By C. Jewel Garcia
Have you ever told a story and in the process felt like you could suddenly understand more or had a heavy weight lifted from your chest? Have you ever heard a story that caused something immensely important to dawn on you or transported you? I can almost guarantee that you have at least once. What causes stories to be so much more moving and interesting than fact sheets and data alone? Humans are designed for them.
Humans are hardwired to tell stories, sometimes to others, but at an even more basic level, the human brain is made to tell stories to itself. These stories are constructed to help the human brain understand the world and, more importantly, to help it understand the self. Each person carries a story about self-identity. These stories are so important to the way people function that in recent years these self-stories have been studied by many researchers, including Dan P. McAdams. He studied how people create their own stories by listening to many people’s self-stories. The instructions for the interview he that he gave called, “The Life Story Interview,” are fascinating in themselves and have insights into how stories are constructed. Stories usually have a beginning, middle, and end; they have high points and low points; and they can be rearranged to emphasize different parts of the story.
From here we know that the story of self is essential. However, we do not just tell stories to ourselves. We tell stories to others to pass down information, to entertain, and to connect. According to Sharing the Journey by Robert Wuthnow, people come together to share stories, and, in the process, they build community with each other. In addition, they often link their stories to other stories that are usually known by the group. These are often religious stories, though they do not have to be. People also link their stories to each other’s stories when the stories have a similar experience or theme. In the end, people come up with an overarching narrative of who they are as a group, according to Appendix 7 Telling Your Public Story- Self, Us, Now by Marshall Ganz. This is an amazing concept that is extremely powerful.
From these connections, people are mobilized to act in a given way. According to Appendix 7 Telling Your Public Story- Self, Us, Now, this is the story of now. This given way can be as simple as protecting each other from danger to as complex as working together to solve the equations needed to send the first man to the moon. Stories make cultures, religions, and nations. Without stories, the world we live in would be nonexistent. Humanity would most certainly be nonexistent. It is through story that people live in this world.
Stories, however, are not all good. According to Sharing the Journey, stories can also separate and isolate. Worse yet, stories can be used to justify the evilest of deeds, including murder and genocide. It is no secret that some of the world's worst people gained a following through telling amazing stories. These people recognized the power of story and mobilized it for malevolence. The people mobilized by these stories often did not even realize that they had been manipulated through story. Most people do not recognize the power stories have, and that is why stories can easily be used to make people do things that people otherwise would have never done.
Inclusive stories, stories built to include and celebrate everyone’s unique stories, are needed now more than ever. These stories allow people to tell their own stories with dignity and respect. However, these stories are often difficult to tell and difficult to make others listen to. Nevertheless, they are an essential part of community building, mobilization, and making the world a better and more equitable and just place. Inclusive stories have the power to change the course of history.
I believe that film is the most powerful format for mass storytelling. It calls on our senses of hearing and seeing, it immerses us in a world we have no control over, and it has the ability to be practically all inclusive.
Making a film is the process of telling and retelling a story so that the story can be more cohesive and impactful. It is the process of collaborating and taking action for the sake of storytelling in one of its most pure forms.
Despite this potential, the stories being told by most films are separating stories. They are often stories of those who have the most power. Because films are difficult and expensive to make and distribute well, those who have the most are often the ones making film. So, even though film has the potential to be a successful inclusive storytelling agent, now it most often is the exact opposite.
Recently, there seems to be a push towards more inclusivity in Hollywood, but there is no telling how inclusive it actually will end up being or if it will peter out. What can be done? Supporting independent filmmakers with funding and with attention is critical. Independent filmmakers often push the bar towards inclusionary storytelling.
Independent filmmakers have to see themselves and their work as part of the larger societal story being told. They have to respect themselves enough to keep working even when it is difficult and when the chips are down. They have to keep pushing the human overarching narrative towards an inclusive narrative. Because story is powerful, independent filmmakers have to keep telling their stories.
Ganz, M. (2013). Building an inclusive church a welcoming toolkit 2.0: Appendix seven: Telling your public story: self, us, now. Institute for Welcoming Resources. http://www.welcomingresources.org/welcomingtoolkit.pdf
McAdams, D.P. (1995). The story interview. Northwestern University. https://fliphtml5.com/kycl/gvku/basic
Wuthnow, R. (1994). Sharing the journey: Support groups and America’s new quest for community. The Free Press: A Division of Simon and Schuster, Inc. https://www.amazon.com/Sharing-Journey-Support-Groups-Community/dp/0684826232?asin=0684826232&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1