Y200 Politics and Film

November 15, 2011

Illegal Immigration

• While money, trade and investment flows relatively freely in the international system, labor flows are restricted

• The demand for inexpensive labor in the rich countries of the North combined with the demand for employment in the poor countries of the South results in the movement of people (mostly illegal)

Vulnerability of Illegal Immigrants

• Subject to arrest and deportation at any time• Some are escaping persecution at home and to

return may mean death• Need to earn income means they are often willing

to accept payment less than the minimum wage• Such workers may be exploited in other ways by

their employers (e.g. sexually)

Trade in Body Parts

• Growing demand for organs for transplanting leads to some illegal organ harvesting in both rich and poor countries

• In the US, organ sales are illegal under the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984

• In the UK, the relevant law is the Human Tissue Act of 2004

• Organ sales are legal in Iran: kidney = $1200

Transplants and Medical Tourism

• In China, a kidney transplant operation costs around $70,000

• In India, it costs as little as $5,000

• Many US insurance companies are encouraging people to travel abroad for major surgeries

Globalization

• Both illegal immigration and the domestic and international organ trades are associated with globalization (the freer international flow of goods, money, and people in the world economy)

• Neither are well regulated either domestically or internationally

Interesting Films about Hollywood

• A Star is Born (1954)• Sunset Boulevard

(1950)• The Day of the Locust

(1975)• The Front (1976)• The Purple Rose of Cairo

(1985)• Guilty by Suspicion

(1991)

Gloria Swanson

Recent Films about Hollywood

• Postcards from the Edge (1990)

• Barton Fink (1991)

• Ed Wood (1994)

• Get Shorty (1995)

• Wag the Dog (1997)

• Gods and Monsters (1998)

• Bowfinger (1999)

Important Documentaries about Hollywood

• Naked Hollywood (1991)• Visions of Light (1992)

• The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies (1995)

• The Celluloid Closet (1995)

• Special Effects: Anything Can Happen (1996)

• Hollywoodism (1998)

Books about Hollywood

• Julia Phillips, You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again

• Robert Evans, The Boy Stays in the Picture• Ian Grey, Sex, Stupidity and Greed• Lynda Obst, Hello, He Lied• Peter Bart, The Gross• Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters, Hit and Run

(about Jon Peters and Peter Guber at Sony)

The Power of Hollywood• Hollywood can reinforce or undermine

prevailing myths and hegemonial ideologies (but it usually reinforces them).

• Hollywood can anoint or suppress new creative voices in society.

• By granting so much power to a private entity, the United States has made its culture highly dependent on market forces.

Political Constraints• Legacies of Hollywood History

– past censorship

• the Hayes Commission (1930s)

• the Production Code

– McCarthyism and the “Red Scare”

– corporate censorship -- “Citizen Kane”

• Hollywood ambitions for political influence

• Continuing criticisms of bias in film-making

Culture in the Marketplace

• Contemporary Hollywood is mostly self-regulated to avoid censorship

• Hollywood provides content that appeals to both the strengths and weaknesses of mass audiences:– it is anti-elitist, democratic, pro human rights– in the quest for viewers, it erodes norms about

depicting violence and pornography and it undermines community and civility

Hope for the Future?

• Growing importance of independent studios in supplying the demand for new films.

• New film festivals like Sundance that make it easier for independents to hook with big studios for distribution deals.

• Internet-based video and film operations that provide new ways to discover talent.