Recently, ZRC Facebook pal and conversationalist Deneen Melody linked to the official trailer for one of her upcoming projects, ‘As Night Falls’. She also warned us that the ZRC would probably not be pleased with the result, for it features violence against the Differently Animated.

On the other hand she has also assured us that these are not, in fact, ‘friendly Zombies’. Which was intended to be reassuring, and the intent alone, and the willingness to concede the existence of friendly Zombies, does count for something.

Having viewed the trailer, what it feels most like to this viewer is the sort of propaganda/infotainment product one sometimes sees in modern, long-running conflicts fueled by racial or national or ethnic tensions. The trailer assures the audience that, this time, the ‘victims’ will ‘fight back’, while showing only Living people responding with violence toward the Undead. The story, as the trailer relates anyway, seems to concern the classic underlying cause of many of these ethno-cultural disputes: land. Land that both parties feel is theirs to inherit.

This pervasive sense of unilateral victimization, where one side of a conflict sees itself as the sole and only wronged group, fervently believing the other side in fact is responsible for all grievances, is also strikingly familiar from long-running struggles around the world today.

Thus when the trailer’s music picks up the tempo and it boldly proclaims this resistance by ‘victims’ fighting back, we are, as the audience, naturally intended to be motivated, pumped up even, to root for their faction, and to demonize and ignore the other side.

Is this intentional propaganda, or the organic result of decades of pervasive cultural brainwashing and recrimination? Does the line between the two become impossibly fuzzy so many years into a conflict?

Sadly the ZRC believes it likely to be the latter. The world of Living-Zombie relations is so strained in this country, and the Living community has become so tribal in its affiliations, that it almost irresistibly colors any story told about the Zombies of America. Entire generations have been brought up to believe themselves blameless for the conflict, and so naturally hold themselves to be innocent victims, rather than active participants, in the struggle. As a Living individual myself, I have seen and experienced this first hand, in our schools and communities.

Ultimately the question to be asked is not ‘Who is to blame?’ for this unfortunate state of affairs, but ‘Who will be the first, on both sides, to take the first steps toward ending it?’

That’s why we’re here, at the ZRC, and why we believe so strenuously in dialogue. The fact is that there have been unfortunate incidents on both sides, and involving both sides, of the Living-Zombie relationship. Mistakes have been made; occasionally, yes, brains have been eaten. But in order to reach a brighter future we need to put these painful mistakes behind us and move toward forgiveness, to break the cycle of violence and recrimination.

Or else the tragedy seen in the trailer for ‘As Night Falls’ will continue into the next generation.

Tags: Mainstream Media, Movies, Social Justice, Youtube Mischief

This entry was posted by John Sears on Friday, February 18th, 2011 at 11:09 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.