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Tri Continental Film Festival 2008
July 25 - 30, 2008
Goa, India
http://www.moviesgoa.org/page/tri_continental/
http://www.moviesgoa.org/tricon/schedule_2008.pdf
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AROUND THE WORLD IN 238 minutes
Day 3 at the Tri Continental Film Festival
Sunday, 27th July 2008 - A film festival, like any other festival is a
celebration. And even though the issues explored in this cinema are serious
and thought-provoking, the visual aesthetics of the medium bring a colour
and vibrancy to the event that make it a joyous and uplifting experience.
Day 3 at the Festival took us on a whirlwind tour of the world, bringing to
light complex connections between countries - neighbouring or across great
distances, through music, history or film, and celebrating our commonality
of spirit.
'Kings & Extras' directed by Azza El Hassan reflects the situation in the
Middle East in a 'road-movie' from Palestine to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon on
a hunt for the lost archive of official films of the PLO Media Unit which
went missing during the Israel invasion of Beirut in 1982. It is a story of
a failed revolution, the problematic relationship between the Arab countries
and the question of a Palestinian identity.
Then, in a touching short movie, director Diego Quemada Diez invites us
aboard a flight of fancy as Omondi, a young orphan trapped in the Kenyan
slum of Kiberia dreams of flying a plane out of his bleak life of poverty in
'I Want to be a Pilot'. Children are to be seen not heard, is a common
saying. Apparently, we now live in a world that would rather not see them at
all. How else can we explain our constant failure to provide for their most
basic needs -food, water, shelter, health and safety? How can we justify the
money we spend on wars, arms and technology? Who are we protecting? It's
certainly not the millions of children in our country who die despite all
our fancy new acquisitions: children who are supposed to be our future.
Director Philip Scheffner in his experimental search 'The Halfmoon Files',
traces the voices of Indian soldiers drafted to First World War and taken
prisoner in Germany to the origin of their recording, for a scientific
study. Surprisingly, the voices of Mall Singh and other colonial soldiers
are still preserved in an archive and 90 years later persuade him to bring
them back to their home countries. In this age of copyright and intellectual
property rights the debate started on who actually has a right to these
recordings? And do we, in India, value our heritage and our monuments? Can
history be owned by one country or one group of people? It also questioned
the need to divide the world along racial lines. Colonial rulers and
fascists seemed to be fascinated by 'scientific studies' to prove the
differences between races; often with tragic consequences. Because, instead
of celebrating these differences we usually condemn them.
Music through the ages has always been inextricably linked with follklore,
art, culture, religion and politics, its composition and style influenced
greatly by the philosophy of the period. And very often it has been the
instrument of revolution. The story of the charango symbolizes the struggle
for human rights and a quest to keep traditional culture alive among the
indigenous people of Bolivia especially the people of Potosi. In 'El
Charango' Jim Virga explores the relationship between the charango and Cerro
Rico, the richest silver deposit the world has ever known and also the
influence of a foreign colonial culture, its intermingling and mutation into
a culture the colonised peoples can make their own.
'VHS Kahloucha' is a delightful film about the trials of a Tunisian
film-maker making films in a country without a film industry. Directed by
Nejib Belkadi this captivating story is an inspiration to anyone who has
ever dreamed of making a movie. The explosive, unflagging passion of Moncef
Kaloucha and his commitment to his art is like a great hand reaching out of
the screen to grab you, shake you up, excite you and with a laugh, to kick
you out of your lethargy and into "Lights. Camera.Action!".
No collection of films on global issues would be complete without one on the
war in Iraq, which sadly, the more we know of it, seems to be a war on Iraq.
'Independent Intervention' directed by Tonje Hessen Schei is that film at
this Festival. This award-winning documentary depicts the disparity between
the US corporate-controlled media coverage of the Iraq war and the brutal
ground realities; of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians being killed,
injured and displaced. It explores how the growing media democracy movement
in the U.S. works to challenge the mass media. And of how independent
journalists struggle to survive the wrath, intimidation and injustice meted
out by Big Brother, or rather Big Uncle Sam. It prompted the audience to
explore our own journalistic ethics and to question our own mass media. It
also reminded us that a media with a single point of view is suspect,
because in a democracy there should always be as many views, opinions and
voices as there are people. (ENDS)
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