In my video classes, I am constantly trying to empower my students with the idea of using video for change. The camera is one of the most powerful tools when it comes to changing people’s minds about a subject. At EDHS, we were recognized for this a few years back by the company in charge of Participant Media.

Last night, I was surprised to see their name in the opening credits of a film I rented called, The Soloist. It is a powerful film about the relationship a writer has with his subject. It goes a little deeper by exploring the plight of the homelessness in Los Angeles (or any other city for that matter). It uses this theme to explore tangled mess of trying to determine why people live on the street. From drugs to mental illness, the film does a great job of pointing out that is an issue with more than one answer. While you watch the surface level struggle that Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) has with his understanding of a homeless musician, Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Fox), you are confronted with a deeper struggle to comprehend mental illness. This leads me to the true beauty of this film.

Most of us have little experience with mental illness, namely schizophrenia. The director, Joe Wright, must know this. He treats us to visual and auditory tour of the illness that effects a great many of the people living on the streets. He juxtaposes quiet shots of Lopez’ reflective moments with noisy, visually stimulating shots of the world in which Ayers lives. Take for example, the scene at the feet of Beethoven where Lopez and Ayers meet for the first time. It starts with a shot of tourists with awkward headphones on an audio-guided tour providing us an example of what it must be like to have a voice in your head. It is followed by a meditative shot of Lopez. His shot is void of much sound except soft ambient sounds of the city and a single distant violin. When Lopez interrupts his performance, Ayers imerges with a continuous ramble of thoughts as the city sounds of cars, helicopter, and people increase in volume. It is a sharp contrast of sounds. It is the sane experiencing the insane.

The film is filled with visual and auditory examples of what must be Ayers’ illness. Our first visit to LA’s Skid Row is a chaotic scene of drug dealing and drug abuse, fighting, and destitution. Is this what it looks like in the mind of someone with mental illness?

The only real peace that we see in the Jamie Fox’s character comes when he plays his music. It is in these scenes that the chaos of living on the street is replaced by beauty. When Lopez brings the donated Chello for the first time, we find Ayers in the middle of the street surrounded by honking cars screeching to avoid hitting him. He seems strangely comfortable stuck out there. When he begins to play the instrument, the noises of the city become part of the song. It is a transcendental moment for both the characters and the audience. Music becomes the common denominator.

I have been showing these scenes to my students today in the hopes that they will see that filmmaking is the sum of all these parts. Sure, we can shoot Long Shots followed by Medium Shots in order to tell the story. But, we tell a deeper story when we combine these other elements.

Using these tools, the viewer us treated to a more meaningful story. It is the kind of story that causes us to think differently. And, if we are lucky, change.