One is greater than a million.
[Music]
hi
my name is anj i’m a documentary
filmmaker and i have been for the last
seven years
for the purpose of this talk though i’d
like to take you back a year
the month was may 2020 roughly three
months after covert 19 was declared a
pandemic
what began as complete and utter
disbelief about the situation we found
ourselves in and the devastating effect
it was having on the world
was starting to transform into something
that resembles a mind-numbing hum
we’d spent night after night after night
consuming numbers the number of people
who were infected
the number of people who were dying the
number of people
who were losing their jobs the number of
migrants unable to return home
the numbers kept coming for us every
time we turned on the television
opened a newspaper or logged into
it was like one harrowing statistic
after another until it all just sort of
became white noise
it’s like when you’re living on a quiet
street and a single car passes by and
that’s enough to wake you up but if
you’re living next to the highway the
sound of a million cars sort of
transforms into a low consistent hum
that you can peacefully sleep through
and you don’t even notice
not noticing is a dangerous place to be
in and not noticing is
is a privilege this phenomena according
to psychologists
is called psychic numbing the effects of
this have been felt across some of the
world’s
biggest natural disasters wars
atrocities genocides
as the numbers of victims increased in
all of these cases
our willingness to help has usually
decreased
which led psychologists to this
unsettling realization that the value of
a single human life
diminishes against the backdrop of a
larger tragedy
when you’re a documentary filmmaker or a
journalist or an activist
or a member of a not-for-profit
organization like i
am right now and the sole focus of your
work is to drive change to drive action
in the face of a crisis
how do you cut through this tension the
flip side of this phenomena is called
the singularity effect which
is that an individual life in and of
itself is very valued
the plight of an individual affects us a
great deal and we usually go to great
lengths to protect a single person
or to rescue them from distress but as
the numbers increase
our ability to empathize doesn’t quite
heap up in fact mother teresa herself at
some point said
if i look at the mass i will never write
if i look at the one
i will in may 2020 as the united states
approached 100 000 pandemic deaths
simone landon assistant graphics editor
at the new york times grappled with a
similar problem
by this time the authorities as well as
the people had begun to get desensitized
to all of these horrifying statistics
and
were starting to settle into what we can
call a bit of an apathy slumber
so she came up with the idea of
compiling obituaries of
corvid 19 victims from across the
country big cities and small
each name was accompanied by one line
about the victim
fred walter gray 75 washington
liked his bacon and hash browns crispy
minnett golf cooper 79 louisiana
loved big and told people she loved them
all the time
kyra schwartz 33 new york volunteered
for pet rescue organizations
philip thomas 48 chicago his walmart
co-workers were like his family
these names and several others filled up
the front page of the new york times
each one a reminder that behind every
number is to the real human being
that was lost to this pandemic the front
page wasn’t even news anymore it was a
statement it was a call to action
this phenomena isn’t unique to our times
though
estimates say we lost 20 million people
in the first world war
close to 80 million in the second six
million jewish lives were lost during
the holocaust
and over a million people were reported
to have died during the india-pakistan
partition
and yet these numbers by themselves have
historically failed to spark meaningful
action
my first emotional response to the
partition of india despite having
studied about it in school early in my
life was actually after my grandmother
narrated her story to me
one summer vacation back when i was a
kid
my grandmother my nani is easily one of
the best storytellers i know and
she’s had a significant impact in not
just shaping my most intrinsic personal
values but also my approach to
filmmaking
i didn’t know it yet but as my 10 year
old self lay next to her on a warm
summer night
listening to stories of her 10 year old
self separated from her family
walking on foot from a village in
pakistan to her new home in india
the seeds of a lifelong obsession with
storytelling were being sown
the narrative of the partition is often
told through the monumental violence
appreciated chiefly for its magnitude
yet the true story of the subcontinent
is very often the story of its people
ordinary people living in
extraordinarily difficult times
experiencing unimaginable personal loss
hurt
and pain that runs far deeper than a
number can truly capture
when years later i became a filmmaker
and it was time for me to fill in the
blanks and write the story more fully
i knew i had to look away from these
news debates and political rallies
i knew that it was to the memory keepers
that i must turn
like the people of hunderman a tiny
village along the border of india and
pakistan
following the indo-pak war of 1971
hunderman changed hands overnight
as the borders began to shift residents
ran for cover and several families were
separated from their loved ones
in 2017 members of the village embarked
on an unlikely enterprise
to assemble a museum of memories in an
attempt to safeguard their past
and leave a legacy behind for those who
come after them
[Music]
[Music]
foreign
but i am by no means a pioneer in this
art form
several have come before me the first
day project an archive of immigrant
voices narrating their first day in
america
the 1947 archive a rich library of
stories from the partition
and of course the humans of new york
each of these examples utilizing
powerful individual stories set against
the backdrop of a larger issue
to raise awareness and spark action
but what is it about stories that
compels us to respond to them
in such a meaningful way while it’s
impossible to point at a particular time
and place in the history of human
evolution
at which we first began telling stories
i think it’s fair to assume that we’ve
been practicing some form of it
since we developed the ability to
express ourselves through art or through
speech or even through action
thousands of years stories have
performed two primary functions
to connect and to inform the urge to
tell stories and to listen to them
is driven by first and foremost a very
basic desire to connect with those
around us
to find unique overlaps in decidedly
distinct personal experiences
and use them as the basis of forming
deep emotional connections
it’s the social glue that holds us
together an inference by the way
supported by
evolutionary psychologist robin dunbar
according to whom about 65 percent of
all human conversation
held in public places is usually gossip
but stories also serve a second even
more important function
long before we gained access to any form
of formal education
fables taught us the consequences of our
actions good and bad
they taught us how to survive in the
world how to avoid danger how to avoid
pain how to prosper
an instruction manual of sorts disguised
as fairy tales
a combination of these two functions to
connect and to inform
when used effectively can activate what
are called mirror neurons in our brain
responsible for mimicking activities or
emotions we watch unfold in front of our
eyes
scientists believe that these neurons
are responsible for enhancing empathy
and consequently
encouraging generous behavior and
sparking action
today i’m working for a cause that faces
some of the same challenges i mentioned
early on we have a youth mental health
crisis upon us
and systems of support have not been
able to keep up
young people are struggling across the
world right now and we must act
to inspire action i am once again
looking to rely
[Music]
they might seem like an old-fashioned
tool to us and that’s because they are
but that’s also why they’re so effective
stories are
and have been woven within the very
fabric of our existence for as long as
we can remember
and so they can sneak into rooms that
numbers are not allowed to enter
data may be able to wake people up from
a slumber but to pull them out of bed
it is to stories that we must earn thank
you