Chatter vs. Community

By Paul Moore posted 4 years ago

I want to throw this out there and see what you guys think. I’ve written about people finding films and how lacking in nuance that process can be. I’ve written that humans are the best source for an educated suggestion about a film I may love. But what I haven’t talked about, and what I believe to be most important, is that film for me is a shovel to dig deeper into my relationships with others.

We’re working on a website here at Spout, an online community where people not only meet but can have a conversation like we would in the real world. A conversation around film that can skim the surface or has the ability to go really deep. I’m tired of what a lot of so called "online communities" have shot for. A lot of people loosely connecting through mindless chatter. I go to somebody’s MySpace page and half the time I don’t know what the hell theyre’ friends are talking about. It’s like:

"That’s right! I totally plan on a Latte!"

"ha! that’s hy-ster-ical ;-)"

"Will be in Atlanta the 25th."

"I LUV you!!!!! wristbands RULE!!!!!!"

What the hell is that? It’s not dialogue and it’s not relationship; two things essential for community. So this chatter has about as much weight in a community as a plastic grocery bag has floating down the middle of my block.

I want to talk about films. I want to listen to somebody tell me where a film took them. I want to hear another person’s story that may have never come out if we didn’t start talking about The Karate Kid. Humans are beautiful. Within their minds are vast unexplored territories. We are the adventure, we are the entertainment, we are the story and a film can serve as a catalyst to take us deeper into one another.

Ever found yourself listening to somebody tell a story and someone pipes up and says, If that were in a movie, nobody would believe it?

That’s what we’re after here at Spout. We’re working on making a conversation happen that can float on top or drop down deep. But I don’t see much precedent online that makes room for that kind of messy, human interaction. Help me out here. In an online community, how can we have a conversation like one we’d have in real life? Suggestions?

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Scott Krieger said 4 years ago
There is a scene in the Sidney Lumet film The Pawnbroker where a strange little Puerto Rican man comes into the pawnshop to sell something to Rod Steiger. In his fumbling way, he tries to express an insight he has into the nature of art. It’s part of a grand internal monologue and since he knows that Rod Steiger’s character used to be a professor he thinks this is a man who can at last understand him. Two old men can wind down their lives in a rich dialogue about the finer nuances of art. The cost of admission is something to pawn. He must enter in to a transaction in order to have this moment, in order to be heard in his invisible life. Rod Steiger interupts his ramble to say ‘two dollars,’ as if the transaction were all that had value. The old man makes his stuttering departure, unfulfilled, unconnected.

There is a rich dialogue available. There are ideas fermenting. Endless possible connections. So often the quantification of value puts the stamp of two dollars on the dialogue and ends the conversation. If I am here merely to pass judgement on the quality of a film, I lose the opportunity to say the thing that was more meaningful. That I was moved by this, that I related to that, that my life is tied inextricably to others. That a resonance with a film is a touchstone to connect me. That is my idea of an online community.

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