A Little Inspiration

After years of wanting to watch "The F-Word", I finally found myself with enough free time to actually do it, and I'm glad I did. The film is a documentary about the last day that KPOL is on the air. They are being shut down due to overwhelming fines from the FCC that they cannot pay, so Joe Pace takes to the streets to see what people have to say. The stars aligned, however, and Pace took to the streets as people gathered in the thousands to protest the republican national convention, giving him plenty of subjects to interview, and more than enough points of view. The multitude of subjects and mindsets made for a very intelligent, and occasionally humorous, film that forced the viewers to think about their world, not just the generic and under visualized "world" that we are always blabbering about. Real people were on the screen, standing in streets of New York City, speaking up for what they believe in. There were war veterans, moms, people on bicycles, republicans, hippies, and free speech advocates. No one (save for Pace's doppelganger that he discovered at then end of the night) was even remotely similar to anyone else, because they were all brave enough to be individuals, which is something we often times lack in our apathetic world.

Now I'm going to get a bit philosophical, so if you are not interested, stop reading, you have been warned.

The film made me think about a lot of different things. It made me question whether or

not I was brave enough to be an individual, or whether or not I would have participated in the protests had I a) had the funds to go and b) supported the issues being advocated for by protesters. The fact that I blame funds as my reason for not going right off the bat, made me realize that I am good at coming up with logical excuses, and perhaps my logic is one of the things holding me back. I have always been uptight and played by the rules, but if I continue to do this, will I ever make the changes in the world that I want to see? Something has to

change.

The film also made me realize that people don't always live up to their appearance or reputation. If you look at me (try looking at my profile picture, I think it's of me), you probably don't think I am a republican, some people still say that I'm not actually, but from what I can tell I am very much a republican and I'm proud of that. I know that I'm not the stereotypical republican, because that republican (who most likely doesn't actually exist) is an idiot. I am my own form of republican, using my personal experiences and moral compass to guide my voting decision and political identification. The same goes for other people, and we all owe it to each other to allow people to define themselves in their own time.

I also have to ask, can we really change anything? Does blogging about films make you want to see a film any more or less? Does walking in the street, holding a sign, shouting something that rhymes change your mind? And if your mind is changed, for how long can it be changed? While watching the film, I realized that people on both sides of the election in

2004 made good points, and despite my stubbornness, I was able to agre

e with both sides at times, but as soon as the next person began contradicting them, my opinion began to change. Perhaps I'm just a little too easily motivated by words, but surely I'm not the only one.

With politics everywhere in 2004 and our present day, I also want to kno

w if it is possible to be completely neutral? As Joe Pace interviewed people, I noticed that at times it was easy to pick up on his anti-conservative feelings, but at other times he seemed genuinely in

terested in hearing people's perspective from a non-biased stand point. Is it only possible to be unbiased when someone is cute or well-spoken? Can we as humans truly be unbiased?

Film is inspiring people, but only if you allow it to be that way.