Has My PhD Thesis Become Relevant Again in the Age of Trump?

One year into the Trump Administration, I am starting to conclude that my PhD thesis – entitled The Making of a Cultural Moment: Mel Gibson’s “Passion” Goes to the Movies – is becoming relevant again.

Part of my thesis dealt with how movies can reflect our cultural, political, economic and social obsessions – although not always directly, and not exactly in the ways we expect. The most interesting films are those that coincide with our immediate fascinations, meaning that a film – often years in the making – has had some “clue” as to what else was “burbling” along in the collective unconscious and our body politic, a long time before it became apparent to the rest of us.

Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ was such a film, coinciding – and helping to create – a “cultural moment”.

And what is our current “moment”? Or, rather the question is, what are contemporary films telling us about our current moment?

Steven Spielberg’s The Post is an obvious one. Some selections:

• “When a film is bang on the moment, as “The Post” is determined to be, what will remain of its impact when the moment is past? Maybe Spielberg, Streep, and Hanks are possessed, like many of their compatriots, by a deeper dread. Maybe they think that the moment is here to stay.” – Anthony Lane in The New Yorker
• “At a pivotal time in American history, the government was preventing the press from getting the news out, on the grounds that it would do injury to national security.” – Manohla Dargis in The New York Times
• “The Post is the story of a legacy, but it’s also a rallying cry.” – Stephanie Zacharek in Time magazine
• “The Post examines a crucial moment in American journalism from more than 45 years ago, although the film clearly invites viewers to see the material’s gripping contemporary relevance.” – Tim Grierson in Screen Daily

And what do the other recent Golden Globe nominees (and possible Oscar winners) tells us about our moment?

• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (women’s empowerment, #metoo, Black Lives Matter)
• The Shape of Water (immigration controls and fear of the other)
• Get Out (Black Lives Matter and fear of the other)
• I, Tonya (women’s empowerment)
• Lady Bird (women’s empowerment)
• The Greatest Showman (a metaphor for the current President?)
• Dunkirk (are we strategically withdrawing? if so, from what?)
• Call Me By Your Name (gay marriage, gender diversity)

Another connector between movies and life – at least life, political-style as experienced in the USA – is the well-known figure of Stephen K. Bannon, who seems to court controversy wherever he goes. In a telling New York Times article dated June 26, 2005 (“On the Right Side of the Theater Aisle”), journalist James Ulmer starts this way, quoting Bannon:

The film producer Stephen K. Bannon isn’t just on a crusade. He’s on a roll.

“Look at Feb. 25, 2004 — a watershed week for the Hollywood right,” he said in his Santa Monica office while scribbling a circle around the word “Lord” on his whiteboard. “On Ash Wednesday, ‘The Passion of the Christ’ is released theatrically, and on Sunday, ‘Lord of the Rings’ — a great Christian allegory — wins 11 Academy Awards. So here you have Sodom and Gomorrah bowing to the great Christian God, and did you guys notice? No, because 99 per cent of the content in the media’s sewage pipes is the culture of death, not life.”

Bannon – one of America’s greatest recent practitioners of the art of reinvention – understood back in 2005 the strong connection between American popular culture and American political life – an important theme in my thesis – and honed his skills in subsequent years. So much so that he rose just about as high as you can in political life (White House Chief Strategist to the President) before a spectacular fall. A great podcast from NPR’s Embedded program (“How Steve Bannon’s Time In Hollywood Changed Him”) from October 2017 illustrates how well Bannon was schooled in US movies before his move to politics.

The truth about the “current moment” is that it is awfully hard to know what is until it has passed, making the notion of “current” difficult to discern.

But it’s worth trying, and our movies are a great place to start.

New audio podcast series on corporate governance for not-for-profit Australian organisations

My organisation – Community Colleges Australia (CCA) – has just released an 8-part audio podcast series on corporate governance for Australian community education organisations.

The podcasts have been produced for community education Boards of Directors, CEOs, company secretaries and other senior staff involved in organisational governance. The programs are available for downloading or streaming through CCA’s website, or through iTunes. Transcripts of each program are also available.

The programs

The 8 episodes in the series are:

1. Introduction and Roles: Why Board Governance is Important
2. The CEO/Chair Relationship
3. Purpose and Strategy: Defining Your Organisation’s Purpose
4. Risk Management: Managing Different Types of Risk
5. Board Effectiveness: What Does a Good Board Look Like?
6. Transparency, Integrity and Accountability: How to Keep Your Board Out of Trouble
7. Finance: Profit is Not a Dirty Word
8. Engagement: Involving Stakeholders and Board Directors

The interviewees

Those interviewed in the series are:

• Phil Butler, Not-for-Profit Sector Leader, Australian Institute of Company Directors
• Patricia Carroll, CEO, St George & Sutherland Community College
• Theresa Collignon, CEO, Macquarie Community College
• Peter Johnston, former Chair, Tamworth Community College & Board Director, Greater Northern Skills Development Group Inc
• David Knowles, Head of Philanthropic & Social Capital, Koda
• David Martin, CEO, Western Riverina Community College
• Michael Newton, Executive Director, WEA Sydney
• Katherine Sainty, Principal, Sainty Law
• Ty Wiggins, Partner, Converge Consulting

Producers were Ellen Leabeater and Miles Martignoni (Heaps Good Media), who did a great job. I was the project manager.