The Boy Mir: 10 Years in Afghanistan

August 24, 2011 Leave a Comment

© Seventh Art Productions

IN 2002 DIRECTOR PHIL GRABSKY DOCUMENTED THE LIFE of one ordinary family in central Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in his film, The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan. The center of his film was one year in the life of the young boy Mir, an engaging 8-year old who resides with his family among the caves and mountains of Bamiyan. But the story did not end there.

Ten years later, Grabsky returned to document the next ten years with Mir. The film is screening now in the U.S. and Europe. I asked Phil through an email interview what it was like to do a “sequel” of sorts to Mir’s story.

The Activist Writer: Why did you decide to do a follow-up to your first film?

Phil Grabsky: To really get a sense of how successful our attempts have been to influence post-Taliban Afghanistan, I felt that I had to spend more than one year following the story. It seemed to make sense to spend ten – though there were many times I regretted the decision. You would imagine raising funds for such an important story would be straightforward- but, believe me, my knees are still sore from all the begging to broadcasters.

TAW: What changes did you notice in Mir as you chronicled his life?

PG: The obvious change is a physical one but there was also, as I anticipated, a gradual swing from innocence to experience. But I had no idea, of course, as I followed his story just how he would or would not change. In many ways, what has impressed me is how consistent he has been in terms of humour, intelligence, fortitude and application. He certainly learnt how to speak up for himself though. I feel he offers an optimistic view of the Afghan potential; the sadness is he still lacks any real hope of achieving the heights he is clearly capable of. Then again, that’s where the responsible film-maker intervenes after the shooting has stopped.

© Seventh Art Productions

TAW: Did you have an idea of the shape of the film when you went back? Were there scenes you wish you could have included, but didn’t make the final cut?

PG: It was both scary and exciting to not know how the story would develop. I never had any idea for shoot to shoot what had happened or would happen. I had my intuitive ideas of course but in Afghanistan anything is possible. I, and my Afghan colleague, were extremely lucky to gain the access we did and capture the scenes we did. Highly experienced, long-term travellers and visitors to Afghanistan say they have never seen inside an Afghan family in this way—even in real life. There are, of course, scenes we cut out—perhaps the one I regret is Mir’s participation in the national horse-rising sport of Buzkashi. It is wild! But it’s good to have a few deleted scenes for the DVD extras!

TAW: How do you think viewers will react to this latest chapter in Mir’s life?

PG: I know already: they are moved, amused, shocked and enthralled. Anyone who isn’t probably ate too much popcorn and fell asleep.

TAW: On the film’s website, you include a link for how viewers can support the people of Afghanistan through charity programs. How much responsibility do artists, and documentary filmmakers, have to help their subjects? Do you consider yourself an “activist”?

PG: I come down firmly on the side that we owe a moral responsibility to our characters. On a human level, how can one walk away from such poverty. You can’t hide behind the ‘I’m bringing your story to the world’ line…What you actually do that is tangible is a personal matter but, for our part, we helped Mir, the family, the school and the community as a whole. It’s not a question of interfering and doing too much. It’s a question of not doing enough. Am I an activist? How can you make documentaries of any value on any subject if you are not. I want to educate people so that their decisions are better-informed. The ignorance about Afghanistan and Afghans is shocking: I actively want everyone to see this film. I am not shoving my politics down your throat, and indeed the film shows that the story is a myriad of greys, no black & whites here. But we are spending billions and suffering horrible casualties—how can you not want to know more? And what better way than a film which is funny, beautiful and moving?

Special thanks to Phil Grabsky for his time, and to Francesca Hendry at Seventh Art Productions. Watch the trailer for The Boy Mir here:

Filed under Activists, film Tagged with ,

True Stories of Brewing Tea in Afghanistan

April 21, 2011 1 Comment

© Ahmad Wahid Zaman

NEWS BROKE THIS WEEK ABOUT ALLEGATIONS OF INACCURACIES in Three Cups of Tea, the bestselling memoir by Greg Mortensen, the story of his school-building work in Central Asia. Mortensen is accused of fabricating events in the book, and now a charity run by Mortensen is also under scrutiny.

Despite the news and controversy about this particular project, there is a need to hear about the social conditions facing Afghans today. One place to find that perspective is Community Supported Film. They train Afghans to use video to tell their own stories.

Brewing Tea in a Kettle of War is a documentary focussing on the economic development process in Afghan villages. The project is spearheaded by filmmaker Michael Sheridan, who was inspired to mentor Afghan journalists and filmmakers.

Here’s the introduction to the film:

Community Supported Film has also just wrapped a series of shorts called The Fruit of Our Labor. You can view excerpts of the finished works on their official Vimeo channel.

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Syria’s Voice and Conscience: Omar Amiralay

April 13, 2011 Leave a Comment

reelfestivals.org

HE NEVER SHIED AWAY from confronting and exposing the social and economic injustices of his home. Syrian filmmaker Omar Amiralay was Syria’s voice and conscience.

Amiralay was a longtime pro-democracy supporter; in 2000, he was a signatory of the Damascus Declaration, which led to the “Damascus Spring.” When he died this past February, he left a legacy of documentary films that exposed and confronted poverty and oppression.

Amiralay’s career in documentary filmmaking spanned the five decades of the ruling Ba’ath Party. As the protests of the last month show no signs of abating, we can look to Amiralay’s films as a guide to what has shaped Syria and how her people have arrived at this point in their history.

This clip from Amiralay’s third film, “The Chickens,” documents how peasants suffered after the government’s failed farming ventures:

Amiralay did not only focus on his home country. His later films addressed social movements and activism in Yemen, Lebanon, and Egypt. This essay is a good overview of his groundbreaking and far-reaching work.

Watch more clips of Omar Amiralay’s on this YouTube channel. For more on Omar Amiralay, including interviews with the filmmaker, visit ArteEast.

Filed under Activists, film, Politics, Poverty Tagged with ,

Burma’s Hope for A New Democracy

April 7, 2011 Leave a Comment

THE STORY OF HOW A FORMER JUNTA MEMBER and soldier, Myo Myint, changed sides and became a pro-democracy activist is the subject of the film Burma Soldier. Now, secretly made copies of the film are making the rounds in Burma. The producers of the film have also made the film available in Burmese through Vimeo, and it’s gone viral.

The film’s upcoming release in the U.S. (it’s scheduled to air on HBO in May), is good timing for Burma watchers: all eyes are on how the recent regime change will play out.

The film, co-directed by co-directed by Nic Dunlop, Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern, goes inside the military and effectively reveals how Burma became a military dictatorship. It’s also a very personal look at one man’s life and how he comes to understand his nation’s history and his place in it. “I will fight for peace,” he says in the film. “That’s what I decided.”

Here is a photo essay about Myo Myint, and the story of how he switched sides. You can watch the film in its entirety on Vimeo (in Burmese):

Filed under Activists, film, Human Rights Tagged with ,

Changing Senegal One Woman At A Time

April 1, 2011 Leave a Comment

SISTER FA IS SENEGAL’S MOST FAMOUS RAPPER and a role model for youth. She’s also a determined and outspoken activist who campaigns against FGC (Female Genital Cutting).

Sister Fa was herself a victim of genital mutilation, and is using her voice to raise awareness to end the practice of FGC. Her career and activism have always gone together: in 2008, Sister Fa took her tour “Education without Mutilation” through the villages and cities of Senegal, using her music to speak out about ending female genital mutilation.

In this interview, she talks about why FGC, while outlawed in Senegal since 1999, is still carried out in some communities:

A documentary about her life and work, Sarabah, shows the singer returning to her native village to engage with the women in her community. The film was recently honored at the Movies That Matter Festival.

Learn more about Sister Fa and watch a clip from Sarabah:

Filed under Activists, film, Human Rights, music Tagged with , , ,

The Black Power Mixtape: Review

March 30, 2011 Leave a Comment

THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975 is a new documentary made from 16mm films taken by Swedish journalists, who covered the Black Power movement from the late 1960s to early 1970s.

This includes never-before seen interviews and footage of Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King, Eldridge Cleaver, and Angela Davis (the latter during her imprisonment and trial in 1972).

The footage sat in a basement for 30 years, and it’s a remarkable find. Director Göran Hugo Olsson shaped the footage to form a narrative in 9 chapters, one chapter for each year. The film adds contemporary voice-overs from poets Sonia Sanchez and Abiodun Oyewole, musicians Erykah Badu and John Forté, historian Robin Kelley, and others.

While the Black Power movement may be too big to squeeze into a short documentary (the run time is barely over 90 minutes), you come away with a significant understanding of the events and people who participated and shaped the time.

Olsson’s decision to create a strict chronological story, moving from year to year, is the film’s strength. You literally see, hear, and feel change happening on-screen. The archival footage includes public appearances and speeches that are profound and sharp, like Eldridge Cleaver calling out 1968′s presidential candidates as “three pigs: oink Nixon, oink Humphrey, and oink Wallace.”

But the film also reveals personal moments that are no less effective; for example, Stokely Carmichael interviews his mother about their early family life. Carmichael gently pokes and prods, but the questions get more pointed and we learn how his father was often the first one laid off from a job.

“Why was he the first one laid off?” he asks. “Because he was a colored man,” his mother answers, an exchange that is both poignant and incisive for its context and meaning.

The crisp and immediate images give the now-familiar touchstones of black history, such as MLK’s Nobel Prize, and his final speech on the night before he was assassinated, a new immediacy and import, as if we’re seeing them for the first time.

The year MLK was killed is of course also significant for Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination and the murder of . And footage of young black men and women shortly thereafter is a key point in the film. In this moment when so many leaders are being killed, everyone interviewed on-camera tell reporters they feel “there is no future,” and that they “have no hope left.”

As we enter the 1970s, the Southern roots of the movement fade, and we witness the beginnings of the Black Panther Party. The setting also shifts from public to private: large auditoriums and public spaces are replaced by houses and apartments, or a detention cell, the inside of a dealer’s car.

This is an urban mise-en-scene populated not just by the newsmakers and boldfaced names, but by everyday people.

The later chapters take place almost entirely in Harlem of the 1970s, where we glimpse a population struggling with poverty, disenfranchisement, and drug addiction. By the time Louis Farrakhan appears on-screen, and we’ve reached the middle of the decade, we’ve been on a journey that shows the evolution of a southern nonviolent movement into a more northern, urban-set base.

Although the people and events we’ve witnessed are an enormous part of who and what the United States is today, there is still the feeling of a parallel narrative—a story happening “somewhere else” to other people that the dominant, white, middle-class culture chose to marginalize and ignore. But as The Black Power Mixtape proves, the issues Americans faced then—war, income inequality, and racism—remain with us today.

Watch the trailer of The Black Power Mixtape:

Filed under Activists, civil rights, film, Human Rights, News Tagged with , , ,

12 Stories of Gender Justice in Bangladesh

March 28, 2011 Leave a Comment

brac.net

THERE IS THE “BAREFOOT LAWYER” WHO FIGHTS INJUSTICE DOOR-TO-DOOR, and the wife—and husband—teams who turned around opinions about what equality means for women and men.

These and other gender justice pioneers are profiled in “Courage in the Heart,” a series of short films about young women in Bangladesh who are demanding greater rights for themselves.

The young women in these films all started out as survivors of human rights abuses, but today are educators, activists, and agents of change in their community. The “Courage in the Heart” project directly addresses the gender inequality of Bangladesh’s patriarchal social system, in which women have inferior status, and shows how empowered communities can improve women’s lives.

The stories you’ll hear demonstrate how far gender equality still has to go in places like Bangladesh.

Yet you’ll also see how education and community organizing can make a difference, especially in the poorest communities in the developing world.

The films were produced by BRAC, a development organization created and lead by Bangladeshis. BRAC works to alleviate poverty and promote gender justice and human rights in Asia, Africa, and Haiti.

Watch all the films and learn more at the project’s official site. More here about women fighting against gender violence.

Filed under Activists, film, Human Rights, Poverty, women's rights Tagged with , , ,

Chile’s Past and Future: Guzmán’s Nostalgia for the Light

March 25, 2011 Leave a Comment

THERE ACTUALLY IS NO PRESENT MOMENT, explains an astronomer in Patricio Guzmán’s latest film, Nostalgia for the Light. The Chilean director (The Battle of Chile, The Pinochet Case) once again grapples with time, and how memory affects the present and past. With this film, however, he’s crafted a magnificent meditation on memory by finding the link between two separate and seemingly different subjects: astronomy and human rights.

Nostalgia is set entirely in “the driest place on earth,” Chile’s Atacama Desert, home to some of the world’s most powerful celestial observatories. The Atacama is also where, after Pinochet’s military coup of September 1973, political prisoners were detained in concentration camps and bodies of murdered dissidents dumped and hidden in mass graves.

The dry, translucent air allows astronomers to discover the origins of the universe. It also preserves human remains, including those of Pre-Columbian mummies and 19th century miners.

Guzmán, who narrates his film, begins by exploring his love for astronomy and the wonders to be found in the sky. Guzmán lovingly films the workings of the telescope and interviews the stellar cartographers who map the cosmos.

The astronomers spend their lives looking up and looking back: everything they see is in the past. And they are looking far, far back in time.

This is not the case for the families of the disappeared. In this way Guzmán slowly reveals the driving force behind his film, and the connection to Chile’s recent past. The astronomers are not the only searchers in the Atacama desert.

There are also the women of Calama, an ever-dwindling group who comb the dry desert floor for bone fragments and remains, hoping to find evidence of their lost loved ones.

The astronomers look up, the women of Calama look down, and both groups look back, but with wholly different motivations.

Like an investigative journalist picking away at a story, Guzmán discovers all the people, alongside the astronomers, whose lives are tied to the Atacama: the archeologist who chronicles the pre-Colombian carvings on the rocky plains; and the architect and former dissident who used his drawing skills to memorize exactly, down to the square meter, the dimensions of the compound where prisoners were kept.

There is the young man, also an astronomer, whose mother is a torture survivor and today acts as a counselor to others like her; and the camp survivor who revisits the abandoned 19th century miners’ barracks that was converted to a detention camp. He demonstrates how a group of detainees, guided by a fellow prisoner, educated themselves in the constellations.

They even constructed a crude telescope out of wood to look at the stars. The astronomy “classes” did not last however, and they were ordered to stop, because their torturers believed they could use the constellations to plot their escape.

It all comes back to the stars. As a coda, there is the work one of the visiting scientists whose studies the stuff of star matter and the calcium in our bones. It’s all the same, he says. We are stardust. Is it so very ironic to discover this fact, and in this place, where individuals search for bones and stars and yet are looking for the same thing?

Two final scenes are poignant and pointed: two of the women of Calama are given an opportunity to look through one of the telescopes. Guzmán superimposes stardust floating around them.

The film ends with the twinkling lights of Chile’s modern capital, Santiago. It almost looks like one of the nebulae or galaxies we’ve been gazing at. Every night the center of the universe passes over Santiago, Guzmán narrates, but no one cares to notice. Chile denies its past, unwilling to face recent events and their consequences. It cannot exist, Guzmán says, or move forward, until it does.

Read more about the film and Patricio Guzman at the official site of Icarus Films.

Filed under film, Human Rights Tagged with , ,

Helping the Roma Community

March 23, 2011 Leave a Comment

THE ROMA COMMUNITY IN EUROPE TODAY face discrimination and inadequate living conditions, lacking even the most basic needs like water, shelter, and electricity. Romani children are illegally segregated and denied their right to education.

Many EU governments take an anti-Romani stance; last year, France expelled Romani in widely reported incidents. Meanwhile, since 2008, violence against the Roma have increased.

The Roma live throughout Europe and have a population of 8 million. A new documentary, “Valea Corlatului” (The Corlat Valley), directed by Stephane Lucon, examines one community of 700 who have settled in a valley between the Brasov and Covasna counties in Romania. The film has just premiered as part of One World Romania, an international film festival on human rights.

Here is the trailer for the film. You can also watch more clips at the film’s official site. More here about Roma civil and human rights.

Filed under film, Human Rights, Politics Tagged with , , ,

A Film Festival for Social Change

March 16, 2011 Leave a Comment

THEY SAY 2011 IS THE YEAR OF THE SEQUEL (for a change), but luckily for filmgoers who want more that a retread there is a new venue for personal expression and a sense of mission.

The first Global Social Change Film Festival & Institute launches this April. The festival promotes social action filmmaking, and chose “Global Women and Film” for its inaugural theme. After its first run this year in Ubud, Bali, the festival moves on to other host cities (like New Orleans in 2012).

The festival will also honor activists and award a main prize to the film that best explores a contemporary social issue.

Watch trailers for the eight nominated films below. More info about GSCFFI.

1. Climate Refugees (Various): How extreme weather events and climate change are causing a global migration of climate refugees:

2. Deep Down (U.S.): Two friends end up on opposites sides of a debate when a proposed mountain-top coal mine comes to their community:

3. Fambul Tok (Sierra Leone): about grassroots reconciliation between the perpetrators and victims of the country’s civil war:

4. In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee (U.S./Korea): a Korean adoptee who came to the US in 1966 searches for her real identity:

5. Nothing Rhymes with Ngaparjti (Australia): A Pitjantjatjara actor, Trevor Jamieson, returns to his traditional country to perform a hit theatre show to an all-Indigenous audience for the first time:

6. There Once Was an Island (South Pacific): Three residents of the Polynesian community of Takuu survive a tidal flood, but continuing climate change may force them from their homes:

7. A Village Called Versailles (U.S.): A community in New Orleans East try to rebuild their homes after Hurricane Katrina, but the city instead plans a debris disposal landfill in their community:

8. Dog Sweat (Iran): follows the lives of six young people in Tehran. Watch a clip here.

Filed under Art, film, Human Rights, News, women's rights Tagged with ,

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