Sunday, December 7, 2008

Quote to Strike the Mood


I'd been looking for a quote that would embody the Atlanta Philosophy Film Festival, but I wanted to find it organically- you know, by the act of reading (not googling "great quote that will make everybody think I'm brilliant). As luck would have it, Ralph Ellison scripted a beautiful passage very early on in his work, "Juneteenth." I believe this passage really captures much of what I look for in the cinema, or any art form, and indeed in a great philosophical film. It goes...

Man is born to act, to make mistakes, and to die. This all men know. But in the graceful acceptance of his fate, and in his protracted and creative dying, man builds his monument, he structures and makes manifest his accusation of the universe. He secures his earthly gains, sets the course of the ever-receding future and makes art of his yearning.


Thank you Mr. Ellison, I do believe I am ready to throw a Philosophy Film Festival now.