protects diversity
By KRISTEN ALLEN
News Writer
The cultures of nations should reflect the diversity of their region to avoid one culture becoming dominant, said Luciana Castellina, presidente commisione of Italy.
"The role of culture is to preserve diversity," said Castellina. "[Diversity] is the primary anthropological function of culture."
It is difficult to define European culture as a whole because the regions that border Europe also influence European culture, said Castellina.
"A European man without the Mediterranean is like a man without his childhood," she said.
To explain the problem of cultural identification, Castellina uses popular movies because she believes they are indicative of what is going on in peoples' minds, of what's popular in society today.
"Movies are American by definition," said Castellina. "Hollywood is the `motherland' of movies."
In Europe, there is no exchange of movies between the countries. Europeans watch American films and those of their own country.
"It is so exceptional to see a French movie that you say, `Tonight, I am going to see a French movie.' When you go to see an American movie, it's just `I'm going to see a movie,'" said Castellina.
Last week, Castellina took her 5-year-old grandson to see an African movie. After watching the film, he declared that Tarzan was better than the film's hero because he was big and strong.
The child's imagination is just Disney because that is what he watches, Castellina said. The historical accuracy of Disney's movies does not matter to him.
This problem of cultural diversity is not unique to just Europe. It can be found in America as well.
"Ninety-six percent of the films seen in America are made in America. All the rest of society, the 5 million, 900 thousand non-Americans count for four percent. It's a tremendous deprivation for American children to see the world in their own eyes," said Castellina.
The small enterprises of Europe allow for experimentation. The films they create may not be marketable right now, but they may be good in the future.
"If Europe becomes like Hollywood, there's no hope for anybody," said Castellina. "Who's going to risk?"
Products of the global market must be deprived of some of their historical identity to be marketable to other countries, said Castellina. European policy is safeguarding the right to preserve its specialization without which cultural identity couldn't exist. We should apply the criteria of the antitrust legislation, said Castellina.
"[Each] culture should have no more than a share of the culture of the world," she said.
There should be space for all cultures, she said. "The importance of space and distance is disappearing, and when it disappears, you are losing something" said Castellina.
When distance no longer counts, you stand at risk to have a dominant culture, added Castellina.
"This loss is felt in Europe, and there's this tendency to turn inward — to become a refugee in your own culture," she said.
The disappearance of space and geography carries great ambiguity — an ambiguity that we all need to think about and land is important to culture, said Castellina. It is more than a means of production, and a historical memory without which all tradition and identity would be lost, she added.
"Awareness is coming out that identity is important and must be preserved so it can be exchanged," said Castellina. "You cannot reduce the richness of the world to just one thing — you need the flavor of the region."
Currently, Castellina is president of Eurovisioni, a European network. She is a member of the Information Society Forum, a consultative committee of the European Union, and president of Italiacinema, the national agency that promotes Italian cinema abroad. She is also a former member of the Italian and European parliaments where she chaired the committee on culture, media and international economical relations.
Castellina's lecture, "Questions of Identity in Contemporary Europe," was sponsored by The Nanovic Institute for European Studies.
All News Stories for Friday, February 25, 2000
