Philippe Boucher's Rendez-vous with . . . Kori Titus and Deirdre Imershein
Rendez-vous with . . . Kori Titus and Deirdre Imershein
about the documentary film "Scene smoking / Cigarettes, Cinema and the Myth of Cool"
Titus: Director of STARS ( Seeking Tobacco Alternatives with Realistic Solutions) and Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down!
Sacramento, California, USA
ktitus@saclung.org
Imershein: American Lung Association of Los Angeles County
By Philippe Boucher
Rendez-vous 117
Monday, November 26 2001
PB : Thank you Kori for accepting our rendez-vous.
May I ask you to introduce yourself ?
Kori Titus: I'm Kori Titus, director of STARS and Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down!, two projects designed to work with the entertainment industry to reduce the unintentional glamorization of tobacco depictions in movies and television. I have been the director of these projects since 1999 when I became intimately involved with tobacco control. Prior to that, I had been a volunteer at the American Lung Association of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails (ALASET) for a number of years working on numerous agency priorities. When the STARS project was funded and a director was needed, I was recruited by the ALASET Executive Director who I had met through my MBA program. Prior to coming to work for ALASET, I had gathered over a decade experience in marketing management in various industries.
I was drawn to the American Lung Association as they had been successfully working with the entertainment industry in Hollywood since 1995. First through the innovative Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! program that has been replicated throughout the world, and now with the statewide STARS program, the organization has been working to reduce the unintentional glamorization of tobacco in movies and television. These programs have compiled one of the most comprehensive databases on tobacco depiction in movies and television.
STARS works statewide to lead to a new level of action in seeking solutions to the problem of tobacco use in entertainment productions. There are three main components to the grant which include:
A range of activities have been designed to establish contact with the many segments of the entertainment industry including educating them on the issue of tobacco use depiction and obtaining personal commitments to reduce overall tobacco use in the media.
STARS is a project of ALASET and it's ongoing partners which include the ALA of Los Angeles County, Entertainment Industries Council, Inc., UCLA, Runyon, Saltzman & Einhorn, ALA of California, ALA of Ventura/Santa Barbara, ALA of Orange County and ALA of Inland Counties. We have partnered with many other organizations over the course of our work including UC Irvine, the Motion Picture Association of American, the National Association of Theater Owners, the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control, Proletariat Filmworks, Stellar Quest PR, B.D. Fox & Friends, and others.
Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! is another powerful program that is designed to increase tobacco awareness among young people, reduce the impact of media messages encouraging young people to use tobacco, initiate a cooperative effort with entertainment industry decision-makers to minimize and deglamorize the use of tobacco in film and on television, and annually monitor tobacco use in movies and on television.
More than 300 teens from throughout California have participated in Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! as part of a statewide effort. Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! is an entertaining and educational project that teaches teens to become critical thinkers and encourages them to really "Watch What They're Watching." These teen reviewers participate in many advocacy activities including: evaluating movies, entertainment publications and television programs for their tobacco portrayal, and sending postcards to movie studios and television networks to recognize their efforts.
Both of these projects are made possible by funds received from the Tobacco Tax Health Protection Act of 1988--Proposition 99, under grants from the California Department of Health Services, Tobacco Control Section.
In answering these questions, I have asked Deirdre Imershein who works for one of STARS' major partners, the American Lung Association of Los Angeles County, and was one of the producers of Scene smoking to join in.
Scene smoking is a 60 minutes documentary film by Terry Moloney that allows some of the entertainment industry's most powerful voices to speak on both sides of the issue. it features interviews with actors Sean Penn, Jason Patrick, Angie Dickinson, Jeremy London, directors Rob Reiner and Richard Donner, writers (Michael Crichton), producers. Those Hollywood insiders speak about artist's rights, social responsibility and the First Amendment.
Q1. How frequently are actors and actresses smoking in movies nowadays? Is it getting worse? How big a problem do you think this is?
Kori: According to our latest Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! data (our next report will be out after the first of the year), the average per hour incidence of cigarette use was about 5.9. This is actually one of the lowest average incident rates we have seen since we started evaluating movies from 1991-1992 so according to our research it's actually getting better. Of the top 50 movies we review each year, this past review found that 66% of them had some sort of tobacco portrayed. This is among the lowest percentages our youth reviewers have found. That's the good news. The bad news is that tobacco portrayal in film is still very high and the messages being portrayed are potent. Our reviewers found that of the films with tobacco portrayals last year, 73% of them had some sort of pro-tobacco message. This is particularly important to note. We are not just concerned about how much tobacco is portrayed on film. The other critical issues to consider is who is using tobacco on screen, how that tobacco use is portrayed and finally, where tobacco is used.
For instance, how tobacco is portrayed has much to do with the impact it will have. When tobacco use in the movies and on television is portrayed as fun, exciting, sexy, rebellious or connected to wealth and power, it reinforces common advertising themes of the tobacco industry. While glamorizing tobacco may not be the intent of the entertainment industry, the end result is that such portrayal encourages tobacco use among young people. Conversely, when anti-tobacco messages are included in movies or on TV, it has the opposite impact and may discourage young people from starting to smoke. It should be noted that putting tobacco into the hands of the "bad guy" may also encourage teenage tobacco use. Our youth reviewers frequently find both types of messages in the movies they review. It is important to note here that the messages perceived by the reviewers may be different than the messages intended by the moviemakers.
Another disturbing trend we have been seeing is a strong resurgence in cigar use. When cigar use is portrayed on film, it is almost always has a pro-tobacco message: power, influence, wealth, prestige, etc. This past review period, we saw 3.1 average incidents per hour - that's the highest incidence we've seen since 1994-95. So this is something we'll be looking at closely in the future.
We feel that this is a big problem. While images on screen are only one of the many ways our youth are influenced, recent research by Dr. James Sargent and his team at the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth, has shown that these images convey a very strong message to viewers and in fact adolescent exposure to movie tobacco use is directly and independently associated with trying smoking and more favorable attitudes among "never smokers".
We also know that the tobacco industry believes that images on screen have a strong positive impact on viewers. One disturbing quote found in the tobacco industry documents includes the following from a report to Phillip Morris from Kelly Weedon Shute Advertising in 1989: "We believe that most of the strong, positive images for cigarettes and smoking are created by cinema and television. We have seen the heroes smoking in "Wall Street," "Crocodile Dundee," and "Roger Rabbit." Mickey Rourke, Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn are forever seen, both on and off the screen, with a lighted cigarette. It is reasonable to assume that films and personalities have more influence on consumers than a static poster of the letters from a B&H pack hung on a washing line under a dark and stormy sky. If branded cigarette advertising is to take full advantage of these images, it has to do more than simply achieve package recognition - it has to feed off and exploit the image source."
We're obviously not alone in our feeling that these images have a strong impact.
Q2. In the video I did not see anybody representing officially any of the main studios. Someone states, "they don't care". Is this absence intentional, did they decline to participate? What about the MPAA and Jack Valenti?
Deirdre Imershein: We enjoyed great studio support. First, Tom Rothman, (Chairman, 20th Century Fox) who simply could not fit an interview into his schedule that worked with our shooting schedule, lent his name to our Honorary Board for the STARS premiere. In addition, 20th Century Fox helped us get a good deal of our post production for free. Warner Bros, Paramount, 20th Century Fox and Sweetland Films all granted clips from their films to us for free as well. And lastly and most importantly, 20th Century Fox granted us a donation to help fund the premiere, and their logo appeared in all printed materials for the film, so they endorsed it.
Because "Scene Smoking" is a dialogue-based film, we asked interviewees to give us their personal opinions on the First Amendment versus Social Responsibility. We were interested in the thoughts of creative people who make films. Therefore, we never asked for an "official" position from any studio.
During the course of making the movie, we discovered that most of the time, it is the actor who brings tobacco on set. Since movies are usually financed based on the participation of major actors, producers, directors, etc., do not feel they have any power over that actor's choice to smoke.
If the Screen Actors Guild required, as they do for working with a smoke machine, for example, a payment to the Health fund of their union if someone needed to work with second hand smoke, it might give the Producer financial leverage to ask an actor not to smoke in some cases. But with as high as studio budgets are, this would more likely be most effective in the independent film world, where money is very tight.
We did ask all interviewees if they thought the MPAA should play a role in regulating tobacco depiction on screen. In the end we had hundreds of hours of footage and only 60 minutes for a great deal of material, so we did not put that footage in the film. That decision was made jointly by Terry Moloney (our director) and myself. It really had to do with time onscreen.
Q3. You present a wide spectrum of opinions pro and con. Sean Penn keeps claiming you are in favor of censorship. Where do you stand? What are realistic solutions for the 21st century?
Deirdre: Sean Penn never says that the American Lung Association is for censorship. He states that "the film" (i.e.,"Scene Smoking") is "about censorship", because in discussing the First Amendment you must discuss censorship.
He states in the film that ratings for movies can be more informative, as they are on cable, so that parents have more tools to guide them and the artists, in turn, have a "wide berth" to then make art for an adult audience when they want to. Neither STARS nor the American Lung Association supports censorship in any way. That is why we made a film discussing both sides of a difficult issue, to find solutions, not to suggest anyone resort to censorship. We believe that by presenting both points of view, we can educate Hollywood about the health community's concerns, and educate the health community about Hollywood's concerns.
Kori: It is very important to note as we do in all our discussions, that STARS and TUTD are not talking about smoke free movies or television. We do not think of that as a "realistic solution". However, with education and awareness, we believe that we can reduce the number of positive tobacco portrayals we see.
Q4. Michael Crichton suggests organizing annual cancer awards for the actors who promote smoking. How do you intend to develop actor's awareness of those issues and social responsibility? How do you position your efforts with others like Stanton Glantz and his smokefreemovies campaign?
Deirdre: The STARS Project takes a multi-pronged approach to develop awareness about tobacco issues within Hollywood. First, we held a premiere of "Scene Smoking" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on April 26th. Over 450 members of the entertainment community attended. A pre- and post- survey of the audience's knowledge and attitude regarding tobacco depiction, conducted by the UCLA School of Public Health, showed that 90% of the indicators measured showed a positive, statistically significant change in viewers' attitudes about the depiction of tobacco in film.
In addition to the premiere, we run Speaker's Panels of entertainment professionals who debate this issue at the Guilds and at film schools. Currently, "Scene Smoking" will screen at the 2nd Burbank International Children's Film Festival on October 30th. Pepperdine University will screen the film for their entertainment law students on November 7th, and we are setting up a screening at the American Film Institute as well. I have had two professional acting training programs back east request the film - The New Actor's Workshop, NYC, run in part by Mike Nichols and SUNY Purchase, where actors like Edie Falco, Stanley Tucci, Wesley Snipes, Sherry Stringfield and many more have been trained.
The film will also have 10,000 copies distributed at no cost to us by the Centers for Disease Control to universities all over the country, earmarking professional film and acting programs.
Q5. What else and what's next? How is the video going to be distributed, used? How to obtain it? Are there other initiatives you are preparing beyond this video? What about the slides in movie theaters?
KT: TUTD is funded through June of 2003 and our youth reviewers will continue to evaluate tobacco portrayals in movies, television and in entertainment publications and we will continue to share those findings with the entertainment industry and the public.
As Deirdre mentioned, the CDC will distribute the film and we continue to distribute it throughout the entertainment industry. We are also working on having the film broadcast, so it has the potential of reaching an even broader audience. If someone would like to obtain a copy of the film right now they can contact slong@saclung.org for information.
As this is the final year of our three-year grant, much has already been accomplished and we still have more to do! We conducted a major media campaign geared toward the entertainment industry around World No Tobacco Day in 2000, in partnership with the MPAA and the National Association of Theater Owners, we placed an anti-tobacco message in 6,000 movie theaters throughout California in July 2000 (although many chains ran the slides for a whole year), we have assembled a high level group of health advocates and entertainment professionals for our Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee co-chaired by Dr. Ken Kizer and Bonnie Bruckheimer who will be meeting to discuss ways the health community and the entertainment industry can work together on this issue, as Deirdre mentioned we run speakers panels, and we have a group of very committed young people participating in our "Young Ambassador's Program" which meets with industry professionals to share their views on tobacco portrayals. Also, in the coming months we will have an article written by our primary consultant, Curtis Mekemson who has been instrumental in the California Tobacco Control movement and was the creator of Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down!, appearing in Tobacco Control. This article, co-authored by Stan Glantz, is an in-depth review of the history of the tobacco industry's attempts at influencing Hollywood.
Q6. Is there anything else you would like to add?
KT: We are very excited about the progress we are making and hope that we will be able to continue our efforts. After the first of the year, we will be applying for continued funding so you can expect to see even more new initiatives out of STARS if we are able to secure funding.
It's important to note that this is a very unique environment to operate in and it is often difficult to evaluate our progress as the impact we are making on the industry today may not show up on your movie screen for years. However, based on the initiatives we have been able to evaluate and the feedback we are receiving from the industry, we feel we are making an impact and hope that we can continue in that vein.
PB: Thank you Kori for taking the time to be with us today.
Rendez-vous is supported by a contract from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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