EXAMINED LIFE
Directed by Astra Taylor
Classification: NA
***
Director Astra Taylor must have drafted a one-of-a-kind checklist before she started filming her inspiring documentary Examined Life. Items may well have included: 1) Make philosophy sexy; 2) Prove that philosophy has a place in everyday life; 3) Demonstrate that most living philosophers can walk and talk at the same time.
Check, check, check, I'd say. If nothing else, Examined Life succeeds in its mission statement of pulling philosophy and cultural theory out of academe and into the streets.
Yet Taylor's success lies not in crossing new items off a list, but in rediscovering old ones. What could be older than philosophical thought itself, which she celebrates in a series of insightful interviews with contemporary (mainly American) philosophers, all conducted in public spaces.
Connecting the interviews are the back-seat confessions of Cornel West, arguably America's superstar thinker, as Taylor drives him around New York. The structure of the documentary is so simple, it borders on genius. And while its content is anything but easy, it's both overdue and prescient.
Overdue, because our popular culture has allowed self-proclaimed gurus (of finance, heath, relationships) to replace philosophers as our guides through life's difficult passages. The 19th century had John Stuart Mill; we get Suze Orman. It's prescient because, while most of the film was shot and conceived before the worst of the current financial crisis, its insights resonate strongly today.
Take, for example, the views of Peter Singer (author of books on animal liberation and globalization) on the ethics of consumption. If humans have a moral obligation not just to help but also not to harm, shouldn't we be asking how much of what we spend goes toward aggravating global suffering? This is one of the issues a dishevelled Singer tries to explore as he walks up and down New York's Fifth Avenue, the shopping mecca of the rich and the terminally indebted. (Not to trivialize his argument, but would it have killed him to step into Barney's and buy a new shirt?)
Ideas of global responsibility are seamlessly followed by discussions of the true nature of cosmopolitanism as expounded by cultural theorist Kwame Anthony Appiah. Notwithstanding the airport setting of his segment, a true cosmopolitan is not simply a world traveller or a connoisseur of international cuisine, but someone who is open to more than one radically different way of life. The emphasis is on harmony and not conflict.
If Taylor's ears are tuned to the philosophical - and the musical, given the film's eclectic score - her eyes are definitely focused on the visual possibilities of locations chosen by her talking/ walking heads. Some of the choices can be too much on the nose, but others underline fascinating contradictions and fallibilities. When the radical Michael Hardt examines the successes and failures of revolutions to achieve true democracy and equity, he does it to the backdrop of a luscious Central Park and Manhattan's most expensive real estate. A scene of grinding poverty or a factory setting would be too clichéd, Hardt suggests.
The prolific Slavoj Zizek ratchets up the film's confrontational tone by suggesting a different approach to ecology and the environment - one where, if I understand it correctly, we're better off finding some aesthetic value in the mess that our conspicuous consumption leaves behind instead of living in denial about it or banishing it to landfills.
Throughout all these conversations, Taylor respects her subjects' right not to dumb down their arguments for screen consumption. True, she turns her philosophers into streetwalkers, but that doesn't mean she's about to prostitute their ideas. Still, there are times when Examined Life could have used her onscreen intervention, perhaps asking for added clarification or a more concrete example.
But it's a minor quibble in what is otherwise a hugely successful and provocative attempt at elevating the tone of public discussion, and inviting some great minds along to help smooth the bumpy ride ahead of us all in 2009.