The Western World is in decline. The western nations are quickly losing their place at the top of the international food chain. The United States, in particular, is seeing its relevance, influence, and power seep away at an alarming pace.

And Harvey Rochman knows why.

Harvey Rochman

“America is suffering from ‘Reality Deficit Syndrome,'” the noted producer and motion picture financier explained to me over the holidays from his home in Key West, Florida. “America and the West's definition of reality is too narrow. Money and materialism have come to symbolize ‘success.' If Americans lose their jobs, their money, their social standing, their possessions, they become depressed. They become withdrawn and bitter, or they go on medication, or they commit suicide. They have such a narrow view of reality, they don't understand that there are more facets, more dimensions, to life than money and material success.”

Rochman knows his subject well. He specializes in putting together major international motion picture deals and bringing the culturally significant stories of the non-Western world to life on the big screen. This job (although he might more accurately describe it as his “passion,” as opposed to a simple “job”) gives Rochman the opportunity to mix with people from every conceivable culture and society the world over, studying and learning what makes the peoples of those cultures tick, as he readies his next big blockbuster. And just as he understands that America and the West suffer from “Reality Deficit Syndrome,” he also understands that the industry in which he works plays a unique role in filling the void created by that disorder.

“Movies are therapy for this syndrome. Two-hundred people sitting in a darkened room for two hours, responding, deeply emotionally, to a wide array of emotions…fear, excitement, laughter, lust…having a shared emotional experience, in the darkness, with two hundred strangers. There's nothing touching them except sound and light. It's the closest thing to a true spiritual experience that the modern West is going to get.”

“A film with a powerful message can move two-hundred million teenagers around the world, more powerfully than their family, their tribe, or certainly their political leaders. That's why it's such a powerful tool. And a film can move millions of people not only through its storyline. Movies can manipulate us through the artistic use of sound, image, light, color, and texture. These are the things that can heighten the experience for the audience. Watching a movie is an intense visceral experience. You're bombarded on all sides by sound and light, and with the advent of larger theaters, like IMAX, and bigger, better sound systems, the power of that visceral experience is growing rapidly.”

Rochman has a deep respect for the power of his medium. And he has a profound understanding of his role in using that power for the benefit of people the world over. “The strongest, hardest, most stoic Midwestern so-called ‘meat-and-potatoes' steelworker will burst into tears in a movie theater. He won't cry in front of his wife, or his children, or his coworkers, or his church. He'll repress it, he'll keep it all bottled up until he finally has a mental breakdown. But in the dark of a movie theater, he can let go. That's why it's like therapy. That's the power of film. And my role, along with all of the other people who produce and finance motion pictures, is to use that power to heal the Reality Deficit Syndrome in the West, by bringing to the screen emotionally powerful stories from around the world, which can not only bring about positive change within the lives of individual viewers, but which can also create positive change on a global scale, by bringing together hundreds of millions of people who live thousands of miles apart, yet united as one by their shared experience of sitting in that dark theater, surrendering themselves emotionally to the magic of film.”