Right now, it feels difficult to find hope in much of anything. With the Coronavirus shutting down most of society, there is nothing really to fall back on. The treatment hasn’t gotten to where it’s needed and a perceivable end date is nowhere in sight. We can only predict that things will be winding down because that’s how these things go. The Black Plague didn’t last forever, and this is far less severe. Even then the world is in panic mode and it is difficult to center oneself amid the chaos, especially if you’re like me and crave an order that’s supposed to be there. Movie theaters are supposed to be packed, costumed vigilantes are supposed to be at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, and schools are supposed to ring those bells, hour after hour to determine the transition into the next period. Without order, what could we hope to achieve?
I understand why everyone is fearing the worst. There hasn’t been anything like this (at least in my lifetime). We’ve fought West Nile, Zika, Ebola, and Swine among other diseases that grab ahold of the news and make one fear to go out of their house. I can accept that Coronavirus is worse from health impacts to socioeconomics that America is not ready for.
There is something that I think is better than simply stating the problem. Why not take some time to accept that amid the complaints is a search for a solution? Scientists are working on tests with painstaking effort. NBA players like Zion Williamson of The New Orleans Pelicans have donated their salary to help the stadium’s employees. There have been small measures to make the world a better place in time of crisis, and I think it’s important to recognize this.
I get it. Negativity is an addictive feeling. There’s something immediate about reading a shocking headline and reacting with a blasé “Coronavirus is the WORST.” It is a feeling that most Americans have become indoctrinated to believe, where every news cycle feels more like a list of complaints than any sign of humanity.
Even cinema has turned to this defeatist ableism as films like Joker (2019) grossed over a billion dollars and received 11 Oscar nominations. Speaking as it ends with protagonist Arthur Fleck being hailed as a hero for pointing out corruption on a late-night talk show, it doesn’t think to go any further. All it cares about is riling up a crowd up. Yes, the mentally ill should be treated better, but it’s a misconstrued vision that lacks deeper meaning. By rewarding films like this, it distorts the very idea of social commentary. Should it exist to inform and persuade change, or simply exploit the obvious? For those who crave negativity, the latter is perfectly fine, because as The Vandals once sang “You know when you’re sure that no one gives a crap/You’re on the right track/It’s a fact.” (The Vandals - “It’s a Fact”).
It’s much harder to think positively because achieving love is difficult. Good cannot be had without the bad. Love means witnessing something terrible and not outright dismissing it. You find the beauty within and want to better its own perception. By having positive support that means one can hope to be emotionally secure and live a fulfilling life. They’ll feel encouraged to not repress themselves in manners that could lead to harmful behavior.
Sure, that’s kind of the point of Joker, but considering that it’s sold as a tale of violence begetting violence, it never wanted to suggest that Arthur Fleck could be cured (it’s a supervillain origin story after all). He’s getting therapy, but only after influencing hundreds to follow his crazy mantra. This is why we need to believe in the betterment of society. Without it, we’re just going to hate each other.
This time is difficult given that I am not a doctor. I am not wealthy enough to donate half my income to advance research. All I really have is a laptop and the English language to work with. The best that I can do is inform, maybe entertain to keep an optimistic outlook during these troubled times. So for me, there are no more encouraging ways for people to do this than to turn to media and find ways to appreciate the world. After all, streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime were designed for this very scenario as people are being quarantined and forced into lengthy times of isolation.
What do we do while we’re alone but turn to stimulation? For some, it’s hobbies like cooking or cleaning. It’s easier to turn to film, TV, music, podcasts, or literature as a way of exploring ideas. Now that there’s time to intake them and truly understand their worth, it’s better to find a way to do it productively than turning to Contagion (2011) and realize how that film was ahead of its time (it’s still one of Steven Soderbergh’s best alongside fellow medical thriller Side Effects).
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It’s fair to argue that more somber subject matters can make us stronger. I advocate for entertainment that directly addresses tough subjects, especially since it’s enough of a distance from reality that we can stare into danger without putting ourselves in its way. It can help us process complicated emotions, or even acknowledge that we’re not alone in our struggles. If watching Contagion helps you to process the Coronavirus better, then more power to you. It’s important to understand your limit. If you want to take in something more lighthearted like the Fred Astaire masterpiece The Band Wagon, then do so. Happiness is just as important as understanding.
For me, there is often a call for something even more profound than watching a happy movie. As much as I can become entranced by the whimsical glory of Disney’s Moana, I want something that feels more real.
A personal issue comes back to the idea of how we see society. I believe the best in people, feeling like justice will prevail in the end. Even then I can find myself overwhelmed by the amount of negative coverage. It’s the sense of dread that the president has said something too controversially false, or that mass shootings are now installed on every corner. So much of the world feels like a dangerous place, but that’s only because of how the news perceives it. As a former journalism student, I am familiar with the headline “if it bleeds, it leads.” The controversy is more exciting because it contradicts our understanding of the world.
I am not discrediting the news for reporting local achievements. ABC World News ends every night with a positive story, such as a military hero reunited with his family. There is a sense of positive change, but if you left the room for a quick bathroom break before Jeopardy!, you’d think that everything was terrible and that if a kidnapper doesn’t get you, then the weather will. Frankly, it’s difficult to see the world as good if your news is selective and shapes a view of the world that makes it seem dark and scary, forgetting that it once also inhabited empaths like Fred “Mister” Rogers.
For me, it isn’t enough to watch an upbeat movie. Sure, escapism has its value and the feeling of coming out the other end is an ecstasy you can’t replicate elsewhere. You want to believe the best in the world, but is it enough? You’ll come back down from the high, accepting that entertainment is silly and that what you saw was fiction. This is likely why films like director Marielle Heller’s It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood resonated with audiences. It was a Mister Rogers biopic so pure of intention that even the deepest cynic would feel the screen giving them a hug. We accept it as something more because Rogers was a real man. It may be hard to believe, but knowing he was real gives us that glimmer of hope that more people like him exist.
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That is why I watch documentaries about people who make the world a better place. To me, there is no moment more powerful than seeing something real, where a person is seen reaching out their hand to save somebody.
One of the best examples came in Heroin(e) (2017). It focused on the opioid epidemic in Huntington, West Virginia. The crisis there is 10 times worse than the United States average, and it makes one wonder why anyone tries to improve things. What should’ve been a depressing story of people overdosing began to make me believe in this world again. It focused on the community helping people better their lives. They form relationships with the addicts, and exchanges within a courtroom become their own triumph as certain people feel confident that their lives are improving because of the support they were given. Considering the negative reputation that they otherwise have, it’s almost radical to see sobriety as a big achievement. If this is happening, what else is out there that contradicts the belief that everything sucks?
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Because documentaries have the power to inform our view of the world, it’s how I discover how little I know of the world. It’s things that as an American male I take for granted. I discovered the complicated history of sanitary pads in India because of Period. End of Sentence (2018). I discovered how skateboarding was a form of deeper empowerment in Afghanistan thanks to the Oscar-winning Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl) (2019). Even documentaries like The White Helmets (2016) and Watani: My Homeland (2016), or For Sama (2019) showed people making the most of war-torn Syria by digging through the rubble to find survivors, sacrificing their safety to better someone else’s life.
As much as these tales don’t come without their own bitter touches, there is something freeing about watching them. Not only do they create a deeper understanding of the world, but it reinforces something that doesn’t always get taught. As many problems as life will throw at you, there are ways to make the most of it. In America, it sometimes seems difficult to notice how good things can be because it’s not a perception that is often encouraged. Yes, we all have our problems. Yes, the Coronavirus is scary as hell, but does that mean we should lose our faith in mankind? It’s actually time for the exact opposite.
In some ways, I feel useless when finding an exit strategy. I don’t have the capabilities to look Coronavirus in the face and punch it into oblivion. I also have the ability to make this time of uncertainty easier for anyone that asks. It’s important to stay positive, or at least encouraging. To have someone you love just a phone call away should be enough to tell you that something’s going right. To me, that’s done by looking beyond the negativity and finding the good in the world. Even if we don’t often see it, it’s always there. An evening with a good documentary can be enough to make the world seem a little brighter, that the dark clouds will eventually go away. We might as well try to make that a more tolerable period.
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