We Are Together

Thank you EIFF…

- The Rise and fall of Renaissance Films: Exploring Independent Film Business Models
-To Die in Jerusalem (which I did pay for as I had sans pass) RECOMMENDED
-Document Shorts
-Beirut Stories (amateurish/document shorts)
-Extraordinary Rendition (fiction yet ‘real’ complicit kidnapping of British citizen by the CIA)
- Western Trunk Line (Melancholic domestic drama set in a Chinese Mining Village)
-Chris Cooper: In Person (of American Beauty fame: Military father)
-Bridge Over the Wadi and Strawberry Fields (met the director of former) RECOMMENDED
-State of the World (somewhat eclectic collection of commissioned shorts that formed a feature, from around the world- I’ve never seen so many people walk out of a screening before- spoke to the producer later)
-We Are Together (met the director) RECOMMENDED
-Blind Mountain (based of real life human trafficking; selling wives to Chinese rural villages)
-Serpent (French Thriller)

If I’d gotten my pass at the beginning, the list would have been at least twice as long. But 3 films a day for 3 days is as much as I have ever done. All but one film was at the Filmhouse so I would go from one screen to the next, sometimes with an hour break, sometimes 15mins.

I had met Hilla Medalia who had directed To Die in Jerusalem after the screening. We chatted as I walked her and her friends to the restaurant. One of her friends was Barak Heymann who, directed Bridge Over the Wadi. Both were Israeli and had made fairly successful first time documentaries, which were fair to both Jewish and Palestinian perspectives. Hilla had started her doc while still a student with a PD150. Both took years to shoot and finish. I bumped into Barak today at the café and we spoke for a little bit. We were actually going to see the same film, We Are Together. Barak wanted to see this film that seem to steal every award from his film in the festivals! The film as in turned out was a very good first time documentary about the Agape school for orphans in South Africa. This also took a few years to shoot and began when the director was still in film school. Strawberry Fields was equally a very good and partly due to it’s strength of feeling very grassroots (at one point we see the director being asked not to hold the tripod like a rocket launcher as Apache helicopters fly nearby).

I realized that my bus was a 10:30pm and not 8pm as I originally thought so I figured I’d see one more film. My first choice was Julie Delpy’s debut. But it was sold out. So Instead I got one for The Serpent, a French Thriller in a similar vein to Tell No One. While sitting in the auditorium waiting for the film to start, I saw a man and woman walk in and around to the other side. The man looked strikingly like John Pilger, of whose writing and work I have admired for years. I was pretty sure it was him. After the film I waited till he was in the Foyer and asked if he was and indeed he was. He was on his way out with, I think, his wife so I didn’t want to hold him up. I just said I liked his work saw his doc the other day and that it was a pleasure to meet him. He didn’t say much, just a thank you.

If meeting 3 good first timer doc directors having done good work about Israel/Palestine wasn’t enough, I meet one of the mothers of hard core journalism who has consistently uncovered the political upheaval, documented wars and conflict around the world. He’s written articles, books and made documentaries. The man had been in war zones before I was even born. I didn’t expect him to say shit to me but I just wanted to say that it was a pleasure to have been in the same room as him! On par with meeting Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk and Arundhati Roy. I never though I would ever meet any of these people who educate, inspire and give so much hope.

When you’ve stood with greatness, it feels liberating and for a moment you feel as if you had a peek above the clouds, that you may be heading for greatness yourself as you tip toed at the bottom of their podium for a second.

What I believe Charlotte Cornic (made a short film about a Palestinian Refugee living in Glasgow), Hilla Medalia, Bara Heymann, Paul Taylor, John Pilger and myself have is the need to share what we know, what we saw, what we are discovering, to inform what is rare or non existent on the news or on TV. It’s great to have briefly met people who are like-minded. Taking Paul’s title of his film not just to mean us as film- makers, but all of us as a species; we are together.

- J

Strawberry Fields Forever

I just went to watch two documentaries. One called Bridge of the Wadi and Strawberry Fields. The first documenting the first year of a school which had both Arab and Jewish children, located inside an Arb village, the other about Strawberry Farmers those business becomes severely halted when the politics/war halts their livelyhood. Both were very good. I may meet the director for the former tomorrow. These are contemporary docs which should be seen, these are docs the type of docs i would love to work on. Really great. The world is out there for us waiting for us to make it better, inch by inch. Learn and inform and be active. These film makers do.

- J, from the Filmhouse.

To Live in Edinburgh

Since coming to Scotland for various reasons (camping, friend in Glasgow and Edinburgh) but coinciding for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and, I have been here an entire week, today was the first day I did a marathon. Previously I had planned to watch, as it worked out, a film a day (it's expensive). Today i watched 3, and will see the 4th in an hour. I was in Glasgow 4 days ago when i met the director of a short film screening here and she told me about the delegates Pass which is for- people who have something screening. I shot something that's screening... did that count? The Concretes music video had screened as part of Mirrorball and David Mullet, the director, wasn't coming. I got to Edinburgh and wanted a quiet night in so didn't bother to go out that night. The next day I had to do some work in the afternoon for the project next week. In the evening I helped my friend Stephan shoot a gig at the Spielgal Tent, which was fun (there i missed my second film). Yesterday I came out and met Kate who i met in Glasgow at the Delegates Centre where- I inquired about getting a pass and- they said they would sort me out in the morning.

I wasn't sure what i was doing there as I didn't really know Kate and had barely spoken to here before. I did, somehow, manage to speak to a composer and then the director for a short film about a Palestinian Refugee living in Glasgow. In the evening I managed to get a sold out ticket to see To Die in Jerusalem and also to speak and exchange details with the director. I went home and saw John Pilger's The War on Democracy, which I tried to get tickets for 2 months ago in London but couldn't. It had been a good day spent in a city where I only knew one person, who I didn't even see the entire day. The Filmhouse (main venue) even serve bacon roll (staple British film shoot breakfast) in the morning.

I had gone to Glen Nevis and rained nearly the entire time i was there. I had missed my first two scheduled films. I got passed over on a music video (because the commissioning person wanted her boyfriend to shoot it- not because of the director). I was getting ripped off at the local wireless internet cafe. The time up seemed to be a mild disappointment after another. And then I met some directors of interest and a free pass- that includes free wireless access...

I have to add. It is evidently nice to be a 'guest' of the festival. And the apparent 'glamorous' aspect which goes along with it is lost with me. While here, watching a series of politically thematic documentaries, it has increased my own will to shoot and become involved in these projects. The juxtaposition of watching a film about the struggle and frustration of people and then walking out into one of the nicest cinemas in the UK. Talking to directors about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict in nice bars/cafes. It reminds me of The Front Lines Club of where serious issues in Journalism are discussed within the confines of a very nice members only club. I am not in criticism, but I do find it interesting how seemingly the most pertinent of the worlds political issues discussed by the people that are actively involved are discussed within safe, comfortable and established interiors. Though it is clearly not for this reason or purpose but perhaps the dynamics work; that from a safe environment alien to a war ravaged country, it would be easier to discuss the latter, from the third perspective.

I have an entry about the camping which will be posted with the photos i took that day, which i will post next time.


One more thing. It's been just over a year since I started this blog. Apart from one person, I don't even know who's reading it (the one person isn't me).

- J

welcome to the future.

Went to Norwich for 2 days for some personal time out. The first day wasn't too great but I won't go into that. Let's just say it's about a girl. The second day was more fun. Me and Craig went to the grounds of The University of East Anglia and the halls of residence. We walked along a big lake and the surrounding area. We slid down a 15 x 6ft 75 degree office window- hard to explain. We kicked a football around. I know I haven't kicked a football in over 10 years.

On the way back on the train we stopped at Ipswich. A local girl, (whom I found out later was) Natasha Coombs, 17, was found near the tracks between Ipswich and Colchester. A replacement bus service was called in at the last minute. I got into London 2 hours late which by that time the tube stopped running and a night bus didn't appeal. Luckily a friend of mine lived nearby and I was able to call her and stay over (lucky I remembered her mobile by heart as my phone had died by then).

The small online commercials with AA and Ford fell through at the last minute due to Ford pulling their sponsorship out.

In those 2 days, it was one thing after another. But a bbq the next day restored some enjoyable times where we drank good wine, good food and discussed The Simpsons, Ren and Stimpy and South Park with an Archaeologist, a Clinical Psychologist, a Graphic Designer, a Photographer, a Dancer and a Web Designer.






- J

At Your Most Beautiful

I was walking back home after a spot of shopping when a woman in a red dress came slowly cycling towards me. I watched as she came in diagonally. As she neared, she said, 'Hi' to which I said hi back. I didn't know her and she didn't know me. Funny things happen sometimes that make you smile.

- J

Rise

'All the news in the UK about China is negative', a friend said to me last year. She was from Beijing and silly enough, it hadn't occured to me before that. It will be about the young girl who is training too hard for the Olympics, about the amount of pollution the factories are creating in the drive for economic divinity or about media censorship. These things, are both true, noted and published. This selective 'news' coverage is not reserved for China. What we hear of Iraq and Pakistan, of Lebonon and the West Bank. We hear about the flooding in India. You rarely hear about the flooding in China which is both annual and severe. We don't hear about the NGO's working in the refugee camps in Lebonon, we just hear about the army crackdown. We hear about the West Bank when the IDF shoot and kill some Palestinians. We don't here about the ex IDF personnel who are against their government's military/political stance on Palestine.

Iraq (Mesopotamia) was the country that invented writing, was once the cradle of civilization. How does one think of it now? It's people with a decade of war (with Iran), then a decade of sanctions under UN authority (driving the country to virtual malnutrition and killing over 500,000 children- then Secretary of State Madeline Albright when asked of this cost she famously replied, 'I think the price is worth it') and now an invasion. The people live in a chaotic, lawless state. The young people have grown into a world where they know only of war, sanctions and invasion. If this was your country, how would you feel?

China is also an fairly old civilization. It's been around a long long time and probably only sniff at what other countries may think of the government of it's people, and just continue to strive forth. I once picked up a small travel book from the airport called, 'The Xenophobes guide to the Chinese' (part of a series including other countries). It said that 'people from other cultures who try to make fun of Chinese people, well, it's like a child trying to make fun of an adult. Chinese people know that their civilization is far older, the fact that the name CHINA, means 'Central State'. We hear about the relocation of villagers to build the Three Gorges Dam and the disappearing landscape of Beijing. Do we ever hear of the avant garde art scene at galleries 798? Or the kindness or ordinary people in te street? Or the impromptu free cinema screening in the middle of the road in a small factory town?

I am not saying that many of these countries have major issues. But that's all we hear about in the mainstream media. We never hear of the small and wonderful things that happen every single day in these countries. We can be blind to the strength and spirit of it's people and see it as an entity full of bad news. Just as one can see England as either full of twead wearing toffs and cockney geezers dealing with flooding and mad cows.

I liken to the fact that the US has the gall to suggest and lecture any country regarding human rights issues considering that slavery and aparthied existed legally for over 200 years and torture exists at a military facilities (Abu Graib, Guantanamo) and where the Death Penalty is still practiced. Yet there are wonderful people and things that happen everyday there.

I would like to end with a poem by Maya Angelou which partly governs my thoughts regarding the corporate media, manufacturing consent and the spirit and strength of people everywhere of which Maya Angelou is no doubt, such a person.


Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.


- J