The Importance of Story

The Importance of Story

In which I wax poetic about the Oscars, actually…

I realized the other day that the Academy Awards are tonight. I feel weird about watching them these days… there are so many good reasons not to. All that glitz, glamor, and privilege feels intensely wrong in the face of… well… (I gesture broadly at everything.) People are dying in genocides. People are dying from exploitation. People are dying from disease and poverty because their governments are run by greedy men. It feels trivial to care about which movie or which actor wins an award in the face of all of that, and when my own country is in the middle of a coup that not enough people are alarmed about. For all those reasons and more, I wasn’t going to watch.

But…

A Mexican drug cartel leader who transitions into a woman to escape her violent past, with themes of identity, redemption, and cultural transformation.

Fok musician Bob Dylan’s evolution into a cultural icon, which highlights events of the Civil Rights movement, touches on the importance of artistic expression and individualism, and explores generational rebellion.

Two Black teenagers in Jim Crow-era Florida as they endure racism, injustic, trauma, and loss of innocence at a reform school with a history of systemic abuse.

The wife of a politician and activist seeking justice after her husband was disappeared by Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s, exploring the survival of familial bonds through political turmoil, resistance against authoritarianism, and the lack of accountability faced by families seeking justice for loved ones victimized by state violence.

That’s just four of the ten best picture nominees this year. Even the films Wicked and Dune 2 are not without their own political merit… Wicked explores themes of discrimination and otherness, power and propaganda, scapegoating and social injustice. Dune 2 delves into the manipulation of faith and prophecy, the dangers of blind devotion, colonialism and cultural imperialism.

These are all important themes… now more than ever before.

The Oscars are about celebrating the people who bring these stories to life on the big screen… the actors whose brilliant performances make us feel these themes deep in our cores. The screenwriters who birth these stories or translate them to the big screen from another medium. The directors, cinematographers, sound directors, musicians, costumers, set designers, special effects designers, etc. who make it all feel so real that we can’t help but feel like we’re experiencing the story in real time.

So you know what? I’m going to watch. I’m going to celebrate all of those people. Because story is so damned important, and movies are an important part of bringing stories to the world audience. Yeah, it’ll still feel a little cringey and tone deaf, but we should celebrate story… especially these kinds of stories… in every way we possibly can. None of it’s perfect, but all of it matters.