Our Pillars in Popular Media
Peace-building in Movies
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Brother Bear
This movie promotes empathy and understanding. "Brother Bear" tells the story of a young Inuit hunter named Kenai who is transformed into a bear and must learn to see the world from a different perspective. This transformation encourages empathy and understanding between different species. In a broader context, it can symbolize the importance of understanding and empathizing with others, especially those from different backgrounds or cultures, which is a fundamental aspect of peacebuilding.
Additional Information:
Release Date: 01 November 2003
Director(s): Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker
Content/Age Warning: 3+, depictions of fictional violence.
Genre: Fiction
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The Princess Diaries
This movie encourages women and girls to consider the perspective they can contribute to peacebuilding activities. It explains how important their voices are when it comes to ensuring their opinions are heard and considered during peacebuilding processes. It also demonstrates how important it is to have a support system for anyone seeking to establish peace within their lives, whether that be personal or public. It emphasizes the need to look not only within yourself, but at those around you to ensure that every possible idea has been incorporated in policies surrounding peace and its sustainability.
Additional Information:
Release Date: 13 December 2001
Director: Garry Marchall
Content/Age Warning: 7+, mild language.
Genre: Fiction
Armageddon
This is a movie that focuses on the way a group can be brought together in order to maintain the peace of an entire world. It echoes the importance of using grassroots organizations and field experts to address international issues. The threat of a giant, earth destroying asteroid brings out the need for cooperation amongst a wide range of actors. The answering call comes from just a wide range of participants, some who are less convinced than others, but they work towards making sure the Earth survives this threat. It focuses on the plans towards maintaining peace that must be established and followed through.
Additional Information:
Release Date: 15 July 1998
Director: Michael Bay
Content/Age Warning: 13+, language, suggestive content, and mentions of violence.
Genre: Sci-Fi
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Jurassic World: Dominion
As the conclusion to the most recent set of Jurassic Park movies has an undercurrent of peacebuilding throughout. It focuses on the need for collaboration between experts on the subject of the dinosaurs as well as the connection between family in order to better build pathways to peace. It also exposes the way other species beyond the represented human society rely on peace building in order to establish better connections with the human society. An interaction between the main character and a dinosaur illuminates the fact that peacebuilding can be used to bridge the gaps between species.
Additional Information:
Release Date: 08 June 2022
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Content/Age Warning: 13+, language, depictions of violence, and minor themes of horror.
Genre: Sci-Fi/Horror
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The Thirteenth Warrior
This is an older film that attempts to demonstrate how different groups of people come together and build peacebuilding paths that benefit everyone involved. It focuses on the tale of an Arabic soldier enlisted by a band of Vikings who need his help and expertise when it comes to battling an ancient monster. In order to reestablish peace in their land, they seek out help from another group. It is a film that features a great deal of violence used to try to get back to peace, and it takes bringing in an outside opinion to create an atmosphere ready for peace.
Additional Information:
Release Date: 27 August 1999
Director: John McTiernan
Content/Age Warning: 13+, depictions of violence and issues of representation.
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy