THE ACT OF SEEING Cinema, Ethics and Responsibility

We live in abundant times. The digital age has transformed moving-picture consumption into an all-you-can-eat banquet, one that is only restricted by our own availability, tastes and inclinations. Where our opportunity to watch movies was once dictated by censorship bodies and other ‘social guardians’ (such as religious organisations or even the studios themselves ), we now have few limitations on our ability to stream or access films electronically, whether through legitimate or less-than-legitimate means. We are not starved of content; instead, we’re gorging on it.

With this confluence of content – of the moving-picture variety or otherwise – we are being concurrently bombarded with supporting information of any kind we may seek. Who is the director of this film? What did they make previously? What does their Wikipedia entry say about them? No longer is it viable to not know something when a couple of finger taps on a smartphone can bring the ‘truth’ to light.

The role of educators in screen media has also changed. Only twenty or so years ago, educators acted as curators of generally unavailable content, uncovering and exposing students to works they were less likely to discover through their own cinematic curiosity. We could argue that the teachings of critical discourse on cinema as art haven’t fundamentally changed, but educators now have a further consideration to take into account when enlightening their students: namely, given we are now arbiters of our own viewing habits, where do our ethical responsibilities lie?

WHAT WE MEAN BY ‘ETHICS’

Australian philosopher and ethicist Matthew Beard defines ‘ethics’ as ‘an opinion about the way that the world should be, and the way we should operate in the world’. He breaks this down into three distinct types of ethical approaches that will influence a decision that a person makes: ‘Some people will be more interested in a simple matter of principle – what is right and what is wrong – regardless of whether [their] involvement is going to make any change one way or another,’ he says.

These people don’t like to be complicit in any kind of wrongdoing, regardless of whether anyone is personally affected by their involvement in it or not. Then there are people who will think – what do these choices say about me or who I am as a person? And, as a broader consideration,