When did the pivot away from Hollywood begin to occur? Why was there a backlash?
There isnt one moment we can point to, rather its a perfect storm of factors including plummeting American prestige, the belated rediscovery that local cultures are valuable in and of themselves, and the rise of classes with different tastes and backgrounds emerging out of the turbulence of globalization, migration and urbanization.
Describe the effect of those trends.
In 2015, over one billion people left their homes in search of a better life. Only a small percentage, 244 million, migrated abroad. The majority, some 763 million, moved from rural to urban areas within their own countries. Between 1.5 million and 3 million people move to cities every week. The psychological disorientation caused by these shifts is profound.
People leaving their families and villages are unmoored in the big, soulless city. It is a geography without anchors, full of sexual and material deprivations, injustices and inequalities. Add to that the betrayal of globalizations promise: that the world would be lifted on a tide of wealth, opportunity and access.
But hundreds of millions of people who uprooted their life in order to become captains of this new world have found no wealth, no opportunity and no access. Rather, the opposite.
How does Hollywood speak to the worlds unmoored and displaced? What does Hustlers say to a woman who has left her familys village in El Salvador to move to the turbulent, violent city? What does Avengers: Endgame say to Afghan refugees, fighting to survive, in this new world? Nothing. It doesnt speak to them at all.
What makes an Indian film, a Turkish television drama or a Korean pop song have more universal appeal than a piece of American work?
They look modern and appealing in the same way that American film, TV or music looks. But uniquely, these are all cultural products set firmly in the realm of values. They are not concerned with which billionaire son inherits his fathers empire, but rather focus on ordinary people struggling to live lives of dignity with the force of the world against them.
Read more:
Fatima Bhutto on the Surge of Bollywood, K-Pop and Turkish TV - The New York Times
