In the film Barbie, When the doll played by Margot Robbie reaches the sky of Mattel (that is, its executive floor), she encounters a staging of patriarchy led by the CEO (Will Ferrell) who wants to return her to the bonds of her precinct. Faced with the hesitations of the protagonist, in the midst of an existential crisis when confronted with the values of a world foreign to her pink paradise, he begins shouting at her: “Go back to your box, Jezebel!” The allusion to the queen of Israel from the Bible, thrown by her own servants from the top of her palace for being despotic and libertine, an archetype of an impious harlot, reveals one of the many Judeo-Christian sub-readings that appear in the Bible. the blockbuster of the year.
In Oppenheimer, The father of the atomic bomb plays God, with all the moral dilemmas that his creation brings with it. In Everything at once everywhere, Michelle Yeoh’s character has a revelation through a bagel that contains the entire universe and offers an answer to the drama of her useless life: “Nothing matters.” The multiverse of the latest Oscar winner is fueled by Taoist, Confucian and Buddhist references. We can find a theistic drive, a non-theistic drive, and everything in between in almost any film or series.
From the strict censorship of the Hays Code of the 1930s to the current ideological crisis, Hollywood (understood as the epicenter of entertainment culture) has exerted a powerful influence on our view of the world. Production companies today boast of diversity, equity and inclusion departments that serve, both within the company and in the cultural products they generate, more egalitarian criteria. Perhaps the only facet left to come out of the closet is religion. To raise awareness about its representation, promote religious pluralism and a more empathetic view of spirituality on screen, DeeperDive was born, a course module being prepared at Harvard Divinity School aimed at screenwriters, content creators and media professionals.
Its promoter, Salvadoran Mario Cader-Frech, worked for 20 years at what is now known as Paramount Global, the conglomerate that owns Paramount Pictures, CBS and MTV. As vice president of social responsibility, his task was to improve social impact messages in its content. “When I reached my retirement age, I realized that we had never touched on the topic of religion,” he says via Zoom. “In the US there is an unwritten pact in the media to remain secular. However, that does not respond to reality, because spiritual ideology permeates everything.” His religious literacy project for Hollywood includes a strategy manual to approach it from the explicit to the subtext.
According to the most recent study by Pew Research, there are about 4,200 religions, although more than 75% of the global population is divided between Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. With the DeeperDive project they want to dilute the barriers between them from cultural narratives and promote interreligious dialogue. “In Hollywood we continue to reflect models from 50 years ago: the same priest, rabbi or, unfortunately, the bad Muslim terrorist. I was part of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, with which we combat homophobia in the media. Until 30 years ago, the image of gays was quite negative and sensationalist. Today you ask a child what a gay person is like and they don’t give you a specific description. Our goal is that in 30 years you ask a young person what a Christian, a Muslim or a Jew is like and there will be no such concrete definitions.”
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