On Screen | On Benjamin’s Mechanical Reproduction

As a response to Walter Benjamin’s essay, I would like to focus on his take on films by referencing Erik Matti’s Buy Bust (2016). 

Buy Bust has provided a new set of perspectives that might have actually happened during President Duterte’s war on drugs, mainly about police corruption and how people in the slum areas suffer greatly as an outcome of these operations compared to those who are the big fishes of the problem on drugs.

To expound on this, the film had exposed its audience to the harsh reality of the world through controversial topics that are seemingly undetected at first glance as the director manipulated the story’s narrative to espouse a reaction from its mass audiences. Films like this aim to challenge the people who watch them to analyze similar instances that can be seen in reality while trying to open up a discussion to correct the issues stated in the film, therefore opening an emancipatory outlet for progression and development that would be beneficial for humanity. Watching films like this one is now readily available for people to consume because of the rise of mechanical reproduction and will now increase our sensibilities regarding societal problems and will then increase the chances of overthrowing such issues and rising above them as a community.

Through Walter Benjamin’s essay, we are reminded of art’s power, making us realize that as the world around us begin to change, we are molded by the media and art-objects that we consume, and the way that we perceive art should also begin to change. I reiterated these notions because I would like to magnify the importance of involving people to the things that are happening around them in society:  meaning that we must be able to criticize the problematic ideals set by those who are on top, to stop a “leader” and their fascist ideals from reigning over us. 

In my case, I see films that are like this to be a continuous communication among those who view it, since it is something that one would ponder upon even days or weeks after watching it. Films allow us to have a seemingly instant confrontation without having to know its background or who made it, and it also allows us to create our own interpretation outside of what is blatantly shown on screen. It goes deeper into our reality by immersing us into it, even subconsciously at first, but will eventually be apparent once it has settled.