WHO writes history and who gets to decide what we remember? It’s a question raised by one of the main strands at this year’s Document Human Rights Film Festival which was on the verge of being cancelled as a result of the catastrophic fire at Glasgow School of Art.
For the last decade, it has been held in the nearby CAA but, as this was also damaged by the fire, the film festival was postponed in the hope the building would re-open in time. When those hopes were dashed, organisers had to find another venue at very short notice.
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All the stops were pulled out and it will now go ahead from November 30 until December 2 at the Scottish Youth Theatre in Glasgow. “It’s been quite a stressful few months but we’ve had a lot of support so we’re pleased to announce it will go ahead,” said festival programme producer Sam Kenyon.
WHAT CAN WE SEE?
IT would have been a great loss if the festival had been cancelled as this year it offers 11 Scottish premieres and some of the world’s most exciting prize-winning films, along with workshops and discussions with leading international filmmakers.
A fascinating feature in this 16th edition is about archive films and what they can tell us about collective memory and the role of filmmaking in the preservation of culture.
It centres on an archive made by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) film unit in the 1970s around the time of the Six Day War, an event that shaped politics in the Middle East and the way Arab life is portrayed in film.
It was thought the archive had been destroyed by the Israeli Army but it has been partially recovered, and restored, and some of it will be shown at the festival.
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“We are introducing the idea of what it means to not have access to your own cultural and political history and how archives can preserve our cultural identity,” Kenyon said. “A central theme of this year is the histories, afterlives and generative potential of archives – looking at what they can tell us about how we understand our individual and collective histories, particularly in relation to some of the seismic political events of the 20th century.”
WHO WILL BE FEATURED?
AT around the same time as the PLO unit was operating, there was an increase in the Middle East of Arab women filmmakers, with Ateyyat El Abnoudy becoming known as the “mother of Egyptian documentary”. Internationally acclaimed, she died a few months ago and will be honoured at this year’s festival.
“She pioneered a movement that championed people’s right to represent themselves authentically, challenging both the commercialism of mainstream cinema and the often poorly nuanced narratives of conflict that dominated the media,” Kenyon said.
“We are looking at the different ways that filmmakers, who are not part of the mainstream, choose to present themselves.”
El Abnoudy concentrated on social issues revolving around the Egyptian, Arab and African underclasses, especially the lot of women, a choice of subject matter which has limited her popular appeal and frequently invited the displeasure of Arab governments.
Dr Stefanie Van De Peer from the University of Exeter will introduce a screening of three of El Abnoudy’s short films with a discussion between each one and will also give an illustrated talk about her filmmaking.
WHAT ELSE IS ON?
DOCUMENT will also welcome filmmaker and artist Louis Henderson to deliver this year’s Superlux Masterclass in conjunction with Lux Scotland, focusing on recent collaborative work Ouvertures, which seeks to find an anti-colonial method of filmmaking.
Other guests include Sara Fattahi, director of Chaos, a devastating meditation on the war in Syria as experienced by three women living in exile, which won the Pardo d’oro Cineasti del presente at Locarno Film Festival this year and which will have its Scottish premiere at Document. Fattahi, also winner of the FIPRESCI Award at the 2015 Viennale, will lead a free director’s masterclass in conjunction with the Scottish Documentary Institute on December 1.
Other highlights include a rare chance to see Yama – Attack to Attack, filmed on the frontlines of a war between unionised workers and the corruption of the Yakuza in 1980s Tokyo – a struggle which cost both filmmakers their lives.
In addition, there is a double bill of AKA Serial Killer, Adachi Masao’s anti-sensationalist true crime masterpiece, and The Anabasis of May, Eric Baudelaire’s repurposing of Masao’s fukeiron film philosophy.
IS THERE MORE?
THE festival will also feature a panel discussion on Bernadett Tuza-Ritter’s shocking modern-day slavery documentary, A Woman Captured, immediately following a screening of the film. Another disturbing topic is tackled by Portuguese filmmaker Susana de Sousa Dias whose Luz Obscura is a deeply felt film essay on Portugal’s decades-long, right-wing dictatorship.
“It’s quite minimally put together using photographs taken by the secret police of dissidents, with the soundtrack narrated by their children who talk about how they did not know their parents because they were taken away from them,” Kenyon said.
“One talks movingly and distressingly about how, when he was young, he thought the secret police were all older men and was shocked when he later found that the older men were being replaced by younger ones. He was horrified to find it was a generational thing that kept recycling. It’s quite chilling.”
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