Thoughts from cars, photos, and films

The sophistication underlying the car's smooth transmission was noticeable. An extra light press on the pedal and the car lurched forward whirring to life almost effortlessly past other vehicles on the highway.

This was exactly the personality and attitude I was looking for in a vehicle when I decided without second thoughts to suffer the car dealer's snooty pricing scheme. I had to let go of my six-year-old spartan yet ever-reliable workhorse for this new one.

All things living and non-living that exist with us communicate to us and influence us. A good quality product, as in the shameless example above, communicates the standards and quality of workmanship that goes with it.

"So, you think you deserve me? Then you cannot afford to rest easy with a quality of work that fails to make people's lives better." That's the car nagging me in my thoughts, pep-talking me out of a tendency to go through the day's work just to get by in the same mold.

But not all of us are rewarded with a quality of life that matches more or less the measure of work we put in.

This was the message brought to me by the photo exhibit last week at the Jose Joya Gallery of the University of the Philippines Cebu, organized by the Journalism 103 class of Prof. Januar Yap.

The exhibit which ran for five days from October 2 to 6 was what artists call an exploration of image as a projection of one's observation and consciousness; a tool for critical thinking that hopefully contributes to expanding human understanding of the people and environment around them.

Incidentally, this was also the takeaway I got from a film symposium I attended over a week ago -that the textual and contextual forms of moving images can expand human experience and understanding effectively more than that of the din of noise emanating from propaganda and argumentation.

In the photo exhibit, its student organizers hope to raise awareness about the life of workers earning the minimum wage or under P10,000 a month. It didn't have to lecture about the iniquities of contractualization and low wages -I'm sure the real world arguments over said issues are complex.

While the exhibit does not seek to preach, the still images in black and white capture "life in a moment and moments in a life." They prod the viewers to examine their conscience and consciousness from the facets and nuances of the lives of minimum wage workers.

Viewing those images was a quiet moment yet more moving and powerful than the noise being generated in digital and traditional mass media by various contending groups.

This brings us to the message of filmmaker Sherad Anthony Sanchez during a film symposium last October 1 before educators. Sanchez said that people must go beyond looking at films as purveyors of moral lessons or redeeming social messages.

Sanchez' idea may seem revolting to a person used to the idea that mass media tools like film or cinema must be used to influence society for the better. I understand from Sanchez' thesis that sometimes the best way to make our lives more meaningful and better is to afford a venue for a deeper understanding of each other's lives.

That is done, through films in particular, by bringing us to people, places, and paradigms that allow us to simulate and immerse in the same experience if only for a moment.

There are valuable thoughts that can be derived from the silence of still images, the moving images of films, as well as the soft yet sturdy whirring of a car's engine.

‘Not all of us are rewarded with a quality of life that matches more or less the measure of work we put in.’