N. 46/47 Palomar : voyeur, voyant, visionnaire - ViceVersaMag

Kevin Martin
El I
his
Film Festival has taken place here in
is the fifth year in which the
Human Rights Watch International
Manhattan; each time, its occurrence has provoked
and inspired, more each year than the
previous. The 1994 presentation covered the
work of over 70 video and/or film makers,
whose varying subjects evoke such horror
and sad futility at the problems of societies all
over the globe (including the good ol' USA),
that it often seems that evil in humankind is
a relentless, resistant disease.
A shattering glance into the very harrowing
struggle of Tibetan monks and nuns
as they deal with the Chinese occupation of
their land (immediately upon invasion of
Tibet in 1950, the Chinese destroyed at least
6,000 monasteries), Satya: A Prayer for The
Enemy gives a rare and fascinating close-up of
the Buddhists' religious discipline and the
conflicts that the nuns have had to confront,
and in some miraculous way, even succeed (in
a limited sense) in overcoming the efforts of
the Chinese assault on the Tibetan customs
and national identity. Directed with a sharp
sensitivity by Ellen Bruno, we meet nuns of
raw courage, as they endure religious oppression
in their own land, closed to the world.
Their survival thus far in the face of such
odds speaks volumes of the nuns' effective use
of non-violence for social change. ( 27 minutes.
USA)
Director Garry Lane has skillfully reenacted
in Tlie Stream the true story of a
woman's forced flight, on foot, from her
Bosnian home. In the course of very tragic
circumstances during her journey, this
woman must make a very terrifying choice;
who of her family (two small children and a
*»r-
mother-in-law) will live and die. Shot in
sharp black and white and acted with subtle
precision. (13 minutes, Germany)
No one who has read a newspaper on
world affairs during the last 25 years can
ignore the fact that sectarian violence is a
way of life in Northern Ireland; a modern
political hell-on-earth rivalry which feeds on
its own insolubility, the "troubles" as this
struggle is generally called, seem eternal.
Suddenly, however, as these notes are being
prepared, the IRA in Belfast has called for a
ceasefire. Tlie Fourth Green Field by Margaret
Bruen captures the long historical strife
between Protestants and Catholics. Using
original footage, Bruen presents the Irish civil
rights movement which in large measure was
inspired by the outspoken leaders in the US.
The death of 13 protesters of the now notorious
"Bloody Sunday", and its international
negative publicity for 10 Downing Street, was
just the beginning of this modern smoldering
crisis. Giving testimony on camera about the
current painful effects on British legislation. -
including the detention of "suspects" without
being charged and without the presence of
counsel -, Hie Fourth Green Field concludes
with a call to action and not merely arms, and
true to its explanation in the program notes,
makes offer of "specific suggestions to the
public for bringing about real change in
Northern Ireland". (96 minutes, UK/USA)
Chronicle qfThe Uprising in Warsaw Ghetto.
According to Marek Edelman, by Jolanta
Dylewska is no less haunting than the commercially
successfull Schindler's List and perhaps
more horrifying for its understated matter-of-fact
quality, due in large part to the
very powerful and simple on-camera narra­
tion by Marek Edelman, who recalls his
experience of 50 years ago as a young Jewheld
inside the Warsaw ghetto, built and
supervised by the Nazi SS as a part of their
mass extermination program. Using old Nazi
films from the ghetto itself and intercut with
Edelman s recollections, this documentary
offers a reminder of some of the darkest
moments of the Nazi reign of terror. Despite
overwhelming risks to his own safety,
Edelman (an active member of the Jewish
political party BUND) was nothing but
courageous in using his position as an hospital
messenger to help hundreds of would-be
murder victims to escape from the yard.
underground, of their imprisonment. With
the most haunting dirge-like music done on
strings that I have ever experienced in a
showing of a documentary film anywhere,
Chronicle demonstrates a natural, luminous
quality of man's exhortation to man: never
forget. (80 minutes, Poland)
Done by John Akomfrah of Britain, a
member of the very enterprizing group
known as The Black Audio Film Collective,
Seven Songs for Malcolm X is scathingly fresh in
a way. It very finely explores Malcolm X's
own personal, political evolution as a champion
for social change. There are interviews
with his widow, brother, and friends who
recall with deep honesty the Malcolm they
knew. In a sense this documentary is far more
revealing of the man and his feelings than
Spike Lee's tiresome commercial effort ot the
same man. Lee also appears and gives an
intelligent insight into Malcolm X's memory
reflecting about what he meant to people and
u hat he wished for others. (55 minutes. UK)
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NUMÉRO 46-47 • VICE VERSA 21