Part Two of an Interview with Sara Voorhees, Film Critic and Novelist - Page 2

Even animated cartoons can teach us to be afraid of people who look different from us.  That is insidious learning, and it's happening all the time. There's a lot of talk at the moment about the effects of movie violence on the minds and behavior of our children. It's a dialogue that comes and goes - usually it comes after a disaster and goes when people are tired of thinking about it. But we should keep talking about it until we come up with a solution to the problem - until we agree to include a media literacy curriculum in our schools, the same way basic grammar was introduced into the public school curriculum 100 years ago.

The Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME) is one organization that is working hard to make that happen.  I recommend that anyone interested in this issue check it out.  Because -- in view of our Constitution — we cannot dictate what directors can and can't put in their movies. So it's up to all of us to educate ourselves about the moving image so we can make intelligent choices, so we understand what a movie (or a commercial or a TV show) is actually teaching us that we may not be aware of.  Until it becomes a part of every child's education, parents have to assume that responsibility for their children, and talk with them about what they're seeing.  I might have gone overboard with my kids in that area: my daughter says she spent so much time in movie theaters and talking about movies, she grew up believing that the basic food groups were popcorn, Raisinettes and Sprite. 

Scott: I'm working on getting an interview with Roger Ebert, who, along with David Edelstein, are on my must-read lists. Do you have any questions you'd like to suggest I ask Ebert?   

Sara: I've asked Roger Ebert a lot of questions over the years. What I'd like you to ask him now is how he's feeling.  I hope he's going to recover from his current unpleasantness and return to us intact.  He is the father of us all. 

Scott: Most journalists I know have at least one person who they still really want to interview someday. Who would that be for you? 

Article Author: Scott Butki

Scott Butki was a newspaper reporter for more than 10 years before making a career change into education.

He is an in-house media critic, a recovering Tetris addict and a proud uncle.

Visit Scott Butki's author page — Scott Butki's Blog