In ASTU we saw the “Sundance Documentary Award” winning “God Grew Tired of Us”. The documentary narrates the story of three young Sudanese men travel from their refugee village “Kakuma” to the United States (Pittsburgh and Syracuse) to be more exact. Here they have to adapt and learn the American economically impulsed lifestyle whilst living through the memories of a traumatic war-ridden past. It’s very interesting how the director chose to portray the story chronologically, always increasing the time lapses. I envy the patience, but the way in which it clearly demonstrates how long and hard is the road a refugee has to take in order to have a new life, is simply staggering. Nevertheless, the filming started five years before the movie was released. I understand that in order to portray the full story it had to take a long time to film but I ask myself if with the power that the producers have, why did they not raise awareness in another way?
However this is not a serious concern.
My main concern is why was Nicole Kidman casted over me to narrate this movie! Jokes, jokes, but in all honesty my voice would do the job. Regardless, nobody cares if I narrated a movie whilst if Nicole Kidman did, at least her fanbase would watch it. But why would the fanbase watch it?
Because humans are naturally gullible. We believe and trust that what people we glorify and respect, like teachers, or, in this celebrities. The groups that are valued in a society are often placed there because the actions they do are often seen as trendy or “cool”. This in essence means that what celebrities do, a certain portion of society will follow. There are even some pages that track the way in which celebrities behave towards charity with leaderboards on who contributes the most.
(http://www.looktothestars.org/cause/human-rights)
Which means that they are excellent marketing tools in which the idea is commidified (Whitlock) in order to sell the story to a wider and broader audience. But why does Nicole Kidman decide to contribute to this cause. In a interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTFCqhAMjIk) she mentions that after hearing the horrible stories of the kids, she asked herself well what can I do? It is a very interesting approach in terms of responsibility. Most of the human rights organizations, if not all, have a celebrity endorsing them. I would agree that it is a very beneficial trend for society, because celebrities now are aware of the burden and power that they possess in a society. Like teachers, politicians or activists, celebrities are “technically” there to guide us in life. They understand the huge amounts of power that they possess and some of them use it for a good cause. Also, we are able to see that as humans, her first reaction is to help, and this often happens with most of the people. When we first saw KONY we all wanted to help as time passed the momentum that the campaign had gained lost all its power.
In conclusion, this blog post remarks the way in which marketing tools in order to promote human rights are merely necessary if success is the main.
I don’t think our gullibility is the only reason as to why celebrities have such a huge influence on us; the work they do, the characters they portray, the songs they write/sing, etc., are reasons as to why we may admire and be fans of them.
I definitely agree that celebrities have a lot of power to influence their fans. For example, a lot of celebrities who urged fans to donate to charity after the devastating Typhoon Haiyan, such as Darren Criss. He posted a video on YouTube and urged his fans to help those in need by donating, and brought up a bit of his own life story by talking about his Filipino heritage. Here, we see instances where celebrities are using their own life stories, and their fame to get their fans to contribute to humanitarian aid. While it’s great that celebrities using their fame for good intentions, I think that we shouldn’t be blindly doing whatever our favourite Hollywood stars want us to do, – we should be critical and decide whether or not it is actually beneficial for the greater good.
Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_f1VWZxODc
I congratulate you on your blog post, it is well informed and it caught my attention. The idea of celebrities also caused me to reflect in class. I ended up reaching the same conclusion as you that celebrities are social elites. People want to be like them and value their opinions and beliefs. Thus since God Grew Tired of Us is a product, they must increase the demand of the product by getting it endorsed by superstars, such as Nicole Kidman. I agree with you that celebrities now understand the power they have, but I also believe that this type of power should not be given to an actor or singer. Nonetheless in the market of goods they are the top salesman.
I really like how celebrities realize the kind of agency they have, and put it towards good use, so I agree with you on that one point. Regardless of their motives – whether it’s a publicity stunt to freshen their image and make them look good, or if they sincerely believe in the cause that they are championing – I think it is beneficial, in the end, for celebrities to put all that attention, fame, money, and influence to good use. The spotlight that is constantly on them, as well as the ludicrous amounts of attention that is directed towards everything they do (drinking water out of a plastic cup! Gasp!) is also a great way to bring awareness towards a cause. How many people would have knowledge about the Lost Boys if it weren’t for Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt? How many blind eyes would be turned towards the plight of so many marginalized groups of people if Angelina Jolie hadn’t brought so much attention to these areas? That said, I wish Ms Jolie had adopted me.