No longer are there any rules as to what can be produced and aired either in the cinema or on the television. There are no set genres now either. A film can be both comedy and tragedy, light and dark, social satire and serious philosophy interwoven with the bizarre. Whatever the human mind conceives can be rendered as film. The possibilities are infinite. Advanced technology allows any one to make a film if he or she possesses sufficient determination. Moreover, this technology is neither costly nor difficult to obtain. The power of the internet changed the entire nature of social networking. Communication is instantaneous and international. Any artist can market his or her ideas worldwide to find a patron or patrons...
There was a time when certain elements proclaimed that books were becoming obsolete. I believe them to have been mistaken. There are more writers now than there ever have been in any previous epoch and despite the availability of e-books, people in general still prefer real books. What the internet has accomplished, however, is freedom for any aspiring writer or thinker to write and to be read. One of the greatest bloodless revolutions for humanity that has occurred was achieved through the invention of the Weblog. Socially and politically, the world has been changed by the ability of any individual to post a message worldwide with no other requirement than access to a computer or another device that allows text to be published on the internet.
It once was said that guns were the most democratic invention in terms of equality in conflict. The international democracy in media that was created by the internet more far-reaching and significant. Underground newspapers, posters and vanity presses have existed in one form or another as long as people have known how to read and write. Whether by means of a printing press or incised into a wall or the face of a mountain, political and social messages that escaped the control of the government or the authorities always have been published but never before was there the ability to affect the entire world. The mainstream media no longer can dam the flow of information it considers dangerous to its interests. There no longer is any excuse for ignorance and now, in truth, silence could be argued to constitute acquiescence or at the very least, social negligence.
On a less serious level, the public has access to the work of a multitude of brilliant artists in every medium who promote every conceivable point of view. In film, independent artists can mix and combine elements that once would have been relegated to the cutting floor. 'Leaves of Grass' is a film that demonstrates the ability of the artist to combine philosophy, humour, literary criticism and violence in a heady mix that conforms to no conventional model. Although films need not be plot-driven to succeed, 'Leaves of Grass' has a strong plot and is indeed an 'action film' inter alia, but by its title, potential viewers should be alert to the fact that this film contains intellectual material that may be unsuitable for those who find the business of academic logic exhausting. Actually, the title is a clever double entendre, as the film concerns both poetry and marijuana dealers.
Like 'The Extra Man', 'Leaves of Grass' is a film that encourages more than one viewing. It operates on many different levels and is a sly study in the contrasts and contradictions in contemporary society.
