Faith Review: Examined Life (2008) Documentary This film was released at the Toronto Film Festival in September, 2008. It was released in New York (February 2009) and then presented at various international film festivals during 2009 before being released as a DVD in February 2010. This film was written and directed by Astra Taylor and was a product of Sphinx Productions and the National Film Board of Canada. The film credits listed Bill Imperial and Lea Marin, NFB as producers with Ron Mann and Silva Basmajian, NFB as executive producers. I found no awards or award nominations for this film in the International Movie Database. The reviews there were not complimentary on the film elements used, calling them unimaginative. The director, Astra Taylor, has two other documentary films to her credit. She also wrote and directed "Zizek!" (2005) which portrays the life and thought of the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek. She was also associate producer on the documentary film "Persons of Interest" (2004) which focused on the detention of Muslim Americans in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack. The genre of this film is documentary; it literally documents philosophers speaking about their view of philosophy. Exploring the nature and meaning of philosophy is the theme which unites the film itself since the views given vary considerably. The film is available on DVD through Amazon.com, Blockbuster.com and Netflix (including on instant play). It might be difficult to find at most retail outlets. Documentaries in general appeal to a limited audience and because of the subject matter of this film the audience would be doubly limited. However, since philosophy is not a topic much discussed currently, this film would make a good introduction of the topic to middle school and older young people as an approach to considering the "meaning of life" and how one discerns what gives life meaning. A background definition of philosophy as the study of truth or the principles of all real knowledge; as an explanation or theory of the 1
universe 1 would be used to ground the discussion in the idea that philosophy is a term used to describe the way we look at life and life experiences. It encompasses the way we approach and incorporate events in our lives to explain our experiences. The movement would be then to generate a discussion of how our faith agrees or disagrees with the approach of these philosophies. The film shows eight different modern philosophers talking about their particular view of philosophy and its place in modern thought. The title for the film comes from a quote by Plato, "The unexamined life is not worth living." The film crew is shown filming Avital Ronell as she is shown walking through a park. The philosopher, Ronell, questions what purpose the film maker has in recording her speaking while walking through the park. The film maker's response sums up her hope for the film: to take the philosopher out of the academic setting and into the "real" world. The film maker's underlying repeated question is asking the individual to relate their particular philosophy to the meaning of life. This promotion of the examination of self and self-knowledge seems to be critical to the purpose of the film. Knowledge of self is mentioned by several of those filmed; each in a different way. Yet all come to a conclusion which supports Plato's view that the process of examination; of thinking as Ronell phrases it is essential to being truly human in some way. This film thus opens up the possibility of how theology and philosophy are related; of how theology gives meaning to human existence. The philosophers depicted are K. Anthony Appiah, Judith Butler, Michael Hardt, Martha Nussbaum, Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Cornel West and Slavoj Zizek. Each one is given approximately ten minutes to talk about a definition of philosophy and the place of philosophy in the world. The settings for this talk include a walk along a Central Park path (Avital Ronell), a 1 The World Book Dictionary vol. L-Z, edited by Clarence L. Barnhart and Robert K. Barnhart. World Book, Inc. Chicago. (1985). Pg. 1565. 2
car ride (Cornel West), a stroll along 5th Avenue (Peter Singer), an airport waiting area (K. Anthony Appiah), a walk through a New York garbage dump (Slavoj Zizek), a row boat ride in Central Park (Michael Hardt). The settings where the philosophers were filmed constituted the props for the film; and varied greatly in their success in demonstrating a correlation between setting and stated philosophy. The wealth and affluence of 5th Avenue provided an appropriate backdrop for the applied ethics as stated by Peter Singer, the concepts of global society talked about by Kawme Anthony Appiah while in the airport waiting area worked okay; Slavoj Zizek's use of ecology and balance in nature to illustrate his philosophical concept was also appropriate. However, Avital Ronell's stroll along a park path added nothing to her statements about meaning (of being on a path) which were more abstract in nature. Yet the settings remained backdrops more than something which contributed to the conversation. The philosopher was attempting to explain an understanding of a philosophical concept in concrete terms. Some image used was reflected in the setting, but there was not interaction between the setting and the idea expressed. The stated purpose of location filming in order to separate the philosopher from the academic environment and access to the written resource did lead to an oral expression of ideas, but the settings used were not imaginative enough to convey the conceptual images visually. Some, but not all of the scenes and conversations were accompanied by instrumental music. However, none of the music was familiar to me and I could not make any associations between the conversation and the tone of the music. This film is intended to appeal to a very select audience which considers itself sophisticated and intellectual. It makes no attempt to add interest by the addition of illustrations 3
for points the philosophers are verbalizing. The film thus seems to be primarily directed toward audiences attending film festivals. This film contains several uncomplimentary references to religion and religious beliefs and institutions. Since these are ideas which are encountered in the media, in our surrounding culture, it seems that this film provides a platform for raising these questions among people of faith. The quest to find a meaning for human life in terms of philosophical ideas with a range of approaches is shown. From this film we can consider the answers given, as well as note the further questions which are provoked by the initial conversation. The examination of faith and belief in terms of the ideas which challenge it can be used to cause self-examination; not to reduce faith, but to give it a firmer foundation. This film can also be used to show how our faith considerations impact the ways in which we give meaning to life and our faith gives meaning to the ideas we hold about each other and the world. To do justice to the concepts in this film, it should be used in a series of discussions. The format of the film in individual segments, except for Cornell West whose observations are broken up into three segments, makes this approach simple. The length of each segment also means that it would be possible to view the film segment together before discussing it. The goal would be to discover what the philosophers are saying about humanity; then relating that to what our faith says about humanity, for example. As a beginning clip, Cornell West's assertion that "life is a journey unto death", could open a discussion about what to look for in the different philosophical viewpoints expressed. It would also be food for thought for conversation about what "life" means to those who will watch the film before they consider the other bits. 4
5