The Fablemans
I recently watched Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film, The Fabelmans.
It’s the story of Sammy, an aspiring filmmaker in the early-1960s—based on Spielberg’s own childhood. It references some of his real-life experiences, including his parents’ divorce and move to California.
At the end of the film Sammy screens a movie he’s made during the high school prom. It’s a film of his classmates on a recent beach trip. The film’s apparent “hero” is Logan, a popular, athletic kid that has previously bullied Sammy and his friends.
Sammy’s film depicts Logan as a kind of “golden god”, even though Logan has tormented and picked on him throughout his time at the school.
“Why’d you make me look like that?” a distraught and bewildered Logan asks Sammy after the screening. “I’ve been a total asshole to you. I broke your nose. And then you make me go and look like that! What’s wrong with you?” Sammy’s reply is simple: “All I did is hold the camera, and it saw what it saw.” [ref]
Sammy’s footage shakes Logan, who can’t comprehend how the film made him “something he’s not”—perfect. As one of the final scenes, his frightened reaction tells the young filmmaker that he can not only create different worlds through his movies but also alter others’ perceptions of our own universe and of themselves. [ref]
The shaping of different worlds
The film shows us the story of how Spielberg comes to recognise the power of filmmaking. How he learns to tell the story that he chooses. Not just stories that are separate to reality, but that challenge how people see themselves in the world.
It made me reflect that we all have this power to a lesser or greater extent–with how we shape, then edit, and filter the world. And how the stories we tell can create new realities, profoundly impacting how people feel, react, and respond to us.
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