also gathers a network of people who share a collective identity, and who can and do come together from time to time to make even larger-scale changes together.
A second example is one that is much more controversial: the “Remixing Human Rights” videos. In one video, images of real human rights atrocities flash across the screen as Michael Jackson’s song “They Don’t Care About Us” is played in the background. These films combine human rights footage with popular songs [and] complicate our understanding of the relationship between media production and civic participation” [3].
But beyond the above examples even, the greatest political statement that is made on YouTube is found in the medium (think about Marshall McLuhan’s theory), in the way YouTube works and in the way that people engage with it and with each other. So perhaps cat videos are a part of the political after all?
[1] Lomtadze, Ana and Madeleine Lorenat. “MANIFESTO: Towards a Political Consciousness of Cinema (Studies)” December 9, 2013. https://blogs.wellesley.edu/cams20201fa13/2013/12/09/manifesto-towards-a-political-consciousness-of-cinema-studies/
[2] Nerdfighters http://nerdfighters.ning.com/
Vlogbrothers http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers
“How To Be a Nerdfighter: A Vlogbrothers FAQ” http://youtu.be/FyQi79aYfxU
[3] Gregory, Sam and Elizabeth Losh. “Remixing human rights: Rethinking civic expression, representation and personal security in online video.” First Monday: Peer Reviewed Journal on the Internet. Volume 17, Number 8. August 6, 2012. http://pear.accc.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4104/3279#author.