Film as communicational mediation of the ecological crisis
This paper is a communication-oriented, ecological interpretation of James Cameron’s recent film, Avatar, and of John Hillcoat’s The Road – two films that address the current global ecological crisis very differently. By ‘ecological’ is meant that – in the case of Avatar – the film is ecologically...
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| Language: | English |
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University of Johannesburg
2022-10-01
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| Series: | Communicare |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1667 |
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| author | Bert Olivier |
| author_facet | Bert Olivier |
| author_sort | Bert Olivier |
| collection | DOAJ |
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This paper is a communication-oriented, ecological interpretation of James Cameron’s recent
film, Avatar, and of John Hillcoat’s The Road – two films that address the current global ecological
crisis very differently. By ‘ecological’ is meant that – in the case of Avatar – the film is ecologically
significant in its stressing of the vital interconnectedness of all living beings both with one another
and with their inorganic environment. The question of how this ecological stance is cinematically
articulated in Avatar, in science-fictional terms, is all important, because a communicational failure
in this regard would fall short of imparting to audiences the potential outcome of the continuing
destruction of ecosystems, comparatively speaking, on Earth. In The Road the ecological
dimension is encountered very differently, because the cinematic-communicational means
employed function in a register at odds with that utilised in Avatar. The point of this paper is to
explore the communicational differences, including the one regarding cinematic-communicational
register, between the two films, regardless of the fact that, arguably, they promote the same
ecological insights.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-342a654bcfc14f69ae671818c11ba334 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0259-0069 2957-7950 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | University of Johannesburg |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communicare |
| spelling | doaj-art-342a654bcfc14f69ae671818c11ba3342025-01-20T08:54:18ZengUniversity of JohannesburgCommunicare0259-00692957-79502022-10-0130110.36615/jcsa.v30i1.1667Film as communicational mediation of the ecological crisisBert Olivier0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3138-1948Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University This paper is a communication-oriented, ecological interpretation of James Cameron’s recent film, Avatar, and of John Hillcoat’s The Road – two films that address the current global ecological crisis very differently. By ‘ecological’ is meant that – in the case of Avatar – the film is ecologically significant in its stressing of the vital interconnectedness of all living beings both with one another and with their inorganic environment. The question of how this ecological stance is cinematically articulated in Avatar, in science-fictional terms, is all important, because a communicational failure in this regard would fall short of imparting to audiences the potential outcome of the continuing destruction of ecosystems, comparatively speaking, on Earth. In The Road the ecological dimension is encountered very differently, because the cinematic-communicational means employed function in a register at odds with that utilised in Avatar. The point of this paper is to explore the communicational differences, including the one regarding cinematic-communicational register, between the two films, regardless of the fact that, arguably, they promote the same ecological insights. https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1667AvatarThe RoadFilm as communicational mediationecological crisiscinematic-communicational register |
| spellingShingle | Bert Olivier Film as communicational mediation of the ecological crisis Communicare Avatar The Road Film as communicational mediation ecological crisis cinematic-communicational register |
| title | Film as communicational mediation of the ecological crisis |
| title_full | Film as communicational mediation of the ecological crisis |
| title_fullStr | Film as communicational mediation of the ecological crisis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Film as communicational mediation of the ecological crisis |
| title_short | Film as communicational mediation of the ecological crisis |
| title_sort | film as communicational mediation of the ecological crisis |
| topic | Avatar The Road Film as communicational mediation ecological crisis cinematic-communicational register |
| url | https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1667 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT bertolivier filmascommunicationalmediationoftheecologicalcrisis |