The One: Contagious Kindness by Christopher Cullen is a video narrative assignment with a highly personal motivation and an infectious influence.
Catchy phrases—literally, ones that “contagiously” catch on—that describe the viral effect of kindness, such as “kill them with kindness” or “kindness is contagious” take words with opposing connotations and put them together to form memorable adages. Killing/contagion is normally negative with kindness associated as a positive word.
Cullen, in a similar juxtaposition, uses humor, light-hearted introduction and a heartwarming background story to “put some good out into the world” while considering a much more important matter—his future and that of his child, as well as the future of society—and the very real and devastating problems people face every day through the responses of thirty strangers.
“What one random, contagious act of kindness will you do today?” is the question; the imminent birth of his child is the inspiration. In considering their answers, the thirty respondents have “caught” the kindness bug. They have been exposed to the idea and once the seed of an idea is planted, it will hopefully continue to grow. Cullen notes in his reflection that after the experiment he realized that he provided kindness by simply asking the question, but ironically fails to note that the viral nature of videos and the fact that his work has been published has potentially furthered the contagion of kindness.
