U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon kicked off the
Independent Filmmaker Project and the
United Nations Department of Public Information's new initiative
Envision with a warm and jocular series of remarks today at the
Director's Guild of America Theater in midtown Manhattan. In its initial incarnation, one that is likely to expand in years to come, Envision is a two-day event comprised of screenings and panels, with a lecture and performance or two mixed in, that hopes to unite a diverse group of parties from the worlds of international filmmaking, public policy, business, activism, philanthropy and civil society organizations behind the idea that documentary cinema can have a lasting and significant impact on confronting global issues.
As the Secretary General explained before he ceded the stage to former supermodel, current Columbia Graduate student and
Marie Claire Contributing Editor Christy Turlington Burns, the UN's
Millenium Development Goals, a series of eight international humanitarian benchmarks the UN and 23 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have agreed to reach by 2015, are at the heart of this new endeavor between the UN and IFP. In 2009 the focus of these Millennium Development Goals is on issues affecting women. To that end, day one saw a pair of screenings, both of documentaries that trade in stark images of African poverty and hopelessness while showcasing the solidarity of women across cultural lines in the face of sexual exploitation and violence:
Kim Longinotto's Sundance 09' World Documentary Competition winner
Rough Aunties, a heartrending portrait of a mixed race group of women who do their best to counsel young victims of habitual rape and dysfunction in South Africa, and
Abigail Disney's Tribeca 08' world doc winner
Pray the Devil Back to Hell, about the scores of women, Muslims and Christians alike, who through non-violent protest forced a resolution to the bloody, two-part
Liberian Civil War.
Following the screening of Longinotto's latest triumph (a full retrospective of her work is underway
at MoMA as I write and Michael Tully has a terrific interview with her at
Hammer to Nail), the dearth of African authors within narrative and documentary films as well as the lack of ample cinematic and broadcast infrastructure within Africa, especially south and east of the Sahara, was discussed at length by several panelists. Also discussed were the representational and political issues involved with the imagery (starving children, sorrowful mothers, beleaguered relief workers) associated with poverty in Africa. And even if films reflecting the problems facing African women are made locally, does it take the heavyweight resources of someone like a Disney, a philanthropist as well as a filmmaker, to allow these stories to reach still somewhat paltry audiences? Panelists such as
Women Make Movies head
Debra Zimmerman and
Maisha Film Lab program coordinator
Ami Boghnani delved into these thorny issues with grace and insight, making clear that there is a long way to go before filmmakers from developing countries win power over their own cinematic representations. Yet they both shared fascinating stories of how democratized access to production equipment, low-fi, barnstorm-powered distribution platforms and far flung motion picture workshops such as those held by Maisha are paving the way toward something resembling homegrown cinemas in countries like Somalia and Uganda.
# posted by Brandon Harris @ 5/14/2009 06:15:00 PM
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