How has a film influenced your own work or the way you look at the world? (300 words max))

Rating: 9/10 (5 April 2020)

When I applied into NYU I was given the prompt in the title, this was my response, I didn't get in but I hope you can enjoy it.
The relationship between imagery, sound and dialogue allow me to submerge
myself into the depths of meaning in a well-told story. I delight in looking through the
proverbial haystack for the movies that successfully tell an engaging story, stir
feelings and force me to reconsider aspects of my life. No other art form has the power to transcend the screen the way cinema does for me.
The last time I found a needle, was with the movie 12 Years a Slave. Based on the
1853 book that chronicles the slave memoirs of Solomon Northup, a freeborn African American who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. The vision the director, Steve McQueen, brings to the film manages to capture the full depth of emotions Solomon felt in his struggles. The viewer, sucked into the character, is forced to feel what the protagonist feels.
Alfred Hitchcock famously said "Always make the audience suffer as much as possible", it seems that director Steve McQueen took that to heart. There is a scene in which Solomon's hanging is interrupted leaving him balancing for his life on the tip of his toes, ensuing the longest 85 seconds of my life. I felt trapped in this scene,
visibly stressed and holding my breath as if the noose was on my neck as well. This
scene holds the viewers, demanding emotions from them and it does not release its
grasp until the expected toll is paid.
This story and its' magnificent movie representation would have never existed if
Solomon had not been able to overcome his challenges. Consider the immeasurable
number of stories worth telling that will never have their time because they did not
survive their hanging. This inspires me to look for stories and tell them well to honor
all those that didn't make it.