news

DocPoint: Day 2

Published on January 26, 2012

The following is a guest post by Anya Kandel, filmmaker of the MTM9 film Why Do White People Have Black Spots?

———————-

On my second day at the DocPoint film festival here in Helsinki, I spent most of my time watching films. Each film addressed issues that divide people and provoke many to look the other way.

I am happy to see that films addressing climate change refugees are gaining visibility (see also MTM winner and Academy Award Nominee Sun Come Up). This week, DocPoint is featuring There Once Was an Island which opens a window to the lives of the people of Takuu, a Polynesian community on a low-lying atoll in the South Western Pacific. The waters are rising, the gardens are becoming salty and the life they have known is in danger. Filmmaker Briar March’s camera is a silent witness to their struggle and the community decisions that have to be made. The ultimate need to move to the mainland threatens their culture - one of the few remaining egalitarian societies where all resources are shared. The lifestyle of fishing and farming will have to be replaced by employment in industries of which the community has little familiarity and the move will result in new exposure to malaria. The community is faced with the task of finding solutions to a problem that they did not create and lie far beyond their control. This is the human reality of climate change. I implore you - film festival organizers, teachers, citizens of the world - to watch this film. Beautifully shot, unembellished, thoughtful.

Jaffa, the Orange’s Clockwork, follows the social and political implications that bear themselves through the Jaffa orange in Palestine and Isreal. Filmmaker Eyal Sivan is an honored guest of the DocPoint festival this year. The Jaffa orange, named after the Arab city from which it derived, has become the symbol of both pride during early Zionist movement and the figure of nostalgia for Palestinians who resided there in the past. Eyal Sivan brings stunning photos to life and digs through history with the figure of the Jaffa orange. Through the voices of scholars and historical photographs he challenges the Zionist notion that the land lay bare before their arrival. A plethora of information, a history in art and a history of history.

Finally, I watched If A Tree Falls, recently nominated for an Academy Award. Filmmakers Marshal Curry and Sam Cullman bring us into the home of Daniel McGowan who was arrested during the national sweep of radical environmentalists who were part of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). As we wait for Daniel’s hearing, Curry and Cullman show the history of the movement through the stories of those who were involved. Stories, which often fall silent under the auspices of the term “terror,” are given forum in this film. The task of defining “terrorism” is both a definitive decision by the court and profoundly ambiguous notion to the individuals involved. The impetus to make oneself heard, the imperative to incite social change, and the desire for justice—these motivations are given substance in this film. Note: it is currently viewable on Netflix.

At the DOKKINO screening today I was asked why documentary film is important. These films offer an answer to that question –they are a practice in storytelling that (hopefully) opens a door to a nuanced of shared humanity. Members of high school media club came up to me after the screening and asked why there weren’t more films with young people telling their own stories. I told them that all it takes is a camera. They said they would get to work.
Here’s to our future.

Anya

No Comments | Leave a Comment | Share: