CONSCIOUS CINEMA
of the connectedness that ’ s absent from their lives and desperately needs to be restored through their own beliefs and manifestation efforts . which a group of lost souls in a small English town look to bring meaningful connection into their lives , a quest made difficult by social and cultural pressures that no longer serve them . A comparable search also unfolds in “ Nebraska ” ( 2013 ), in which an aging borderline alcoholic on the verge of dementia ( Bruce Dern ) who mistakenly believes he ’ s won a clearinghouse sweepstakes quietly seeks to forge or revive the most important relationships in life , a task made challenging by all of the questionable influences surrounding him , including his self-serving , domineering wife ( June Squibb ), his former business partner ( Stacy Keach ) and a host of shirt-tail relatives all looking to cash in on their relation ’ s alleged good fortune .
On some level , though , many of us sense our connectedness and never give up searching for it , no matter how difficult that may be . In the ironically titled “ Six Degrees of Separation ” ( 1993 ), a troubled street kid ( Will Smith ) seeks the acceptance of others by learning the ways of affluent contemporaries and then looking to ingratiate himself with their well-to-do families , particularly an upper-crust Manhattan couple ( Donald Sutherland , Stockard Channing ) who deal in fine art . Likewise , the earnest search for a romantic connection provides the basis of “ Hard Pill ” ( 2005 ), in which a young gay man ( Jonathan Slavin ) unlucky in love seeks to change his life by enrolling in an experimental drug treatment program designed to turn him heterosexual , a move that he believes will make him more acceptable to a wider pool of prospects but that unfortunately plays havoc with all the significant bonds in his life . That kind of loneliness is also present in “ Wetherby ” ( 1985 ), in
Of course , once we realize the benefits of connection , we can truly turn it to our advantage , using it to solve problems in our lives . Such is the case in “ Hope Springs ” ( 2012 ), the story of a middle-aged married couple ( Meryl Streep , Tommy Lee Jones ) who have grown apart and look to restore the old magic of their connection , the one that brought them together in the first place .
On a larger scale , realizing our inherent human bonds can bring about remarkable results to an entire population , as evidenced in “ Fambul Tok ” ( 2011 ). This riveting documentary examines the efforts of the citizens of Sierra Leone to heal the country ’ s devastating emotional scars after a bloody , protracted civil war . The film shows how victims and abusers willfully come together to draw upon the qualities that bind them to forgive and put the past behind them , no matter how egregious the atrocities they suffered . It ’ s a powerful demonstration of how our innate entanglement can be tapped to achieve a truly beneficial outcome .
Should we really embrace the value of this concept , we can follow the example set in “ Pay It Forward ” ( 2000 ), in which an impressionable seventh-grader ( Haley Joel Osment ) takes a social studies class assignment to heart a truly big way . Under instructions from his teacher ( Kevin Spacey ) to come up with a plan that would benefit humanity , the youngster devises a concept known as “ paying it forward ,” which calls for freely giving assistance to others in need under the condition that they do the same for others as “ payment ” for having received such
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