Using History to Understand the Present: For the Living Co-Director Tim Roper on Fostering Empathy
Tim Roper is the Writer and Co-Director of FOR THE LIVING. Read more about Tim here.
What do you hope educators, students, and community members will learn from your film?
I feel that it is incredibly important to cover the role of human nature throughout human history. Not just death tolls, dates, nation- states, leaders, and high-level events. But an answer to the question: What is it about our species that allows these patterns of brutality to repeat and recycle again and again over the centuries? Why has “NEVER AGAIN” become a bumper sticker or a meme rather than an absolute mission statement? When will we take the time and energy we put into creating monuments to the dead and start dedicating that to re-humanizing the living? Secondly, it has come to our attention that many adults have points of view that are rather codified at certain points. By that, I mean they are preternaturally inclined to be amenable only to certain worldviews, which limit the extent of their empathy. Our hope is that movements like Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) can continue to offer a solution in early childhood education and hopefully be a tool that continues to institutionalize the recognition of all human beings as human beings and support human-wide empathy and understanding about the connections we all have.
Why is this film relevant to our current moment?
I often say that FOR THE LIVING is about far more than the Holocaust and for a much wider audience than Jewish people. It is a story about every single one of us and the time we’re living through at this very moment. Why? The United States of America is gripped by an extremely dehumanizing experience that allows migrants and U.S. citizens to be rounded up, abused, incarcerated, deported, and now murdered by unidentified agents and without any due process whatsoever. And every single human experiencing this has been falsely labeled as a “terrorist”, “gang member”, “murderer”, “rapist,” or “drug dealer”. Without exception. That is a classic, textbook example of dehumanization used to violate simple human rights and individual dignity. And even if you are not a specific target of these abuses, you are a witness and/or bystander. And, as our film points out, being an indifferent bystander can potentially become as toxic as the actions of the perpetrators. This last point applies to all nations around the globe, not just the U.S.
Tell us about how audiences have been responding to your film.
Both festival and academic audiences have been overwhelmingly positive. The first comment we receive in Q&A conversations is an emphatic “Thank you!” Every time. And the 2nd most common is “Why isn’t this shown in every classroom across the country?” My answer to that is “We’re working on it!” I feel that there is an overwhelming thirst for this kind of historical context during a time when both Holocaust knowledge and general historical knowledge are tragically thin. That’s no fault of educators but more the structure of our culture and the priorities of young people. I find that once engaged, younger audiences care and respect the history. But getting them engaged in anything that occurred prior to the year they were born (and that is not featured on social media) is challenging. We’ve very much been embraced by both Holocaust museum curators and educators as well because FOR THE LIVING illustrates both the roots and the commonalities of all the genocides we touch on and a potential way out of these cycles.
For you, what is most important that audiences take away from your film?
Aside from the human and historical commonalities that lead to all genocides, I feel it’s very important for each of us to look within ourselves, take a breath, and recognize everyone’s susceptibility to harboring dehumanizing thoughts, attitudes, and actions. Because that too is part of being a human being. That emotional trigger of dogma and propaganda that leads even the most factually educated among us to sometimes otherize and/or dismiss the rights and dignity of certain groups. In the end, we’re all in this together--for the good, the bad, and the ugliest of human impulses.
Why is it important to you that this film is viewed in an educational context?
Sadly, we live in a time where our government is trying to whitewash the teaching of history into something that only reflects pride and patriotism. Versus, the ability to learn from both our human frailty as well as our triumphs. When our audiences ask us “What can I do to fight back against dehumanization or the repetition of history?”, we invariably answer, “Fiercely support the role of public education in this country. The TRUE history”. Also, I find that it’s nearly impossible for a young mind to grasp why the world they’re living in today is the way it is without first understanding how we got here.
Tell us about your background and why this issue matters to you.
I’ve always had a passion for storytelling. Both as a filmmaker and as someone who minored in History at The University of Texas at Austin, where I studied TV and Filmmaking. Both wonderful departments. The majority of my filmmaking has been shorter form and branded content. Much of which was comedy. But one history class I distinctly recall from my time at UT was “Literature of the Holocaust”. This course focused on books, plays, short stories, art, poems, and music that were crafted by Holocaust survivors like Elie Wiesel, Anne Frank, and Jerzy Kozinki, just to name a few. This gave me more than a surface level understanding of the Holocaust, but actual first-person experiences created in a way that brought truly relatable human emotion into the mix. Prior to that time, I had gained more of a political and numbers-based historical education, i.e., the number six million, policies of the Third Reich, or the names of camps. But, as I found then, and I hope we illustrate well in FOR THE LIVING, numbers make us numb. And the more people who die, the less we care. Death tolls themselves don’t resonate or extend your empathy the way that individual human experiences do. That's why each of our genocide stories is recited through a 2nd person point of view. Over the years, I have learned to consume history through a very personal lens that always reminds me: “That could have been me”. Which I think are the five most impactful words in the history of History.
What kinds of conversations do you hope to facilitate about this film?
I’d love for audiences to gain an understanding of everyone’s role in these horrible trends and what we can each do to—at the bare minimum—not contribute to the atmosphere that has made genocide more a feature than a bug in human history. I think it’s especially vital that we use the understanding of history to evaluate the world we currently live in. And not fall prey to the disinformation and propaganda that seems to resurface every few generations and manipulates minds. I also think the story of Ride for the Living and the personal stories of both Marcel Zielinski and Robert Desmond are a kind of masterclass in human empathy. Two men, generations apart, expressing compassion for one another. And the Ride event being a huge collective act of empathy as well.
What do you like about speaking with educators, students and community members? Why use film to help address these topics?
Again, the role of human nature throughout human history. That’s vital to me. Because, far too often, we are led to believe that certain peoples, countries, or cultures are just pre-destined to commit horrible crimes against humanity. And others simply don’t. As though their bloodlines are somehow predetermined. That’s a horrible way to consume history. German people don’t emerge from the womb to be evil any more than Jews do, Muslims do, or any race, religion, or ethnicity does. Including the diverse fabric of Americans. There’s no such concept of “It can’t happen here”, anywhere.
Dehumanization and empathy are the two irreconcilable extremes of human nature that impact so many events and policies over the centuries. And none of us are immune from either extreme.
With the rare exception of those born with brain chemistry issues, we are all born with empathy. A human trait that needs to be nurtured and protected. And expanded. Not whittled away by the limits of our society, cultures, or technology.
Bring the documentary FOR THE LIVING and Tim Roper to your campus or community.
