tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/documentary-2176/articlesDocumentary – The Conversation2024-03-12T12:36:07Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2255152024-03-12T12:36:07Z2024-03-12T12:36:07ZArtdocfest is a crucial outpost of free expression on Russia’s doorstep<p>On the day of the funeral of <a href="https://theconversation.com/alexei-navalny-reported-death-of-putins-most-prominent-opponent-spells-the-end-of-politics-in-russia-223766">Alexei Navalny</a>, Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent, the biggest festival of documentary film in the former Soviet countries opened in Latvia with a minute’s silence. Artdocfest Riga’s programme spoke out resoundingly against the brutal dictatorships of Russia and Belarus, and provided a valuable space for Ukrainian filmmakers and others fomenting freedom and democracy in the region.</p>
<p>Having permanently relocated from Moscow to Riga in March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the festival does not permit “<a href="https://artdocfest.com/en/news/mansky-speech-2024/">any film produced in Russian studios</a> in the competition programs”. But it did showcase films by foreign directors showing the Russian legal system’s crushing of dissent: Russia vs Lawyers (Masha Novikova, Germany), The Dmitriev Affair (Jessica Gorter, Netherlands) and The Last Relic (Marianna Kaat, Estonia).</p>
<p>Silent Sun of Russia (Sybilla Tuxen, Denmark) charts the inner turmoil of three young women displaced by the war as they join the <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/10/25/15-of-russians-who-fled-war-mobilization-have-returned-survey-a82885">more than 800,000 people</a> who have left Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This number includes filmmakers, such as Vitaly Akimov, now based in France, whose film The Last Summer celebrates a Russian youth scene of alternative art and anti-establishment attitudes.</p>
<p>When The Motherland Aborts You, also titled Country Abortion (Zoya Vodyanova, a pseudonym, Czechia/US) follows a lesbian couple. One of the women, Zakhara, has moved to India and the other, Lina, starts the film in St Petersburg. Zakhara is desperate to help Ukraine, even as a volunteer, but Lina dissuades her. The couple are distressed by the pro-war views of their family and wider Russian society. </p>
<p>This was also a theme in three anonymous Russian-made films: Point of the World, Musicians and Uno. Each depicts the reactions of youthful protagonists to the situation, from biting their lip and hypocrisy, to private tears and failed attempts to leave.</p>
<p>One of three films in the main competition, Pussy Boys (Darya Andreyanava and Mikalai Kuprych) follows gay Belarusians. They not only address the camera in private, but also discuss their sexuality publicly in random conversations on buses – a political act in a country where homosexuality is <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-proposes-law-against-nontraditional-family-lgbt/32826074.html">soon to be criminalised</a>, as it is in Russia.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for Motherland at Artdocfest.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Motherland (Alexander Mihalkovich, Sweden, and Hanna Badziaka, Norway/Ukraine) focuses on a mother investigating her son’s suicide as a result of the bullying of recruits typical in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/06/russian-armys-hazing-culture-drove-son-ramil-shamsutdinov-to-kill-soldiers-says-father">Soviet</a> and now <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-army-suicides-deaths-/28802305.html">Belarusian army</a>. The film is a broader reflection on society’s violence, as recruits realise they will be told to shoot protesters. This is set against the protests against the <a href="https://theconversation.com/belarus-election-contested-result-sparks-massive-unrest-as-europes-last-dictator-claims-victory-144139">falsified 2020 Belarusian elections</a>, when Alexandr Lukashenko brutally suppressed those demanding he resign in favour of the winning candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. </p>
<p>Tsikhanouskaya’s campaign and the protests are the subject of Accidental President (Mike Lerner and Martin Herring, UK). The film received an emotional reception, with the audience shouting “<em>Zhyve Belarus</em>” (Long live Belarus), the slogan of the protests. </p>
<p>Franak Viačorka, Tsikhanouskaya’s chief political advisor spoke at the festival, necessitating heightened security and illustrating Artdocfest’s importance. Latvia shares a border with Belarus and Russia: these dictatorships are a threat to their neighbours as well their own citizens.</p>
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<h2>‘Ukraine Above All’</h2>
<p>The festival screened five films about Ukraine in its main competition, as well as a special programme entitled <a href="https://artdocfest.com/en/program/ukraina-ponad-use--artdokfest-2024/">Ukraine Above All</a>. Artdocfest has promoted films by and about Ukraine ever since the 2014 illegal annexation of Ukraine, even when it was based in Russia. This was a major reason it had to relocate.</p>
<p>However, a global appetite for Ukrainian documentary films about the war means some of the biggest now head to Sundance or Berlin festivals, achieving wider distribution. Such was the case with the 2024 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlab8EvzxRw">Oscar-winning 20 Days in Mariupol</a>. Instead, Artdocfest screened films evoking the war indirectly, but no less poignantly.</p>
<p>The Mist (Dmytro Shovkoplias) is an immersive film conveying the confusion and disorientation of suddenly finding yourself caught in a war. Position (Yurii Pupirin) showed the daily tedium of Ukrainian soldiers waiting in trenches, fighting the weather and mud more than the enemy. A Picture to Remember (Olga Chernykh) and A Bit of a Stranger (Svitlana Lishchynska) both reflect on identity and family history, a process triggered by the displacement forced on Ukrainians by Russia’s aggression. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Artdocfest Riga 2024 showreel.</span></figcaption>
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<p>This same dislocation of up to <a href="https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/ukraine/">10 million people</a> was depicted by winner of the main prize, In the Rearview. Polish director Maciek Hamela filmed the Ukrainian passengers he picked up and ferried to the border as they processed the first days of the war and began their lives as refugees. The documentary evolved from his work as a volunteer driver, as he wanted to document the stories he witnessed. It is a fusion of ethics and aesthetics exemplifying the greatest possibilities of the medium.</p>
<p>British historian and Russia commentator, <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-the-west-can-truly-avenge-navalnys-death/">Mark Galeotti, suggested</a> that one effective way the west could avenge Navalny’s death is by investing in Russian language media. This would offer a different perspective on domestic and world affairs for growing numbers of Russians, realising that their own state is lying to them. </p>
<p>Artdocfest is an important part of that approach, offering an outpost of free expression on Russia’s doorstep. Just as it screened and acclaimed Navalny’s films in life, so the festival continues his legacy, speaking out and amplifying others who do the same.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Hicks is a member of the UK Labour Party</span></em></p>Artdocfest 2024 was a showcase for films that show the reality of the war in Ukraine, and the spread of Russian politics to neighbouring countries.Jeremy Hicks, Professor of Russian Culture and Film, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2183142023-12-22T19:00:18Z2023-12-22T19:00:18ZSkip ‘Die Hard’ this Christmas and watch these 5 films to better understand the climate crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566748/original/file-20231219-19-k72k4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C81%2C1433%2C892&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ethan Hawke plays a minister in 'First Reformed,' (2017) a film that prompts viewers to rethink what they assume they already know, from politics to religion to the climate crisis.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(A24)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/skip-die-hard-this-christmas-and-watch-these-5-films-to-better-understand-the-climate-crisis" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The holiday season is, for many, a time for cherished rituals and down time, including watching movies like <em>It’s a Wonderful Life</em>, <em>Elf</em> or <em>Die Hard</em>.</p>
<p>But this season is also a time for reflection on our lives and the world around us beset by conflict — and the worsening climate crisis. </p>
<p>Here are five film recommendations to help combine ritual and reflection. These films are analyzed in a forthcoming <a href="https://www.filmstudies.ca/2022/02/cjfs-special-issue-cfp-climate-change-and-cinema">special issue</a> of the <a href="https://www.utpjournals.press/loi/cjfs"><em>Canadian Journal of Film Studies</em></a> on “Climate Change and Cinema” that I co-edited with my colleague <a href="https://www.stu.ca/english/andre-loiselle/">André Loiselle</a>, a professor of film studies at St. Thomas University.</p>
<p><strong>1. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6053438/"><em>First Reformed</em></a> (2017)</strong></p>
<p>This film, chronicling the spiritual troubles of Rev. Ernst Toller, played by Ethan Hawke, supports understanding and communion with others in responding to the climate crisis. </p>
<p>So explains <a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/communication-arts/people-profiles/anders-bergstrom">Anders Bergstrom</a>, a University of Waterloo film and media scholar, in his article “Well Somebody Has to Do Something! <em>First Reformed</em> and Conceptualizing the Climate Crisis.” </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://offscreen.com/view/revisiting-paul-schraders-transcendental-style-in-film">transcendental film style</a> used by writer and director Paul Schrader, unadorned dialogue, slow pacing and plain images are used, not to convey realism, but to present a heightened, unified and spiritual picture of existence. This style prompts viewers to rethink what they assume they already know, from politics to religion to the climate crisis.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for ‘First Reformed.’</span></figcaption>
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<p><em>First Reformed</em> sees Toller, in a small congregation in upstate New York, grappling with mounting self-pity brought on partly by a tormented past. Early in the film, he counsels a young — and possibly violent — environmental activist in despair. </p>
<p>Toller explains: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Courage is the solution to despair. Reason provides no answers. I can’t know what the future will bring. We have to choose despite uncertainty. Wisdom is holding two contradictory truths in our mind, simultaneously, hope and despair. A life without despair is a life without hope. Holding these two ideas in our head is life itself.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Later, Toller confronts a church philanthropist whose wealth derives from his company, a major polluter. Toller asks him: “Will God forgive us for what we’re doing to His creation?” </p>
<p>But the corporate philanthropist dismisses this. He turns the conversation back to the fact that the environmentalist whom Toller counselled killed himself. “You need to look at yourself before counselling others,” he warns the minister.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-stay-hopeful-in-a-world-seemingly-beyond-saving-210415">How to stay hopeful in a world seemingly beyond saving</a>
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<p>Bergstrom explains how, for the rest of the film, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/movies/first-reformed-review-paul-schrader-ethan-hawke.html">the directness</a> of its slow and spare style compels us to imagine for ourselves, not only how Toller will respond, but also our own responses. </p>
<p>As the film builds toward its shocking denouement, the minister rejects despair and puts his faith in gathering up what he has and perhaps starting again. His choice recalls the teaching of St. Augustine: “<a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/5129/columns/draw-near">Love, and do as you will</a>.” No spoilers here: you’ll have to watch to see what happens. </p>
<p><strong>2. <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8399690/">Anthropocene: The Human Epoch</a></em> (2018)</strong></p>
<p>There is a scene in <em>First Reformed</em> where the camera slowly pans up and over funeral mourners to an endless sea of rubber tires. It then cuts to factory smokestacks, piles of plastic bottles, burning landscapes and barges polluting lifeless waterways. </p>
<p>This scene is remarkably similar to the Canadian documentary film <em>Anthropocene: The Human Epoch</em>, featuring the work of renowned landscape photographer <a href="https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/">Edward Burtynsky</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Anthropocene: The Human Epoch’ trailer.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In <em>Anthropocene</em>, we see static forms, slow-tracking shots, little-to-no dialogue and repeated compositions. <a href="https://brocku.ca/social-sciences/cpcf/people-in-the-department/christie-milliken/">Christie Milliken</a>, a film studies professor at Brock University, writes in “Documenting the Anthropocene: Scale, Magnitude and Obfuscation in the Burtynsky Trilogy” that the film’s images “have had a haunting, mobilizing and protracted impact on me as a viewer, as a critic, and as a scholar.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-canadian-lake-holds-the-key-to-the-beginning-of-the-anthropocene-a-new-geological-epoch-209576">A Canadian lake holds the key to the beginning of the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch</a>
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<p><em>Anthropocene’s</em> creators sought to make climate-change research accessible by weaving together iconic examples. They travelled to six continents to document humans’ impact on the planet.</p>
<p><em>Anthropocene</em> challenges viewers to confront the uncomfortable fact that as a species on this earth, “we’ve been <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terraform">terraforming</a> since the dawn of civilization … but this doesn’t make us all equally implicated.” </p>
<p><strong>3. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4449576/"><em>Demain</em> (<em>Tomorrow</em>)</a> (2015)</strong></p>
<p><em>Demain</em> (<em>Tomorrow</em>) is a French documentary that begins with a group of the filmmakers’ friends in a lively discussion. “We weren’t green freaks or activists,” one explains, “but most of us had kids, and none of us could just stand by after hearing this terrifying news.”</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for ‘Demain’ with English subtitles.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The group decides to make a film about solutions to the climate crisis. The filmmakers embody the behaviour they seek to inspire in viewers, explains <a href="https://scholarworks.brandeis.edu/esploro/profile/sabine_von_mering/overview?institution=01BRAND_INST">Sabine von Mering</a>, a professor of German and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Brandeis University, in “Promise Motivation: Films with Good News About Climate Change.” These behaviours include educating oneself about climate science, talking about it, joining with others and getting active. </p>
<p>Von Mering argues the film succeeds by providing a glimpse into climate solutions from several angles, including agriculture, energy, the economy, education and democracy. </p>
<p>She calls this “promise motivation,” contrasted with “risk motivation.” Of the film’s 116 minutes, 96 minutes (83 per cent) are devoted to climate solutions.</p>
<p><strong>4. <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093488/">The Man Who Planted Trees</a></em> (1987)</strong></p>
<p><em>The Man Who Planted Trees</em> is a Canadian, Academy Award-winning 30-minute animated film about a fictional shepherd’s single-handed quest to re-forest a barren valley. </p>
<p>This film illustrates the causes and misery of climate change, but also how humans can change the climate for the better, explains <a href="https://as.vanderbilt.edu/french-italian/faculty/graduate-faculty/susan-kevra-2/">Susan Kevra</a>, a lecturer in French and American studies at Vanderbilt University, in her article “The Man Who Changed the Climate: Frederic Back’s Film Adaption of The Man Who Planted Trees.” </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘The Man Who Planted Trees.’</span></figcaption>
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<p>Kevra cautions us not to scoff at the achievement of this deceptively simple film and its single-minded fictional shepherd. She shares the words of <a href="https://www.greenbeltmovement.org/wangari-maathai">Wangarĩ Muta Maathai</a>, the Kenyan founder of the Green Belt movement and winner of the <a href="https://www.greenbeltmovement.org/wangari-maathai/the-nobel-peace-prize">2004 Nobel Peace Prize</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Tree planting became a natural choice to address some of the initial needs identified by women. Also, tree planting is simple, attainable and guarantees quick, successful results within a reasonable amount of time … So, together, we have planted over 30 million trees to provide fuel, food, shelter and income to support their children’s education and household needs. The activity also creates employment and improves soils and watersheds.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>5. <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5709536/">Angry Inuk</a></em> (2016)</strong></p>
<p>Inuk filmmaker <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3410237/?ref_=tt_ov_dr">Alethea Arnaquq-Baril</a> examines the central role of seal hunting in the lives of the Inuit, the importance of the revenue earned from sale of seal skins — and the negative impacts international campaigns against the seal hunt have had on their lives.</p>
<p>In “Angry Inuk, Listening to Science, and the Perpetuation of Climate Crisis in Film,” Carleton University film studies professor <a href="https://carleton.ca/filmstudies/people/kester-dyer/">Kester Dyer</a> explains the film’s argument for the right to trade seal products for consumption beyond local subsistence. This “simultaneously exposes viewers to the ecological logic of Indigenous value systems” and the need for non-Indigenous people to accept these.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Angry Inuk’ trailer.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The film, Dyer explains, initiates a dialogue with animal-protection groups through depicting how the Inuit have learned to understand the “language of anti-sealers and southern lawmakers,” and have “started to co-opt some of their visual strategies” in their own counter-protests, including through creative use of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/28/inuit-seal-sealfies-selfie-degeneres-oscars">social media</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRPEz57_l_M">YouTube</a>. </p>
<p>Arnaquq-Baril summarizes her film as “a call for westerners to listen a little harder, and a call for Inuit to speak a little louder.”</p>
<p>When it comes to the climate crisis, many of us, especially non-Indigenous audiences in the Global North, need to listen and look a little harder. These five films are a good place to start.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218314/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason MacLean is a member of the Board of Directors of the Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation (CELL).</span></em></p>‘Somebody has to do something’: Top feature film and documentary picks from scholars examining climate change and cinema offer courage to hold contradictory truths and pursue climate solutions.Jason MacLean, Adjunct professor, Environment and Sustainability, University of SaskatchewanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2121552023-12-03T13:27:34Z2023-12-03T13:27:34ZPayment controversy over ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ provokes questions about documentary storytelling<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561956/original/file-20231127-24-i7re4v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C38%2C2556%2C1398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'The Elephant Whisperers' dramatizes the emotional bond between an orphaned elephant, Raghu, and the couple who care for him. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Netflix)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/payment-controversy-over-the-elephant-whisperers-provokes-questions-about-documentary-storytelling" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Months after the Indian film <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23628262/">The Elephant Whisperers</a></em> won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short
at the Academy Awards this past March, the <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mahout">mahout</a> (elephant rider or caretaker) couple Bomman and Bellie at the centre of the film <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/bomman-bellie-send-legal-notice-asking-for-rs-2-crore-from-the-elephant-whisperers-director-8880259/">filed a legal notice</a>.</p>
<p>The notice from the Indigenous couple, who belong to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66458475">Kattunayakan community</a> in India’s Tamil Nadu province, demanded 20 million rupees (about $330,000) from the filmmaker <a href="http://www.kartikigonsalves.com/">Kartiki Gonsalves</a> and the film’s production house, Sikhya Entertainment, run by Guneet Monga. </p>
<p>The couple complained about being subjected to trying situations during the shoot and <a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/the-elephant-whisperers-couple-bomman-belli-accuses-the-makers-of-exploitation-and-non-payment-622872">the expenses</a> incurred to help execute scenes according to the filmmaker’s convenience. </p>
<p>In defence, the makers <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/the-elephant-whisperers-bomman-and-bellie-allege-exploitation-by-docu-makers-kartiki-gonsalves-calls-claims-untrue/article67161291.ece">issued a statement</a>. Though not responding to the allegations directly, it said the film created awareness about the mahout community and led to socioeconomic benefits for them. </p>
<p>They mentioned <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/new-updates/tamil-nadu-cm-mk-stalin-congratulates-the-elephant-whisperers-caretakers-on-their-oscar-win-and-awards-cash-prizes/articleshow/98662130.cms">donations</a> from M.K. Stalin, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, towards assisting 91 elephant caretakers in the state’s two elephant camps. </p>
<p>Strangely, the controversy remained focused on the issue of financial compensation following the film’s success. It eclipsed the structural conditions in contemporary documentary filmmaking that likely affected this complication in the first place. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘The Elephant Whisperers’ trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The missing story</h2>
<p>Set in the Theppakadu Elephant Camp inside the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, <em>The Elephant Whisperers</em> dramatizes the emotional bond between the couple and an orphaned elephant, Raghu, whom they have nurtured since finding him as an infant dying of injuries. For the film’s 41-minute runtime, viewers witness idyllic moments of human-animal relationships that peak when the forest authorities eventually separate Raghu from the couple. </p>
<p>As the filmmaker notes, the short film is intended to <a href="http://www.kartikigonsalves.com/the-elephant-whisperers-thefilm">highlight “the beauty of the wild spaces in South India and the people and animals who share this space</a>.”
Yet, in this focus, it fails to generate a critical understanding of systemic problems hindering elephant conservation practices. </p>
<p>These include mahouts’ <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264850834_Daily_routine_of_captive_Asian_elephants_Elephas_maximus_in_three_management_systems_of_Tamil_Nadu_India_and_its_implications_for_elephant_welfare">underpaid contracts</a> with temples and the tourism industry, or as activists in Kerala have documented, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/indian-temple-captive-elephants-kerala-chained-beaten-whipped-died-modi-a8313696.html">abusive overworking</a> of captive mammals, leading to a high elephant mortality rate in that province. </p>
<p>Despite Bomman and Bellie hailing from the Kattunayakan tribe, the documentary ignores the forest department’s <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/mudumalai-adivasis---displaced-by-deceit/">deceitful resettlement of Kattunayakan, Paniyan and other Adivasi communities</a> from their ancestral hamlets in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve’s buffer zone. Nor does it dwell on the filmmakers’ navigation of the Indigenous environment and their framing <a href="https://www.cinemaexpress.com/tamil/interviews/2023/jan/25/the-elephant-whisperers-interview-we-wanted-the-indigenous-people-to-have-a-voice-39241.html">of the story as outsiders</a>. </p>
<h2>Preference for individual over social</h2>
<p>In her article, “<a href="https://worldrecordsjournal.org/how-does-it-end-story-and-the-property-form/">How Does it End? Story and the Property Form</a>” filmmaker and writer Brett Story critiques the conventional three-act story structure prevalent in contemporary non-fiction narratives. </p>
<p>Such narratives usually involve a main character with a heroic journey, a climax and a resolution. According to her, this story structure is considered universally valid and timeless. </p>
<p>But most importantly, this structure corresponds with the “property form” under capitalism. There is a bias for the individualism of the “hero” who owns the story — like property. As a result, documentary film markets tend to prioritize a “preference for the individual over the social, the ‘character’ over the condition, experience over consciousness.” </p>
<h2>Unpaid labour</h2>
<p>Concurrent with this preference for individual heroes is the unacknowledged labour of the documentary protagonist. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118884584.ch7">Media scholar Silke Panse argues</a> that “the work of the documentary protagonist cannot be seen separately from the aesthetics of the work.” She outlines the emotional and material labour involved when they perform for the documentary gaze. This labour co-creates the quality, form and nature of images. Therefore, in documentary realism, the “protagonists <em>are</em> the image.”</p>
<p>When the story becomes a marketable product, the production conditions, processes and relationships behind the storytelling are further obscured. It devalues the passage of negotiations and emotional investment that contribute to the filmmakers’ relationship with documentary subjects. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494231208501">Post-doctoral scholar Emily Coleman contends</a> that in this context, relationship-building between the maker and the subject should be understood as “a practice of creative labour.”</p>
<p>Independent filmmakers often begin by self-financing documentary projects, motivated by underlying feelings of responsibility toward concerned issues. About wildlife documentaries, film scholar <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90332-3">Alexa Weik von Mossner highlights the “altruistic motivation”</a> behind emotional animal stories that end up helping filmmakers connect their projects to specific conservation projects. </p>
<p>But, personal altruism potentially feeds into the power dynamics between the one who cares to represent and the other who needs representation.</p>
<h2>Market menace</h2>
<p>Project development support for creative non-fiction mostly comes through pitching sessions at documentary film forums like <a href="https://hotdocs.ca/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAsIGrBhAAEiwAEzMlCzQ4roBvwLKYE1D7hwwRmacYwFSkLQ7wv5umPFGibpjm44Bbg9QkHhoCaicQAvD_BwE">Hot Docs</a>, <a href="https://sheffdocfest.com/show/whickers-pitch">Sheffield DocFest</a>, the <a href="https://www.idfa.nl/en/">International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam</a> and so on.</p>
<p>These spaces facilitate a financial market for producers, commissioning editors, broadcasters, film festival scouts and related commercial agents. According to Francesco Ragazzi, associate professor of international relations at Leiden University, this <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Documenting-World-Politics-A-Critical-Companion-to-IR-and-Non-Fiction-Film/Munster-Sylvest/p/book/9781138208193">funding circuit exclusively relies on attracting profit and large audiences</a>. Filmmakers are pushed towards character-oriented narrative documentaries that are sellable to a broader demographic. </p>
<p>Ragazzi notes how typical pitching forum questions such as “Can your character hold 52 minutes?” or “What is the story arc of the film?” shape the values and aesthetics of contemporary documentary films. </p>
<p>With <em>The Elephant Whisperers</em>, after Gonsalves started an independent round of production in 2017, Netflix <a href="https://alphauniverse.com/stories/the-making-of-the-elephant-whisperers--and-the-power-of-story-to-change-minds/">accepted her promo pitch in 2020</a>. Producer Monga also joined the project following its preliminary development. More than <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/03/05/1160659634/the-elephant-whisperers-an-oscar-nominated-love-story-about-people-and-pachyderm">450 hours of footage filmed over five years was cut into the documentary short</a>.</p>
<h2>Re-evaluating terms of participation</h2>
<p>It is not surprising for contentious claims to emerge concerning the extensive labour hidden underneath compact, character-driven documentary stories once films have gained substantial success or cultural capital.</p>
<p>A source close to the production <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/07/indian-couple-who-starred-in-oscar-winning-film-say-director-backed-out-of-pay-promises">dispelled Bomman and Bellie’s allegation</a>, stating they got duly paid according to the documentary’s contract. </p>
<p>While production and distribution companies must compensate documentary subjects, it is equally necessary to re-evaluate the terms and conditions of people’s participation in creative non-fiction projects.</p>
<p>Market-driven motives of documentary storytelling reduce people to attention-holding characters and their lives to the service of dramaturgy. This extractive approach is characterized by transactional terms. Filmmakers and producers should acknowledge subjects as co-creative partners in production and distribution processes. For that, documentary storytelling needs to change first.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Santasil Mallik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A focus on financial compensation for subjects of ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ overshadowed the need to examine storytelling conventions and creative practices in contemporary documentary filmmaking.Santasil Mallik, PhD Student, Media Studies, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2175872023-11-15T12:14:15Z2023-11-15T12:14:15ZStranger in My Own Skin: Pete Doherty documentary reviewed by a mental health and addiction expert<p><a href="https://www.dohertyincinema.com/">Stranger in My Own Skin</a> is a documentary about the life of musician Pete Doherty, who is as well known for his drug use and spells in prison as he is for forming The Libertines and later Babyshambles. From recreational beginnings, through first realising he had a drug problem, Doherty finally ended up consumed by full-blown addiction. As he explains it: “Hard drugs entered my life and slowly, slowly, quickly took control.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6xkwRik493w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Stranger In My Own Skin.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the film, Doherty’s life seems to play out many of the characteristics experts know <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3749318/">increases vulnerability for drug use</a>. He had an authoritarian childhood growing up on army bases, surrounded by metaphorical and actual barbed wire. He experienced feelings of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4070144/">not belonging</a>, unless at one with a football crowd. He was a young adult in a subculture where drug use was not only part of the escape, it was also accepted, normalised – <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/16066350500053497">even expected</a>.</p>
<p>However, this film captures something else. Doherty was, and still is, superstar famous – The Libertines were once feted as the coolest band on the planet. Yet he has never hidden his heroin use. </p>
<p>As his relationship with heroin develops from habit to dependence, it’s accompanied by the erratic behaviour and chaotic surroundings that are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00914509231189934">often seen in addiction</a>. Doherty embraces the “havoc”. When he’s not careering about or agitated about something, he’s flat out on his back, seemingly only finding stillness in heroin. </p>
<p>Alongside this, the camera reveals his physical disintegration from a beautiful young man into someone with scabs, poor personal hygiene and a stumbling gait.</p>
<p>Doherty’s havoc is coupled with a romantic notion of opium and laudanum use. He smokes heroin expecting revelatory dreams, looking to writers like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oscar-Wilde">Oscar Wilde</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Joyce">James Joyce</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fyodor-Dostoyevsky">Fyodor Dostoyevsky</a> for inspiration.</p>
<p>He’s obsessed with Paris and uses a fountain pen and a typewriter. He creates a romanticised interpretation of his roots, adopting the Union Jack as a backdrop in his homes as well as on stage. He longs for some mythical Albion, his <a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8d/bf/59/8dbf596f6d8ae9a215e9e388688b6f1f.jpg">trademark red military frock coats</a> perhaps mocking his army upbringing while revealing an inability to break free from it. </p>
<p>Then there’s his relationship with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/mar/26/carl-barat-the-libertines-guiltiest-pleasure-love-island">Carl Barât</a>, co-founder of The Libertines. Barât plays a small supporting role in the film, but the little he says is revealing, describing their relationship as “two one-legged men strapped to each other to learn to walk”. Ricocheting between intense love and deep antagonism, Doherty <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/sep/09/arts.artsnews">burgled Barât’s flat</a>, was arrested for it and ended up in prison.</p>
<h2>Seeking rehab</h2>
<p>Fast forward through the Babyshambles years, and finally Doherty accepts that he has to quit, if only to stay alive. There’s no great epiphany, more a dawning realisation. To <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13603108.2015.1101999">paraphrase writer Samuel Johnson’s</a> words on habits, the chains of addiction are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. There is plenty of evidence that addiction does indeed develop over a period of time and may sneak up unawares, but some drugs are known to be more habit forming than others, heroin being one of the most addictive. </p>
<p>Doherty is ambivalent. “I want to make it to the other side, I do, I do”, he says, before shooting up. Doherty is in the rare position that he can afford residential treatment, even if he has to sell some of his possessions to fund it. Only <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/substance-misuse-treatment-for-adults-statistics-2021-to-2022/adult-substance-misuse-treatment-statistics-2021-to-2022-report#treatment-interventions">one in 100</a> people dependent on heroin in the UK have this option. </p>
<p>After a couple of false starts, musing about hiding heroin in his dressing gown cord, he heads to Thailand for detox and rehab. This part of the film is more familiar, we’ve seen portrayals of rehab and recovery before.</p>
<p>Memory is a constant theme in the documentary – what happened, what is remembered and what is not. The film amplifies this uncertainty as it flits in and out of archive footage of Doherty’s musings. There is a ghost which doesn’t appear – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/sep/25/pete-doherty-who-killed-my-son-review-a-shocking-look-at-a-terribly-bungled-case">Mark Blanco</a>. His tragic death at a party attended by Doherty and Doherty’s reaction (he was <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2023/09/26/pete-doherty-mark-blanco-murder-body-cctv-19557878/">filmed running past</a> Blanco’s body), have never been satisfactorily explained. Why didn’t that feature?</p>
<p>Perhaps the answer lies with the filmmaker. The documentary makes use of a decade of off-camera interviews by Katia DeVidas. Spoiler alert: reader, she married him. This perhaps explains some of the film’s extraordinary intimacy, but also why some questions aren’t asked and answered in the film. DeVidas did not reply to requests for comment by the time of publication.</p>
<p>A wealth of pre-existing footage, coupled with DeVidas’ access, goes beyond tabloid portrayals and moralising judgments and bears witness to the paradoxes in a life which is both real and performative, visceral and intellectual. </p>
<p>Towards the end, Doherty says he’s interested in working with people in the thick of addiction, but he seems always to have a bottle of Jim Beam in his hand, acknowledging that clean refers to heroin, not alcohol.</p>
<p>He’s making music again, with DeVidas now in the band, and it is his music and the centrality of creativity to his existence which underpin the whole film. “The talent is the man, not the drugs”, he explains. “In spite of being a drug addict or in spite of being clean, I will create”.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Marlow currently receives funding from the ESRC, the AHRC and NIHR and in the past has received funding from the Society for the Study of Addiction, the British Council and the Nuffield Foundation. </span></em></p>Doherty’s life features many of the characteristics experts know increases vulnerability for drug use.Sally Marlow, Addictions Researcher, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2154372023-10-18T03:35:03Z2023-10-18T03:35:03ZWhat the David Beckham documentary tells us – and what it doesn’t – about controlling parents in sport<p>In the Netflix documentary Beckham, the footballer is asked how he coped with the abuse of his entire country after the 1998 men’s football World Cup. David Beckham responds:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was able to handle being abused by the fans […] because of the way my dad had been to me.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A poignant scene shows Beckham’s mother Sandra struggling with how hard his father Ted was on their son. Ted’s shouting often brought David to tears. When asked if he was too tough on David, Ted says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No […] if I told him how good he was, then he’s got nothing to work at.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Throughout the documentary, Ted’s behaviour is rationalised by Ted and even Beckham himself as necessary to support David’s sporting trajectory. But David also said he was <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/24259838/david-beckham-netflix-dad-ted-childhood-sir-alex-ferguson/">scared</a> of his father’s feedback and felt compelled to practise for hours every day.</p>
<p>Other athletes with similar stories include <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/hbo-s-tiger-woods-documentary-takes-deep-dive-star-s-ncna1253644">Tiger Woods</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/dec/01/the-joy-of-six-athletes-pushy-parents">Andre Agassi</a> and Australian <a href="https://au.sports.yahoo.com/jelena-dokic-shares-sickening-account-of-being-abused-as-a-teen-tennis-star-213349759.html">Jelena Dokic</a>. </p>
<p>Too often, controlling behaviour by parents is portrayed as necessary for success as an athlete. But the evidence shows this idea is false. In fact, such an approach can be detrimental to both a child’s chances of sporting success and their wellbeing. </p>
<p>And it’s not just a problem with elite sport; our research shows it’s also occurring with community sport.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/winning-at-all-costs-how-abuse-in-sport-has-become-normalised-142739">Winning at all costs – how abuse in sport has become normalised</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08862605221114155">research</a> found about one in three people we surveyed said they’d experienced abuse by a parent during their time in Australian community sport. </p>
<p>Psychological abuse by parents was reported by just under a third of our respondents, and included behaviours such as: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>excessive criticism</p></li>
<li><p>insults and humiliation</p></li>
<li><p>excessively training to extreme exhaustion/vomiting</p></li>
<li><p>ignoring a child following a sport performance.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The controlling and abusive behaviours described above have been consistently <a href="https://theconversation.com/winning-at-all-costs-how-abuse-in-sport-has-become-normalised-142739">normalised</a> by <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02614367.2016.1250804">parents</a>, coaches and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1016/j.smr.2019.03.001">sporting organisations</a> as being necessary to create “mentally tough” athletes ready for high-level competition.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-taking-a-trauma-and-violence-informed-approach-can-make-sport-safer-and-more-equitable-213349">Why taking a trauma- and violence-informed approach can make sport safer and more equitable</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, there is no evidence abusive and controlling behaviours have a positive impact on performance. </p>
<p>Instead, there is ample evidence to indicate it:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>harms children’s confidence and self-esteem</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00572/full">increases competition anxiety</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1356336X14555294">leads to sport dropout</a></p></li>
<li><p>is associated with <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.5694/mja2.51870">depression and anxiety</a>. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Research shows when adults in community sport use what’s known as an “autonomy-supportive approach” – in which young people are empowered to make their own decisions and have their feelings validated – children can be <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17408989.2017.1346070?casa_token=Wd8P4Y9I2fEAAAAA%3AIXY0n8e9BoTJKIB29IQ4NWeKZEgghs_1FXqfq2rQ1jgoqt5EJuQeFqmkEtdIIpt7TJEBi9d_iLK_3LA">more self-motivated</a>. </p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029215000229">experiment</a> at the 2012 Olympic Games found coaches with a more supportive approach achieved higher medal tallies than those who did not. </p>
<p>Most of this evidence has focused on coaching, but given many parents act as coaches for their children, these findings remain relevant. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554131/original/file-20231016-21-vqceuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A child looks sad at football." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554131/original/file-20231016-21-vqceuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554131/original/file-20231016-21-vqceuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554131/original/file-20231016-21-vqceuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554131/original/file-20231016-21-vqceuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554131/original/file-20231016-21-vqceuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554131/original/file-20231016-21-vqceuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554131/original/file-20231016-21-vqceuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There is no evidence abuse improves performance of children in sport.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Putting children’s experiences first</h2>
<p>There is no evidence that controlling or abusive practices improve children’s performance in sport. But even if there was, sport performance should not be valued above a child’s health and wellbeing.</p>
<p>These behaviours would not be tolerated in different environments, such as workplaces or schools. </p>
<p>It’s time to move on from this debate in sport. So where to from here?</p>
<p>The sport system is complex, and while it’s easy to think it’s just a few problematic people, the reality is these practices have been normalised for generations. </p>
<p>Parents are repeating patterns from their own experiences and mirroring practices they see as normal in elite sport. There is no quick fix. </p>
<p>But we can all play a part by reflecting on our own behaviours and considering how we can prioritise children’s experiences and wellbeing. </p>
<p>Parents should <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspor.2022.1087182/full">focus on fun, learning new skills, enjoying the moment</a>, and being part of a team so their kids can get the most out of the games they love.</p>
<p>Despite Beckham himself suggesting it was all worth it, the evidence suggests he was successful in spite of the high-pressure home environment, not because of it. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-sport-abuse-is-often-dismissed-as-good-coaching-211691">In sport, abuse is often dismissed as 'good coaching'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215437/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Parker receives funding from the Australian Government Emerging Priorities Program. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aurélie Pankowiak receives funding from VicHealth.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Woessner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>David Beckham says he felt prepared for the nation’s wrath because of how he says he was treated by his father. It’s a familiar story in sport, but evidence shows controlling behaviour doesn’t work.Mary Woessner, Lecturer in Clinical Exercise and Research Fellow, Institute for Health and Sport (iHeS), Victoria University, Victoria UniversityAlexandra Parker, Professor of Physical Activity and Mental Health, Victoria UniversityAurélie Pankowiak, Research Fellow, Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2118022023-09-26T14:03:09Z2023-09-26T14:03:09ZTyson Fury’s Netflix series highlights the mental health challenges faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities<p>The Netflix documentary series, <a href="https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81615144">At Home With The Furys</a>, provides a fascinating look at the day to day life of Tyson Fury, family man and heavyweight boxing world champion. </p>
<p>A particular source of pride for Tyson is his heritage as a member of the Traveller community, his boxing moniker being “The Gypsy King”. Yet despite the glitz and glamour that comes with being a millionaire celebrity, Fury has had his internal, as well as external, battles to fight. These include a long history of anxiety and depression, bipolar disorder, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts. </p>
<p>Mental health issues within Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities have long been described as being at <a href="https://www.lenus.ie/handle/10147/111897">crisis point</a> due to a combination of complex factors that are not fully understood because of a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/irish-journal-of-psychological-medicine/article/rapid-review-of-irishtraveller-mental-health-and-suicide-a-psychosocial-and-anthropological-%20perspective/D15DCA7BC128965514E1476C065756E9">lack of research</a>. Indeed, GRT communities are among the most socially and economically <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/educationandchildcare/bulletins/gypsiesandtravellerslivedexperienceseducationandemploymentenglandandwales/2022">disadvantaged</a> groups in the UK and Republic of Ireland. </p>
<p>It is a situation which impacts housing, education, employment, and crucially, mental health and access to healthcare. But we don’t know enough about what the causes are or how to stop them from happening.</p>
<p>My team and I conducted <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355046420_Mental_Health_Support_Needs_Within_Gypsy_Roma_and_Traveller_Communities_A_Qualitative_Study_PDF_Proof">a study</a> on the mental health support needs of people from GRT communities. We interviewed nine people from across the UK about their mental health and their experiences with getting support: four women, four men and one non-binary individual. </p>
<p>Three main themes emerged from our interviews:</p>
<p><strong>1. Longing for acceptance</strong></p>
<p>This related to a feeling of being ostracised from wider society. One participant said: “We face a lot of racism and discrimination in our daily lives which affects our mental health. And also that even with medical professionals, there is internal racism and discrimination.” </p>
<p><strong>2. Increased vulnerability</strong></p>
<p>This theme related to the impact of economic deprivation, lack of educational prospects and future goals, as well as adverse life experiences. </p>
<p>Focusing on education, one person told us: “There’s a lot of people who think ‘it’s too late you know, my dad never went to school, his dad never went to school, I went for a bit and then I got bullied and then I didn’t go. So what am I going to do?’ There’s lots of people that feel proper stuck.” </p>
<p>The combination of economic deprivation and lack of educational prospects makes members of GRT communities more vulnerable to mental ill health. </p>
<p><strong>3. Barriers to seeking help</strong></p>
<p>The barriers to seeking help for poor mental health highlighted by our interviews were perhaps the most telling sign of a crisis in this community. We identified issues in terms of awareness of mental health support services, especially the challenges of knowing what support is available while travelling. </p>
<p>The unsuitability of services was another issue. One participant described the difficulties of even accessing emergency help: “An ambulance won’t actually come to the [Traveller] site until they have a police escort, and you are suicidal, and they treat you as if you’re a criminal and you might actually attack them.”</p>
<p>Stigmas surrounding mental health issues also cropped up. “My mother and my brother are very, very uncomfortable with me discussing my issues and they basically, they don’t acknowledge it and they don’t want to talk about it,” one person told us. </p>
<p>Participants described their lack of trust in support services too. One person said: “It’s a real driven, fear-based thing why a lot of the time we don’t access those things. It’s like a discrimination thing that’s gone down and a fear of like actual services coming and taking your kids. If you reach out with your mental health, that mental health issue may be used as a reason for taking away your children or involving social services.” </p>
<p>All of these factors negatively impacted the mental health of members of the GRT communities and prevented engagement with relevant support services. </p>
<p>Our research illustrates the importance of providing services to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people with the cultural understanding, knowledge and resources to support them. A starting point for such an initiative would be an in-depth investigation of the psychological, social, environmental and institutional factors that make this community vulnerable and disadvantaged in their mental health care. </p>
<p>Building trust within these communities is also vital to improving their engagement with services. Dedicated outreach teams, alongside easier access to mainstream services, may be an effective method for achieving this. </p>
<p>The courage shown by Tyson Fury in discussing his mental health battles sets an example for other Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people to show that it is not a sign of weakness to experience mental ill health, and that support is beneficial and available for anyone in need.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211802/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Tyson wishes to thank Rebecca Thompson for her invaluable contribution to this research, particularly in terms of interviewing members of the GRT community. He would also like to thank Bridie Stone for her assistance in writing the journal article.</span></em></p>Tyson Fury has a history of mental ill health, something which is reflected in his series, At Home With The Furys on Netflix.Philip Tyson, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of South WalesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2130662023-09-14T20:05:32Z2023-09-14T20:05:32ZTim Flannery’s message to all: rise up and become a climate leader – be the change we need so desperately<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548177/original/file-20230913-48731-y1vy63.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C8%2C2858%2C1586&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Totem Films</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As humanity hurtles towards a climate catastrophe, the debate has shifted – from the science to solutions. We know we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. But progress has been painfully slow. </p>
<p>It’s clear the world is lacking climate leadership. So what makes a great climate leader and why are we not seeing more of them?</p>
<p>For two years now I’ve been on a journey, a quest if you like, to find good climate leaders. This is the subject of my new documentary, <a href="https://climatechangersmovie.com">Climate Changers</a> with director Johan Gabrielsson.</p>
<h2>Missed opportunities and wasted time</h2>
<p>Saul Griffith is an engineer who wants to “electrify everything”. The co-founder of non-profit group <a href="https://www.rewiringaustralia.org/">Rewiring Australia</a> decried the “dearth of political leadership” when he told us:</p>
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<p>We haven’t had any head of state, of any major nation, positively and proactively engage on climate as an emergency, as an opportunity […] we haven’t had a Churchill or Roosevelt or John F Kennedy ‘let’s go to the moon’ that says: ‘here’s a threat, here’s an opportunity, here’s a vision for how we collectively get there’.</p>
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<p>If we’d been on the right emissions reduction trajectory a decade ago, we’d have more time to deal with the problem. But we’ve <a href="https://theconversation.com/failure-is-not-an-option-after-a-lost-decade-on-climate-action-the-2020s-offer-one-last-chance-158913">wasted ten years</a>. </p>
<p>Over that period, probably 20% of all of the <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/research/environmental-impacts/climate-change/state-of-the-climate/greenhouse-gases">carbon pollution</a> we’ve ever put into the atmosphere has been emitted. </p>
<p>A lot of money was made creating those emissions, and that has only benefited a few. But of course the consequences of the emissions will stay with humanity for many, many, many generations.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/group-therapy-helps-scientists-cope-with-challenging-climate-emotions-208933">Group therapy helps scientists cope with challenging 'climate emotions'</a>
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<h2>A different style of leadership</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, modern Western politics doesn’t select for great leaders. But there are a few scattered about.</p>
<p>One such example is <a href="https://100climateconversations.com/matt-kean/">Matt Kean</a> in New South Wales. In 2020, as state energy minister and treasurer during the Liberal Berejiklian government, he managed to get the Nationals, the Liberals, Labor and the Greens all supporting the same bill, on addressing climate change through clean energy. In my opinion, that is true leadership. </p>
<p>As Kean told us: </p>
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<p>What you’ve got to do if you’re going to try and solve the challenge is find those areas of common ground. […] it was about finding the big things that everyone could agree on and designing policy that brought everyone together. And I think that was the key to our success.</p>
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<p>Climate leadership requires humility. It requires listening to your political antagonists as well as your allies. </p>
<p>That sort of leadership is rare in our political system. And yet you see it in Indigenous communities and in the Pacific nations where I’ve done a lot of work over the years, that sort of leadership is much more common. Because people understand they need to be consultative. And transparent.</p>
<p>West Papuan activist and human rights lawyer, Frederika Korain, and Solomon Island Kwaio community leader and conservationist, Chief Esau Kekeubata, are shining examples. They show individual bravery and diligence, but they’re also humble and listening.</p>
<p>On the subject of leadership, they share similar sentiments with Australia’s Dharawal and Yuin custodian and community leader Paul Knight.</p>
<p>It’s about bringing other people along with you. It’s not some strong-arm thing, like you often see at our federal level, in our politics. It’s about listening, developing a consensus. It takes time, a lot of effort, and you’ll probably never get full consensus, but we’ll get most of the way there, convincing people. </p>
<p>I’ve seen Chief Esau work. He says very little in the most important meetings, but when someone says something he thinks is on the right track, he’ll say, “Oh, that’s really interesting. Can you can you tell us a bit more”. He directs the conversation. </p>
<p>So in a species like ours, that’s what true leadership consists of. Intelligence, persistence, bravery bordering on heroism sometimes, because climate change is the enemy of everyone.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/study-finds-2-billion-people-will-struggle-to-survive-in-a-warming-world-and-these-parts-of-australia-are-most-vulnerable-205927">Study finds 2 billion people will struggle to survive in a warming world – and these parts of Australia are most vulnerable</a>
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<h2>What’s holding us back?</h2>
<p>There’s a very strong relationship in Australia between political power and fossil fuels. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-walk-the-talk-on-climate-labor-must-come-clean-about-the-future-for-coal-and-gas-183641">links are interwoven</a>, with people moving <a href="https://theconversation.com/revealed-the-extent-of-job-swapping-between-public-servants-and-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-88695">from the fossil fuel industry to politics and back</a>. </p>
<p>And we still allow people to become <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/19/life-earth-wealth-megarich-spending-power-environmental-damage">extremely rich</a> at the expense of all of us. I think that’s what’s holding us back. </p>
<p>I expect those who are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/08/17/greenhouse-emissions-income-inequality/">very wealthy</a>, who have made their money in fossil fuels, imagine they’ll be able to retire to some gated community and live their life in luxury. </p>
<p>But we all depend on a strong global economy and trade, which is <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/impact-climate-change-global-gdp/">under threat</a> as the climate breaks down. </p>
<p>The idea that you can somehow isolate yourself from the environment and the rest of society is one of the great failings of human imagination that has brought us so close to catastrophe.</p>
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<h2>Rise up</h2>
<p>I do see individual people rising to the occasion. And the story is usually somewhat similar: people realise they could lose something very precious. We heard it time and time again in the making of this documentary. </p>
<p>For community campaigner Jo Dodds the trigger was the Black Summer bushfires, the near-loss of her house and the loss of her neighbours’ houses. For former US Vice President Al Gore it was having his son in critical care for 30 days, having to put aside his politics and think about what his life was really about. Those sort of moments do bring out great climate leaders. Even Kean talked about bringing his newborn son home from hospital, shrouded in bushfire smoke. </p>
<p>The level of public awareness is far greater now than when I came to this issue in the early 2000s. </p>
<p>The most important thing I can do now is inspire and enable others to be climate leaders. Because we need a diversity of voices out there. We need women. We need younger people. We need people from the Pacific Islands, and First Nations people.</p>
<p>This documentary is about trying to inspire and encourage emerging leaders to give us the diversity of voices we need to make a difference. It’s never too late – we can always prevent something worse from happening. </p>
<p><em><a href="https://climatechangersmovie.com">Climate Changers</a> launches nationally with a livestreamed Q&A on September 17 and will <a href="https://climatechangersmovie.com/screenings/">screen in cinemas</a> and at community events.</em></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-urgently-need-100bn-for-renewable-energy-but-call-it-statecraft-not-industry-policy-213351">We urgently need $100bn for renewable energy. But call it statecraft, not 'industry policy'</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213066/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Flannery is Ambassador for RegenAqua, which uses seaweed and river grass to clean up wastewater before it flows out to sea and on to the Great Barrier Reef. He consults for the not-for-profit environmental charity, Odonata.
He is Chief Councillor and Founding Member of the Climate Council, Governor at WWF-Australia and Member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.</span></em></p>What makes a great climate leader and why are we not seeing more of them? I’ve been searching for good examples of climate leaders. This is the subject of our new documentary, Climate Changers.Tim Flannery, Honorary fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2123072023-09-11T15:42:19Z2023-09-11T15:42:19ZChoose Irvine Welsh: new documentary explores the life of Scotland’s ‘urban Shakespeare’<p>On August 23, Scottish novelist <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/167724/irvine-welsh">Irvine Welsh</a>’s beloved Edinburgh football team, Hibs, went head-to-head with Aston Villa in the Europa League. But they were also competing for attention with the world premiere of Choose Irvine Welsh, a documentary by filmmaker <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11822898/">Ian Jefferies</a> about the life, writing and cultural impact of the man it dubs Scotland’s “urban Shakespeare”. </p>
<p>The latter was debuting at the <a href="https://www.eif.co.uk/archive/eiff-choose-irvine-welsh">Edinburgh International Film Festival</a>, the former at Easter Road in Leith. As a fellow “Hibby”, on the buildup to the night I found myself wondering: “Which of the tickets would Welsh choose?” I suspect there was little competition. (<a href="https://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/matches/aston-villa-vs-hibs">Hibs were defeated five-nil</a>).</p>
<p>Ian Jefferies’ last documentary – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sJgidQLuN4">Kick Out the Jams: The Story of XFM</a> (2022) – was a 90-minute dive into 1990s culture via a rebellious pirate radio station. Choose Irvine Welsh is a 90-minute documentary that dives into 1990s culture via a rebellious novelist, exploring and celebrating the cult(ure) surrounding the various films his work inspired.</p>
<p>The two musically augmented, talking-head films are arguably cut from the same cloth. With this in mind, here are some quick strikes against the documentary before getting to what I loved about it.</p>
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<h2>Choose Irvine’s weaknesses</h2>
<p>First, there is an over tendency to use found archival footage to illustrate any proper noun or place name mentioned throughout the 90 minutes. A grating exception being that the film incongruously illustrates discussions of Welsh’s life in dockside Leith with stock images of tartan-clad bagpipers, Edinburgh castle and the Georgian New Town.</p>
<p>Then, there is a predictable, but overwhelming, preference for enthusing testimonials from celebrities such as Danny Boyle, Ewan McGregor, Iggy Pop and Gail Porter, rather than academics or “the real cunts” Welsh knew before he was famous.</p>
<p>The documentary often feels like a formulaic paint-by-numbers job that ubiquitously deploys era music to underscore recorded and archival testimonies. All this gives it the anachronistic feel of a bonus feature for a Trainspotting DVD box-set.</p>
<h2>Choose Irvine’s strengths</h2>
<p>But not all is lost. Choose Irvine’s strengths make it very worth seeing and appreciating. The film opens with a shot of Princes Street (which is definitely not in Leith, as the documentary suggests) in 1958. This serves double duty. It not only evokes the year of its subject’s birth, but aesthetically anticipates the dynamic opening scene Boyle filmed on this same street in his adaptation of <a href="http://www.imdb.co.uk/title/tt0117951">Trainspotting</a> (1996), Welsh’s most famous book.</p>
<p>Unlike that sequence though, this archive footage holds close an image of the iconic <a href="https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/venue/scott-monument">Scott monument</a>, a memorial to another great Scottish writer, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/story/what-did-sir-walter-scott-write">Sir Walter Scott</a>. Thereafter, Jefferies secures a relaxed and insightful interview with Welsh, which serves as the film’s vertebrae and elevates the whole production.</p>
<p>Welsh’s salty reflections on his near-death experiences, being in various failed “bedroom bands” and his troubled path to becoming a breakthrough author are riveting and illuminating. The story of how his first novel became popular with Scottish prisoners, football types, the “clued-up working class” and then university students also offers a lesson in <a href="https://hbr.org/podcast/2019/12/the-tipping-point-between-failure-and-success">tipping-point success</a>.</p>
<p>Welsh’s reflections on becoming a breakthrough national novelist in 1993 before catapulting to global success after the release of the Trainspotting film also offer a fresh rat run through the scrapheap of clichés about the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/commentisfree/2017/jul/05/cool-britannia-inequality-tony-blair-arts-industry">cool Britannia</a>” era, which Welsh describes as a “requiem Mass for British culture”.</p>
<p>Because of Welsh’s well-documented lust for life, the documentary is also laced with funny stories and anecdotes that make the hedonistic 1990s seem incredibly long ago. The story of why Welsh failed to turn up to meet his hero David Bowie is a gas, as is the story of signing a young Martin Compston’s Trainspotting poster with “fuck the Tories and fuck the Jambos” (the nickname for Hibs’ rival football team, Hearts), scrawled across Ewan McGregor’s forehead.</p>
<h2>Choose Irvine’s philosphy</h2>
<p>Although wild and rough around the edges, the documentary paints the author of extremely dark and disturbing tales as an optimistic soul with a solid moral compass. His friends perceive his novels to be “not just about drugs, shagging, getting pissed and fighting” but about “love between groups of people, or couples”. </p>
<p>In reflexive discussion, Welsh talks perceptively about his observations on group dynamics and manages to get across a grounded practical philosophy for getting on in life. This we might call, with echoes again of his being a lifelong Hibs fan, “choose failure”.</p>
<p>As Welsh puts it himself in response to a question about possible future success: “You want to think to yourself, ‘Nothing is a complete success or failure’. I think if you can do that, in the knowledge that you’ve given your best, then that’s a success really.”</p>
<p>And Choose Irvine Welsh is a success. For anyone interested in the life and times of this much-read Scottish author, the 1990s more generally and the fandom surrounding the adaptations of his work, it’s a must see.</p>
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David H. Fleming does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A riveting and insightful portrait of the much-read Trainspotting author, replete with funny stories and memorable anecdotes.David H. Fleming, Senior Lecturer in Film & Media, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2122422023-08-31T12:23:04Z2023-08-31T12:23:04ZMichael Oher, Mike Tyson and the question of whether you own your life story<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545972/original/file-20230901-21-zovk4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C26%2C2977%2C1985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Michael Oher and his family celebrate his selection by the Baltimore Ravens at the 2009 NFL Draft. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/baltimore-ravens-draft-pick-michael-oher-poses-for-a-news-photo/86217296?adppopup=true">Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What if you overcame a serious illness to go on to win an Olympic medal? Could a writer or filmmaker decide to tell your inspiring story without consulting you? Or do you “own” that story and control how it gets retold?</p>
<p>Michael Oher, the former NFL player portrayed in the 2009 blockbuster “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0878804/">The Blind Side</a>,” has sued Michael and Anne Leigh Tuohy, the suburban couple who took him into their home as a disadvantaged youth.</p>
<p>In his official complaint, Oher claims that through forgery, trickery or sheer incompetence, the Tuohys enabled 20th Century Fox to acquire the exclusive rights to his life story. </p>
<p>The Tuohys, Oher continues, received millions of dollars for a “story that would not have existed without him,” while he claims that he received nothing.</p>
<p>Just a year earlier, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/08/media/mike-tyson-hulu-series/index.html">similarly incensed</a> when he learned that Hulu had created <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14181914/">a miniseries dramatizing his career</a> without seeking his permission. </p>
<p>“They stole my life story and didn’t pay me,” Tyson charged <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg7JRAeLY9B/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=8c5ce5bc-6faf-4c49-b355-4b25d72418b8">in an Instagram post</a>.</p>
<p>Oher and Tyson – not to mention countless influencers and wannabe celebs – share the conviction that they own, and can monetize, their life stories. And given regular <a href="https://www.ibtimes.com/kurt-warner-movie-20th-century-fox-acquires-rights-former-qbs-life-story-plans-film-adaptation">news stories about studios buying</a> “life story rights,” it’s not surprising to see why. </p>
<p>As law professors, we’ve studied this issue; <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4480628">our research shows</a> that there is no recognized property right under U.S. law – or the laws of any other country of which we are aware – to the facts and events that occur during someone’s life.</p>
<p>So why are Oher, Tyson and others complaining? And why do publishers and studios routinely pay large sums to acquire rights that don’t exist?</p>
<h2>No monopoly on the truth</h2>
<p>In most states, the commercial use of an individual’s name, image and likeness is protected by the so-called “<a href="https://rightofpublicityroadmap.com/">right of publicity</a>.” But that right generally applies to merchandise, apparel and product endorsements, not facts and actual events. So you can’t sell a T-shirt with Mike Tyson’s face on it without his permission, but writing a book about his rise to fame is fair game.</p>
<p>In the U.S., the freedom to describe historical events is rooted in <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt1-7-1/ALDE_00013537/">the free speech clause</a> of the First Amendment, and it’s a fundamental principle that no one – whether it’s a news agency, political party or celebrity – holds a monopoly on the truth.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/19/business/media/gawker-hulk-hogan-verdict.html">The law doesn’t sanction the invasion of privacy</a>, so an investigative journalist who uncovers some unsavory detail of your past can’t publish it unless there is a legitimate public interest in doing so. Nor does it condone the dissemination of false information, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/04/18/business/fox-news-dominion-trial-settlement">which can lead to defamation lawsuits</a>. </p>
<p>The First Amendment, however, does allow authors and film producers to truthfully depict factual events that they have legitimately learned about. They are not required to receive authorization from or pay the people involved.</p>
<h2>The origin of life story ‘rights’</h2>
<p>Film producers, however, are accustomed to paying for the right to repackage or use existing content. </p>
<p>Copyright licenses are required to commission a script based on a book, to depict a comic book character in a film and to include a hit song on a movie soundtrack. Even showing an architecturally distinctive building often requires the consent of a copyright owner, which is why the video game “Spider-Man: Miles Morales” <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/spider-man-miles-morales-doesnt-have-the-chrysler-building-due-to-copyright-issues">had to remove the Chrysler Building</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Manhattan skyline with art deco skyscraper in the foreground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545622/original/file-20230830-24-kgtp41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545622/original/file-20230830-24-kgtp41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545622/original/file-20230830-24-kgtp41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545622/original/file-20230830-24-kgtp41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545622/original/file-20230830-24-kgtp41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545622/original/file-20230830-24-kgtp41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545622/original/file-20230830-24-kgtp41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Studios hoping to include a shot of the Chrysler Building in their films might have to pony up.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-chrysler-building-stands-in-midtown-manhattan-january-9-news-photo/1079651514?adppopup=true">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Along with these other rights and permissions, Hollywood studios have paid individuals for their life stories for at least a century. </p>
<p>Yet, unlike copyright clearances, life story deals do not involve the acquisition of known intellectual property rights. Life story “rights” are not rights at all. Instead, they bundle together a set of contractual commitments: the subject’s agreement to cooperate with the studio, not to work on a similar project, and to release the studio from claims of defamation and invasion of privacy. </p>
<p>By packaging these commitments under the umbrella of “life story rights,” studios can signal to the market that they have acquired a particularly juicy story. </p>
<p>For example, Netflix’s quick deal with convicted fraudster <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-scammers-like-anna-delvey-and-the-tinder-swindler-exploit-a-core-feature-of-human-nature-177289">Anna Sorokin</a>, the subject of the popular streaming series “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8740976/">Inventing Anna</a>,” seems to have <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56113478">deterred competing adaptations</a> of Sorokin’s story.</p>
<p>What’s more, the acquisition of life story rights has become so common that it is viewed, in many cases, as a de facto requirement for film financing and insurance coverage and thus part of the standard clearance procedure for many projects.</p>
<h2>Exceptions don’t make the rule</h2>
<p>As always with the law, though, there are exceptions. </p>
<p>Notably, the producers of the 2010 film “The Social Network” <a href="https://perma.cc/SN4H-UXAP">did not obtain the permission</a> of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg before dramatizing the origin story of his company. In moving forward with the project, they risked a defamation or publicity suit by Zuckerberg and others depicted in the film. But their gamble paid off: Zuckerberg, while <a href="https://perma.cc/SN4H-UXAP">critical of his depiction</a>, didn’t sue.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, other subjects who have been depicted in dramatic features without their authorization have sued to recover a share of the profits. </p>
<p>Silver screen legend Olivia de Havilland, for example, <a href="https://casetext.com/case/de-havilland-v-fx-networks-llc-1">sued FX Studios</a> for briefly depicting her in a miniseries about Hollywood rivals Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. She won at trial, though an appeals court reversed her victory, citing the producers’ First Amendment rights. </p>
<p>Lawsuits can even be brought when the characters’ names and story details have been changed. U.S. Army Sgt. Jeffrey Sarver, the bomb-defusing expert who inspired the Oscar-winning film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520hurt%2520locker">The Hurt Locker</a>,” <a href="https://casetext.com/case/sarver-v-chartier">sued the film’s producers</a> for violating his right of publicity. He lost.</p>
<p>Lawsuits like these are not the norm. But many producers hope to get ahead of a flimsy lawsuit and bad publicity by acquiring nonexistent rights.</p>
<h2>History is in the public domain</h2>
<p>Ultimately, there is nothing wrong – and much that is right – with paying individuals to cooperate with the production of features about themselves. Doing so can convey respect toward the subject and make the production go more smoothly. </p>
<p>But the fact that life story acquisitions have entered the popular consciousness has spurred the widespread belief that any portrayal of a factual series of events entitles those depicted to a lucrative payday. This expectation increases production costs and the risk of litigation, thereby deterring otherwise worthwhile projects and depriving the public of meaningful content that is based on true stories.</p>
<p>What could be done about this situation?</p>
<p>One idea <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4480628">that we’ve written about</a> would prevent right of publicity laws – the basis for many life story lawsuits – from being used against works that convey ideas and tell a story, such as books, films and TV shows.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most important thing that can be done, though, is educating people that they don’t have a right to cash in on every description of the events of their lives. </p>
<p>Collective history, in our view, belongs in the public domain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212242/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Publishers and studios routinely pay large sums to acquire ‘life story rights.’ Two law scholars explain why the phrase is misleading.Jorge L. Contreras, James T. Jensen Endowed Professor for Transactional Law and Director, Program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law, University of UtahDave Fagundes, Baker Botts LLP Professor of Law and Research Dean, University of Houston Law CenterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2078582023-06-19T15:04:36Z2023-06-19T15:04:36ZFamine: the award-winning documentary banned by Russia for its reminder of a cruel past<p>In October last year, Russia banned a documentary depicting the famine that hit parts of the Soviet Union including Ukraine between 1921 and 1923 and <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/11/15/russia-bans-provocative-soviet-famine-documentary-a79375">revoked the film’s screening licence</a>. Now the film is to have its <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/famine-screening-and-panel-discussion-tickets-629885463377?fbclid=IwAR31d-gLsAsp3jXwTA8xeqMwRuLw9vbBhtH8XY82X_EmZOPuoz5Nh1xid7k">UK premiere</a> (with English subtitles) on June 22 in east London.</p>
<p>Famine is an artistically sophisticated but in many respects unremarkable historical documentary. It does a good job of telling viewers about its subject, which is not one familiar to the Russian public, despite being one of the most traumatic events in the country’s history and worst famines of the 20th century. It killed approximately <a href="https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1921-2/famine-of-1921-22/">5 million people</a> and would have been worse but for an international relief effort led by the US.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1CiD_muT590?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Russian trailer for Famine. The London screening will feature English subtitles.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Russian ignorance is no accident: the <a href="https://khpg.org/en/1608809430">Russian education system and media deliberately avoid this topic</a>. Indeed, it is a surprise the film was even made. </p>
<p>I spoke to the film’s originator, the Russian journalist and scholar Maksim Kurnikov in May 2023. He explained that he decided to start work on the film in 2014, after witnessing the destruction of food confiscated for contravening Russia’s counter sanctions against western imports in the aftermath of the invasion of Crimea.</p>
<p>The project faced frequent obstruction as Russian museums and archives were often closed to the filmmakers. Its budget came entirely from <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/11/15/russia-bans-provocative-soviet-famine-documentary-a79375">crowdfunding</a>, with over 2,000 contributors. </p>
<p>While the filmmakers never received any explanation for the ban, Kurnikov explained to me that, in his view, Famine’s positive depiction of the west helping to feed Russia from humanitarian motives, undermined the Russian media. </p>
<p>Their repeated <a href="http://www.e-ir.info/2015/04/28/dominant-narratives-in-russian-political-and-media-discourse-during-the-crisis/">message</a> is that Russia has always been a great power, relying on itself and never on help from others. It prefers to draw attention to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union during the second world war, <a href="https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/osw-commentary/2019-12-31/myth-great-patriotic-war-a-tool-kremlins-great-power-policy">presented</a> as a unifying, heroic episode.</p>
<p>But there is a further historical reason for the ban. The appeal to the international community for famine relief stands in sharp contrast to <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/peasant-rebels-under-stalin-9780195131048?cc=ca&lang=en&">Joseph Stalin’s collectivisation of agriculture from 1932-1933</a>, when he and Communist party officials <a href="https://willzuzak.ca/cl/bookreview/Applebaum2017RedFamine.pdf">deliberately decided to let millions starve</a>, primarily in Ukraine, to crush potential resistance to Moscow’s dominance. </p>
<p>This later famine has been termed “<a href="https://www.academia.edu/10250059/The_Great_Famine_of_1932-1933_Holodomor_and_the_Politics_of_History_in_Contemporary_Ukraine">the Holodomor</a>” by Ukrainian historians and is a key event in Ukrainian national memory and one that is increasingly seen as a genocide, though this is <a href="https://www.thebulwark.com/the-holodomor-90-years-later/">denied by Russian media</a>. Kurnikov’s Famine film is an unwelcome welcome echo of the Holodomor.</p>
<h2>Famine’s international reception</h2>
<p>Since the ban, more than 2 million viewers have watched Famine online, after it was screened on the US-funded Russian-language internet channel, <a href="https://www.currenttime.tv/a/golod-film-premiere/32179863.html">Current Time</a>. </p>
<p>It also won the audience prize for <a href="https://artdocfest.com/en/movie/14555/">best documentary film</a> in the online programme of the biggest documentary film festival in the former Soviet Union, ArtDocFest (now held in Riga, Latvia). The film is now being shown around the world at film festivals and public screenings, garnering praise and awards. </p>
<p>The upcoming London screening suggests a further echo with the past. The famine of 1921-1922 marked an important stage in the development of humanitarianism. It was the first use of film in a humanitarian relief campaign to raise public funds, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01439685.2023.2173377">pioneered by Save the Children Fund</a>. </p>
<p>This was the beginning of modern humanitarianism, where the public was encouraged through the latest tools of persuasion and advertising including documentary film, to give money to save the lives of distant strangers, unconnected by ties of citizenship or religion.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532250/original/file-20230615-29-1e126f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The poster for Famine showing black and white photo of children and wide open water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532250/original/file-20230615-29-1e126f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532250/original/file-20230615-29-1e126f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532250/original/file-20230615-29-1e126f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532250/original/file-20230615-29-1e126f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532250/original/file-20230615-29-1e126f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532250/original/file-20230615-29-1e126f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532250/original/file-20230615-29-1e126f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The poster for Famine (2023).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Antipode Sales International, LLC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The novelty was that the British public were being asked to save the lives of children innocent of the errors and crimes of the hostile Soviet regime. In east London in particular, there were <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01439685.2023.2173377">well attended screenings</a> for famine relief efforts in 1922, including in the People’s Palace on the site of today’s Queen Mary University of London. </p>
<p>There, the newly elected, first Labour mayor of Stepney, Oscar Tobin, made an impassioned appeal for donations, stating: “This was the first attempt made in Stepney to link the people with the suffering of those abroad.”</p>
<p>Famine doesn’t address this aspect of the relief efforts, partly for reasons of narrative economy, as there were a huge number of organisations involved in the providing aid. Herbert Hoover’s American Relief Administration provided the lion’s share, paid for by the US Congress, in the hope not only of saving lives but also of saving Europe from communism.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, watching Famine, revisiting this historical event and the media campaign to raise money for famine relief through film, shows how far humanitarianism has come in the last 101 years. Amid a “<a href="https://www.cafonline.org/about-us/media-office-news/millions-fewer-people-donating-to-charity">cost of giving” crisis</a>, with a steady decline in charitable donations, it also questions whether the British public are still moved by films of distant suffering.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207858/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Hicks receives funding from the British Academy. He is a member of the Labour Party.</span></em></p>While the filmmakers never received any explanation for the ban, they believe the film’s positive depiction of the west undermined the Russian media.Jeremy Hicks, Professor of Russian Culture and Film, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2056152023-05-16T16:36:24Z2023-05-16T16:36:24ZAnna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me – Netflix doc seeks to reclaim model’s legacy, despite problematic contributors<p>Who was Anna Nicole Smith? In a <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81380540">new Netflix documentary</a>, Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me, director Ursula Macfarlane weaves a tragic web from complex, at times conflicting, accounts of the life of the infamous model.</p>
<p>You Don’t Know Me documents the unravelling of Smith’s public image, from small-town girl, to Playboy playmate and Guess model, to “gold digger” and “<a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2007/02/anna_nicole_and_new_york_a_nol_1.html">white trash</a>”. From reality television star to American tragedy.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5p-0WRVZ-Pc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Netflix’s Anna Nicole Smith documentary.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Born Vickie Lynn Hogan, Smith spent most of her childhood in the small Texan town of Mexia. Moving to Houston aged 19 to seek a better life to support her young son, Daniel, Smith worked as a stripper, eventually saving up enough money to afford a breast augmentation.</p>
<p>This surgery helped to secure her stardom as she crafted an image for herself as a larger-than-life vision of hyper femininity. But it also helped seal her fate.</p>
<p><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/cameras-off-anna-nicole-smith-vicki-lynn-friends/story?id=75642872">Back pain from her breast augmentation</a> led Smith to <a href="https://starcasm.net/anna-nicole-smith-took-drugs-for-brain-seizures-and-back-pain-caused-by-her-breast-implants/">abuse prescription drugs</a> for the rest of her life.</p>
<p>In 1991, while stripping in Houston, <a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/obvious-history-anna-nicole-smith-ended-marrying-89-year-old">Smith met billionaire Texan oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall</a>, who was 63 years her senior. </p>
<p>In return for her company, Marshall looked after Smith and her son financially. Though Smith was frequently dubbed a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469660301_donovan">gold-digger</a> in the media coverage of the couple, in You Don’t Know Me, the relationship is depicted as genuinely caring. </p>
<p>Smith refused to marry Marshall until she had made a name for herself. True to her word, she made herself a star and <a href="https://people.com/human-interest/from-the-archives-anna-nicole-smith-weds-j-howard-marshall-ii-1994/">married him three years later</a>, at Houston’s White Dove Wedding Chapel.</p>
<h2>Smith’s star power</h2>
<p>As with another notorious blonde bombshell of her generation, <a href="https://theconversation.com/netflixs-pamela-a-love-story-overturns-stereotypes-about-victims-of-intimate-partner-abuse-198022">Pamela Anderson</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-playboy-cut-ties-with-hugh-hefner-to-create-a-post-metoo-brand-202223">Playboy magazine</a> was the catalyst for Smith’s rise to fame. First featured on its cover in <a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/20657545">March 1992</a>, Smith was quickly made <a href="https://www.tias.com/playboy-magazine-may-1992-vickie-smith-833646.html">playmate of the month</a> in May, before winning <a href="https://pagesix.com/1999/11/30/anna-nicole-smith/#2">playmate of the year</a> in 1993. </p>
<p>Smith became one of Playboy’s most prolific models. She appeared on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/most-famous-playboy-cover-models-2012-9?r=US&IR=T#47-covers-1993-anna-nicole-smith-has-appeared-on-the-cover-47-times-in-20-countries-including-five-times-in-the-us-the-1993-playmate-of-the-years-american-cover-shots-range-from-1992-to-2007-with-the-last-one-being-released-a-few-months-after-her-death-after-the-release-of-her-first-playboy-picture-guess-jeans-signed-her-on-the-spot-as-a-model-24">five US and 42 international Playboy covers, across 19 countries</a>.</p>
<p>Playboy led to other modelling jobs, most notoriously <a href="https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/39195459249738788/">for fashion brand Guess</a>. Smith’s goddess-like figure, splashed across H&M lingerie billboards, even reportedly caused a <a href="https://tinyurl.com/4ctr47vr">number of car accidents in Norway</a>.</p>
<p>Smith’s life was also couched with tragedy. The documentary charts a <a href="https://nymag.com/news/features/anna-nicole-smith-2011-6/">lengthy and fruitless series of court cases</a> over her deceased husband’s fortune, her brutal and misogynistic treatment in the media and both <a href="https://people.com/celebrity/anna-nicoles-son-dies-daughter-is-born/">her son’s fatal overdose</a> in 2006 and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/arts/08cnd-smith.html">her own</a> the following year, aged just 39. </p>
<p>At times the coverage of the tragedy of Smith’s life in You Don’t Know Me, eclipses that of her accomplishments.</p>
<h2>‘Adored by millions, but loved by few’</h2>
<p>It’s hard to get a true sense of Smith’s life and character. Her reputation has been largely shaped by a misogynistic media culture. Celebrity women are frequently criticised in the British and American press, particularly those who dare to exist outside the western norms of feminine acceptability and desirability.</p>
<p>In one particularly striking clip, American radio presenter Howard Stern <a href="https://www.yourtango.com/entertainment/howard-stern-demands-anna-nicole-smith-weigh-herself-live-radio">asks Smith to be publicly weighed</a>, for the entertainment of his viewers. </p>
<p>In recent years there has been a rise in <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22350286/2000s-pop-culture-misogyny-britney-spears-janet-jackson-whitney-houston-monica-lewinsky">re-evaluations</a> of the treatment of female celebrities in the 1990s and 2000s. Singer <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81177110">Britney Spears</a> and socialite <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOg0TY1jG3w">Paris Hilton</a> have both had documentaries made about their lives (though Spears denounced some of those made about her <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2021/09/britney-spears-speaks-out-against-new-documentaries.html">her via her Instagram</a>.</p>
<p>Netflix has released a spate of projects on the lives of notorious blonde bombshells. In 2022, there was the controversial Marilyn Monroe biopic, Blonde, which many fans of Monroe saw <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/28/movies/blonde-review-marilyn-monroe.html">as exploiting and victimising Monroe</a>, a charge <a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/director-andrew-dominik-blames-blonde-backlash-on-audiences-wanting-to-reinvent-marilyn-monroe-as-an-empowered-woman-205420125.html#:%7E:text=Andrew%20Dominik%2C%20the%20director%20of,backlash%20against%20the%20Netflix%20film.">the director denied</a>.</p>
<p>In 2023, a documentary in which model Pamela Anderson <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23585077/pamela-a-love-story-netflix-anderson-documentary">reclaimed her own narrative</a> followed Hulu’s release of Pam and Tommy. The drama series, which told the story of the actor’s leaked sex tape, was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/feb/15/pam-and-tommy-hulu-series-pamela-anderson-consent">created without her consent</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-watch-pam-and-tommy-the-series-turns-someones-trauma-into-entertainment-176844">Don't watch Pam and Tommy – the series turns someone's trauma into entertainment</a>
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<p>These projects sometimes feel uncomfortable. It’s questionable how ethical it is to retell the story of women whose lives have already been damaged by media depictions of them. Instead of redeeming their subjects, these projects often cause further harm by perpetuating a sense of public ownership over them.</p>
<h2>Who gets to tell Smith’s story?</h2>
<p>While Macfarlane successfully calls attention to how unfairly the media treated Smith, it’s troubling how the documentary treats Smith’s lawyer, Howard K. Stern with neutrality. </p>
<p>Stern was accused of being <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/anna-nicole-judge-reopen-murder-case-blame-stern-18631/">complicit in the drug abuse</a> that led to her death. He was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/13/anna-nicole-smiths-boyfriend-charged">found guilty</a> of illegally providing Smith with prescription drugs in 2009, before having <a href="https://nypost.com/2011/01/06/judge-dismisses-conviction-of-howard-k-stern/">his conviction overturned in 2011</a>. </p>
<p>Her doctor, Sandeep Kapoor, who was <a href="https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/dr-sandeep-kapoor-not-guilty-in-anna-nicole-smith-trial-but-howard-k-stern-convicted/news-story/42f3c2c312905bac5d843f395a8826ee">acquitted</a> of over-prescribing drugs to Smith in 2010, is also featured in the documentary, describing how he pulled strings to provide a heavily pregnant Smith with methadone in the Bahamas.</p>
<p>In his 2017 memoir, Trust Me, I’m A Doctor: My Life Before, During and After Anna Nicole Smith, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/anna-nicole-smiths-former-doctor-claims-playmate-misused-drugs-but-wasnt-an-addict">Kapoor claimed</a> that while he knew Smith misused drugs, he wasn’t aware of her addiction.</p>
<p>Smith’s ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead and their 16-year-old daughter Dannielynn Birkhead refused to take part in the documentary, saying that they withdrew over disagreements with <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/04/19/anna-nicole-smiths-ex-and-daughter-refuse-to-appear-in-netflix-doc/">production over who would or would not be its participants</a>. Birkhead claims to be working on his own documentary of Smith’s life, utilising her archives to <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/04/19/anna-nicole-smiths-ex-and-daughter-refuse-to-appear-in-netflix-doc/">“let Anna tell her own story”</a>. </p>
<p>You Don’t Know Me presents the pieces of a complicated legacy. Though the cultural fascination surrounding Smith means audiences are eager to learn about the “real her”, she is (unlike Spears, Hilton and Anderson) no longer alive to tell her own story – or refute those told about her.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205615/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daisy McManaman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s questionable how ethical it is to retell the story of women whose lives have already been damaged by media depictions of them.Daisy McManaman, PhD Candidate, Centre for Women's Studies, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2045762023-05-05T10:32:21Z2023-05-05T10:32:21ZQueen Cleopatra: experts save this poorly scripted Netflix docuseries<p>The trailer for Netflix’s new four-part documentary series, Queen Cleopatra, was deliberately provocative. Promoting the show as executive produced by actress Jada Pinkett-Smith, it prominently featured historian Professor Shelley Haley declaring that: “Cleopatra was black.”</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IktHcPyNlv4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The controversy-inciting trailer for Netflix’s Queen Cleopatra.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Perhaps unsurprisingly, the trailer is pure clickbait. The show itself is a much more complex piece of work.</p>
<p>There are two ways to watch Queen Cleopatra. The first – and easiest – is by paying more attention to the dramatisation of Cleopatra’s life and times than to the academic talking heads. The second is to do the opposite.</p>
<p>If you choose the former, you will find plenty of ammunition for criticism without even touching upon the decision to present Cleopatra, the royal family and the wider Graeco-Egyptian population as black. Although no doubt this is where much supposedly critical analysis will both begin and end.</p>
<p>While the scenery, sets and costumes are sumptuous and evocative (if not entirely historically accurate) the script is terrible and the acting is unable to elevate it.</p>
<p>Adele James does her best with Cleopatra, managing to convincingly portray her as both a naive 20-year-old and a world weary 40-year-old, all the while looking incredibly glamorous. </p>
<p>She is hampered, however, by a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julius-Caesar-Roman-ruler">Caesar</a> (John Partridge) who either whispers sinisterly or froths at the mouth, a weak and weaselly <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mark-Antony-Roman-triumvir">Antony</a> (Craig Russell) and a psychotic-seeming, over-acting <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Augustus-Roman-emperor">Octavian</a> (James Marlowe).</p>
<p>If you choose to focus on the academics, instead of the drama, you will probably be pleasantly surprised. </p>
<p>The documentary features a bastion of experts drawn from the disciplines of classics, comparative literature, ancient history, archaeology, Egyptology and Nubian studies. They refer to literary, documentary and archaeological evidence to support the points they make throughout. Their commentary is specific, detailed and nuanced.</p>
<h2>A monarch of many faces</h2>
<p>The controversy-inciting quotes included in the trailer have been taken completely out of context. In reality, the commentators are keen to differentiate between what we know about Cleopatra and what we do not. </p>
<p>They also stress the extent to which she has become mythologised – a figure of fantasy rather than reality, someone upon whom people can project their own ideas and even desires.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A silver coin showing Cleopatra's face." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A silver coin showing Cleopatra’s face.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cleopatra_VII_tetradrachm_Syria_mint.jpg">British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>We do not know the identity of Cleopatra’s maternal grandmother. Her father, Ptolemy XII, was illegitimate and so his mother may well have been an Egyptian courtesan. </p>
<p>Nor do we know the identity of her mother. <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Cleopatra.html?id=85rikTt-kBEC&redir_esc=y">It has been suggested</a>, based on Cleopatra’s ability with the Egyptian language and her devotion to the Egyptian pantheon, that she may have been a member of the family that held the hereditary <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/memphis/highpriestptol.html">priesthood of Ptah</a>. This influential ruling family held high-level positions in ancient Egyptian cities like Memphis. </p>
<p>We have no securely identified portraits of her other than those found on her coins, all of which vary considerably. So any claims as to the specifics of her appearance can be safely dismissed.</p>
<p>As can sweeping statements regarding her identity. Cleopatra was simultaneously Macedonian, Egyptian and Roman. In the habit of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Cleopatra_and_Egypt.html?id=OAIuAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">emphasising different aspects of her identity</a> to suit different audiences, she would not have considered herself either white or black, because modern concepts of race <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Race_and_Ethnicity_in_the_Classical_Worl/X6t5EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=race+in+antiquity&printsec=frontcover">would have been unknown to her</a>.</p>
<p>Additionally, whether she was beautiful or not is not something that concerned her peers. In fact, Greek philosopher Plutarch <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Antony*.html">was keen to say</a> that it was her charisma that made her so appealing. It was not until <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/%7Egrout/encyclopaedia_romana/miscellanea/cleopatra/bust.html">300 years after Cleopatra’s death</a> that historians began discussing her beauty at all.</p>
<p>What was more important was that she was rich and in possession of the natural and mineral resources that first Caesar, then Antony and finally Octavian needed to achieve their own political and military aims. </p>
<h2>Airbrushing Cleopatra’s reputation</h2>
<p>I found the modern soundtrack and dialogue (frequent uses of “hi”, “yeah” and, most egregiously, “OK”) far more anachronistic and intrusive than the casting.</p>
<p>The first episode is by far the strongest, both in the breadth and depth of historical material covered and the overall production values. But as the series continues, its limitations become more apparent. The sets and supporting cast start to disappear, the pacing becomes subject to padding and the narrative takes a turn to the speculative.</p>
<p>The documentary also does a fair bit of airbrushing to the queen’s reputation. It seeks to present Cleopatra and her actions in the best possible light while villainising others to manufacture conflict. Her younger sister <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arsinoe-IV">Arsinoe</a> suffers particularly here.</p>
<p>I can certainly appreciate the desire to focus on Cleopatra rather than the men in her life, but presenting Caesar, Antony and Octavian as so “one note” does not help elucidate the character of Cleopatra, but rather obscures it.</p>
<p>The series does, however, close with the acknowledgement that <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/cleopatras-daughter/jane-draycott/9781800244801">her daughter Cleopatra Selene</a> would become an African queen in turn, ruling the Roman client kingdom of Mauretania alongside her husband Juba. As the son of the deposed King of Numidia, in north-west Africa he was definitely a person of colour, as were their children and successors.</p>
<p>It is this conclusion that highlights the fundamental flaw in the documentary’s approach. Cleopatra’s story is all too familiar. </p>
<p>For 2,000 years we have seen version after version of her story, some more historically accurate, others less – but we are far less familiar with other African queens. Not just Cleopatra Selene, but also Cleopatra’s contemporary and neighbour, <a href="https://www.history.com/news/nubian-queen-amanirenas-roman-army">Amanirenas of Kush</a>.</p>
<p>Audiences know – or at least think they know – everything about Cleopatra and are unlikely to be persuaded otherwise, no matter how proficient a documentary might be. But as far as her fellow African queens are concerned, we have barely scratched the surface.</p>
<p><em>Queen Cleopatra is available to stream on Netflix globally from May 10</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Draycott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The modern soundtrack and dialogue feels far more anachronistic and intrusive than the diverse casting.Jane Draycott, Lecturer, Classics, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2018362023-03-21T14:40:34Z2023-03-21T14:40:34ZWild Isles: starling murmuration in BBC documentary reveals as much about people as it does about birds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516349/original/file-20230320-1620-gb9640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C21%2C3623%2C2050&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Starlings flock to the West Pier. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/catalog/licenses">SamuelJB/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I’m sitting on the sofa, watching starlings. There are thousands of them circling above and around me, swirling into spectacular, ever-shifting shapes. They curve and loop in a hypnotic dance, merging at times into thick knots of winding blackness.</p>
<p>The sound is equally astonishing: a wave of wing beats that pulses as the starlings snake across the sky. This compelling communal performance, known as a murmuration, culminates in the act of roosting. It’s the grand show put on before the starlings settle in for a winter night.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uV54oa0SyMc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A starling murmuration.</span></figcaption>
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<p>It takes some effort or luck to witness a murmuration of starlings outside, but from the comfort of my house – and within the frame of a television screen – I can access them easily. The second episode of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0f0t5dp">Wild Isles</a>, which premiered on the BBC last week and which was produced in partnership with the Open University, features an especially memorable and surprising sequence of starlings roosting on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. </p>
<p>Sequences such as this, filmed using technology including drones and night cameras, are not just good value as entertainment, but are critical tools when it comes to understanding bird behaviour.</p>
<p>In the last few months, the BBC has also <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/c66pdw2n70dt">published several videos</a> of murmurations filmed across the United Kingdom, mostly shot by amateur filmmakers. These are equally valuable resources, not least because they foreground the humans behind the camera. </p>
<p>We don’t just see the birds here, but we get to hear the live reactions of people to the birds. This reminds us that a murmuration is an increasingly social event, exemplifying what <a href="https://oro.open.ac.uk/56977/1/morrisORO.pdf">cultural geographer Andy Morris</a> of Open University calls: “environmental entanglement between humans and non-humans”. </p>
<p>The spectacle of the murmuration tells us as much about people as it does about birds.</p>
<h2>The art of bird watching</h2>
<p>As an art historian, I find the questions of why and how humans look at animals fascinating and significant. What does it mean to sit on a sofa watching starlings? </p>
<p>Wild Isles is part of a long and complex tradition of representing or framing wildlife that includes a wide variety of images and objects. As I watched the episode, I wondered what a comparable experience might have been, say, 200 years ago.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Rijksmuseum" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515252/original/file-20230314-3596-mpbroo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515252/original/file-20230314-3596-mpbroo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515252/original/file-20230314-3596-mpbroo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515252/original/file-20230314-3596-mpbroo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515252/original/file-20230314-3596-mpbroo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515252/original/file-20230314-3596-mpbroo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515252/original/file-20230314-3596-mpbroo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Twee spreeuwen by Cornelis van Hardenbergh (c.1800).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search/objects?p=3&amp;ps=12&amp;involvedMaker=Cornelis%20van%20Hardenbergh&amp;st=Objects&amp;ii=11#/RP-T-1920-47,32">Watercolour painting of two starlings.</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>When people couldn’t film birds, they drew or painted them, usually in such a way as to communicate complex information about appearance and behaviour, but not so much as to seem artless. </p>
<p>Cornelis van Hardenbergh’s watercolour painting, Two Starlings (c.1800), is a good example of this. It portrays a male and female starling in brilliant detail. The two birds, probably drawn from dead specimens, are carefully posed in a scenic landscape.</p>
<p>As a static image, so clearly dictated by the priorities of its human viewers, I can understand why this painting might not attract a large audience today. But I think there is much to be gained by comparing such images with their contemporary equivalents. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A starling sitting on a stone in front of a church." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coloured starling wood engraving by J. W. Whimper (1813-1903).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/utuyrmna/images?id=kut3h6m6">Wellcome Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Not only does it draw attention to the framing that still takes place within filmed representations of wildlife, but it can remind us of what is missing when we view animals through moving images, not least the opportunity to consider the birds at our leisure – and in silence. </p>
<p>Spend a few minutes with Van Hardenbergh’s painting and you might find it every bit as thrilling as a video of a murmuration. Van Hardenbrugh’s starlings are part of a group of images and objects that art historians have often struggled to classify. Is this art or does it belong to the history of science? </p>
<p>Paintings such as this can be found both in the collections of natural history museums and fine art museums (this example comes from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam). </p>
<p>What it means to look at an animal is the kind of question, ultimately, that requires knowledge of several disciplines. It challenges art historians to brush up on their biology. It also points to the vital role that art and visual culture have played – and should still play – within the natural sciences.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rn-SR5M-Rms?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Art and Climate Change.</span></figcaption>
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<p>I’m part of an interdisciplinary research group called <a href="https://fass.open.ac.uk/research/groups/open-ecologies">Open Ecologies</a> and one of our current projects, <a href="https://ordo.open.ac.uk/Open_Ecologies">Art and Climate Change</a>, considers the role that historic art can play in educating people about ecological breakdown. We believe that objects from the past, such as paintings, can be just as valuable as educational tools as videos created using the latest technologies. </p>
<p>We want to bring together objects and images from natural history and fine art museums, and to combine ideas from a range of disciplines, to tackle big questions about the way humans represent and understand non-human animals and habitats.</p>
<p>I’ve also been putting together an <a href="https://artuk.org/discover/curations/wild-isles-in-art">online exhibition</a>, which showcases the drama and diversity of UK collections, focusing on representations of species that feature in the BBC Wild Isles series. </p>
<p>Each week new items will be added. This week I’ve included some starlings: including a stunning <a href="https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/starlings-coming-in-to-roost-56273/search/actor:floyd-jimmy-18981974/page/1/view_as/grid">painting</a> of starlings by the Northumberland artist Jimmy Floyd. I believe the painting complements the moving images of murmurations with which we have become familiar. </p>
<p>There’s no stunning detail here: no extraordinary camerawork, no radical insights into bird behaviour. But as a representation of an experience, the painting is compelling. There have been, and are, many ways of seeing starlings – and they all have something to tell us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201836/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Shaw has in the past received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p>Historic paintings can be just as valuable as educational tools as videos created using the latest technologies.Samuel Shaw, Lecturer in History of Art, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1974902023-03-16T21:10:01Z2023-03-16T21:10:01ZThere Will Be No More Night: Documentary raises ethical questions about using war footage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505704/original/file-20230121-24-oue55u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C9%2C1577%2C884&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Screenshot taken from 'There Will Be No More Night' by Éléonore Weber. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In his book <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/416-war-and-cinema"><em>War and Cinema</em></a>, cultural theorist Paul Virilio noted that modern warfare depends on the “logistics of perception.” According to him, a new arena of conflict has emerged with the development of sophisticated imaging technology. Like better weaponry, the side with better cameras often gains superiority. </p>
<p>Virilio said new imaging technology “makes darkness transparent and gives to military contestants an image of what the night is no longer able to conceal.” With thermal and night-vision cameras, any moving presence glowing in darkness becomes susceptible to gunfire by combat helicopters hovering above conflict zones. </p>
<p>Éléonore Weber’s 2020 documentary, <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10917134/">There Will Be No More Night</a></em>, reflects on this phenomenon. It uses leaked military footage from U.S. and French helicopters during war missions in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-been-20-years-since-the-us-invaded-iraq-long-enough-for-my-undergraduate-students-to-see-it-as-a-relic-of-the-past-199460">It's been 20 years since the US invaded Iraq – long enough for my undergraduate students to see it as a relic of the past</a>
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<p>The unnerving sequence of night-vision footage shows airstrikes on civilians suspected of being militants by pilots with shaky conviction. The blurry, grainy images accompany radio-transmitted exchanges between aircraft and machine gun operators, confessions of a pilot who suffers from chronic hallucinations and a scripted monologue. </p>
<p>Weber creatively uses forensic sources to contemplate the technology of modern warfare, where military-grade surveillance and imaging almost serve as a proxy for guns.</p>
<p>As we approach the 20th anniversary of the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/timeline/iraq-war">U.S.-led invasion of Iraq</a>, it is important to reflect on the use of war footage in media and the ethical questions around the use of footage depicting human death.</p>
<h2>Highlighting human rights abuses</h2>
<p><em>There Will Be No More Night</em> underscores the fallacy that advanced imaging provides accuracy and error-proof precision to modern war. The documentary shows how sophisticated war machines are driven by the personal idiosyncrasies of drone operators who launch deadly missiles using systems that resemble <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/turning-video-gamers-into-the-ultimate-drone-pilots-1.1398870">video games</a>.</p>
<p>While Virilio traced aesthetic similarities between the videography of war and cinema, Weber’s documentary film uses war footage to highlight the camera’s impairing role in contemporary conflicts.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for the documentary ‘There Will Be No More Night’ by Éléonore Weber.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The surveillance recordings document the offhanded killing of the people targeted. Weber includes the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/15/all-lies-how-the-us-military-covered-up-gunning-down-two-journalists-in-iraq">infamous Wikileaks footage</a> showing the airstrike that killed Iraqi Reuters photographer Saeed Chmagh and his colleagues in 2007. According to the pilots, Chmagh’s camera tripod resembled an RPG grenade launcher in the grainy footage. </p>
<p>In other instances, farmers carrying ploughs get mistaken for militants. Another harrowing scene depicts a person showered with bullets because he appeared unusually calm when cornered by a helicopter pilot. </p>
<p>Advanced imaging technologies in warfare seemingly operate on a peculiar logic, where framing inevitably leads to the manufacturing and annihilation of suspects. According to media theorist Harun Farocki, they generate “<a href="https://doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9781526107213.003.0004">operational images</a>” that do not merely represent but execute the functions of operations they belong to. </p>
<p>Weber’s creative use of forensic materials records a series of war violations. Scholars Patrick Brian Smith and Ryan Watson use the term “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221088954">mediated forensics</a>” to describe the use of new media technologies and practices in human rights discourse. </p>
<p>Research-activist groups like <a href="https://forensic-architecture.org/">Forensic Architecture</a>, <a href="https://situ.nyc/research">SITU Research</a> and <a href="https://lab.witness.org/">WITNESS Media Lab</a> perform forensic analysis of raw media evidence to highlight human rights issues. They do so using techniques and technologies such as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/photogrammetry">photogrammetry</a>, geolocation mapping, 3D-imaging and pattern analysis to infer unseen viewpoints from limited visual evidence.</p>
<h2>A question of ethics</h2>
<p><em>There Will Be No More Night</em> sidesteps such principled forensic analysis. Instead of dissecting raw media evidence and disclosing new perspectives around specific events, it simply reproduces images of brutal killings for a generalized, self-absorbed reflection on modern warfare. </p>
<p>Consequently, the film becomes emotionally distressing and ethically dubious. One cannot discard the uneasy concerns of witnessing 125 minutes of footage depicting brutal massacres from the cockpit.</p>
<p>The documentary also humanizes one pilot, Pierre V., as he reflects on his nightmares after controlling infrared and thermal cameras for several months. But nothing is heard from the other side; those who live under the perpetual threat of the weapons and cameras, and need to devise inventive ways to escape their thermal imagery. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Irish photographer Richard Mosse discusses his documentary ‘Heat Maps’.</span></figcaption>
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<p>A related problem surfaces in the documentary project <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/richard-mosses-heat-maps-a-military-grade-camera-repurposed-on-the-migrant-trail"><em>Heat Maps</em></a> by Irish photographer Richard Mosse. He uses thermal video cameras to construct composite images of refugee camps in and around the Mediterranean. </p>
<p>But the visually arresting photographs further expose the subjects and deny them self-representation. Mosse also enjoys freedom of movement and has control over the photographed images of the subjects — rights the subjects themselves do not have. </p>
<p>Despite its acute critique of modern warfare, <em>There Will Be No More Night</em> could have devised measures to work around the reproduction of visuals of death. Its distanced approach, driven by a voice-over commentary, fails to account for divergent perspectives. </p>
<p>What appears jarringly absent in the film are the voices of those people who are continually mapped by the imaging technologies of modern warfare and the social and psychological effects the technologies have on them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197490/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Santasil Mallik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As we approach the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, it is important to reflect on the use of war footage in media and the ethical questions around the use of footage depicting human death.Santasil Mallik, PhD Student, Media Studies, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2016002023-03-10T17:01:51Z2023-03-10T17:01:51ZMeet Me in the Bathroom: documentary shows how 9/11 shaped New York’s indie music scene<p>In 2021, trend forecaster <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@oldloserinbrooklyn?lang=en">Mandy Lee</a> predicted the return of “indie sleaze”, referring to the hedonistic and unfiltered UK and US indie music scene which stretched from 2006 to 2012. As of March 2023, the Instagram account “@indiesleaze”, which shares images of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/indiesleaze/?hl=en">“the decadence of the mid-late aughts and the indie sleaze party that died in 2012”</a>, has amassed over 135,000 followers.</p>
<p>The appetite is there, then, for Meet Me in the Bathroom. Based on <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/meet-me-in-the-bathroom-lizzy-goodman?variant=32117003419682">the 2017 book</a> of the same name, the documentary is an oral history of and an “<a href="https://www.meetmeinthebathroomfilm.com/synopsis/">immersive journey through</a>” the New York scene.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Meet Me in the Bathroom (2023).</span></figcaption>
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<p>Before indie’s “sleaze” era, the New York music scene exploded in the early years of the 2000s, with bands such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWSK-3CN4Nw">LCD Soundsystem</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkpgz3uQ58U">Interpol</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J2QdDbelmY">The White Stripes</a> transforming the genre for the rest of the decade. </p>
<p>Its influence is still felt today. Sheffield band, Arctic Monkeys, opened their 2018 album Tranquillity Base Hotel and Casino with a lyric referencing the defining band of the New York indie scene: “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_2rM8A_1-w">I just wanted to be one of The Strokes.</a>”</p>
<p>The documentary pieces together fan footage, band video diaries and news broadcasts. These frames are stitched together with audio – some from slick media interviews, others that sound like they were recorded in a tin can. </p>
<p>Indie music is a sonic collision of alternative rock, pop and electronica. The indie artist, like their punk predecessor, is a “<a href="https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/levistrauss.pdf">bricoleur</a>” – a performer of large number of tasks who takes whatever tools and material that are available to them and creates something new. </p>
<p>The structure of the documentary is presented in a bricolage fashion through its fragmented narration of a city experiencing huge changes. The attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11 2001 reshaped New York’s indie music scene. Shock waves were sent through the city and its inhabitants, including a generation of young musicians.</p>
<p>Indie, like the bricoleur, works with a collection of fragments to form something new. In response to the 9/11 attacks, the New York indie scene transformed both sonically and physically, just as bands including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs moved from Manhattan to Williamsburg in Brooklyn. </p>
<h2>The impact of 9/11 on New York’s indie scene</h2>
<p>To ask Meet Me in the Bathroom to be as expansive as its source material would be an impossible task. The 621-page book follows the New York music scene from 1999 up to 2011, whereas the prominent moment in the documentary is 9/11 and its aftermath.</p>
<p>The claustrophobia and paranoia of the city is represented through shots of news channel coverage of 9/11 as music by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs play in the background. The documentary also uses harrowing amateur footage that captures a grieving city and a community of musicians processing that in their music.</p>
<p>Scenes of a mass exodus from Manhattan transition into an acoustic performance of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUcoRjhynB0">NYC’s Like a Graveyard</a> (2001) by The Moldy Peaches, the first indie band the documentary follows. Although not written as a response to 9/11, the song’s release coincided with the attacks. It takes on a specific meaning, distinct from its original intention, as it is paired with the footage.</p>
<p>A notable shift in the documentary occurs here as gig footage no longer represents the youth culture surrounding indie music. Rather, New York’s indie gigs represent a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340103292_Emotion_memory_and_re-collective_value_shared_festival_experiences">loss of innocence</a>. </p>
<p>As the camera pans across a sweaty crowd, both audience and musician are experiencing a collective trauma. The experience of both the loss of loved ones and a once-familiar city. In one scene, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O shares that, for her, performance offered escapism.</p>
<p><a href="https://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1867/poems/184">Walt Whitman’s poem Leaves of Grass</a> bookends the documentary and acts as a reminder of the New York music scene’s resistance, resilience and growth. The music coming out of New York in the early 2000s shaped the next decade of music. But, as Meet Me in the Bathroom shows, it was forged in a time of collective trauma.</p>
<p><em>Meet Me in the Bathroom is in UK cinemas from 10 March 2023</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201600/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy McCarthy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The oral history showcases how the indie music scene became a way for many New Yorkers to channel their grief after 9/11.Amy McCarthy, PhD Researcher in English Literature, York St John UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1963032022-12-09T13:04:04Z2022-12-09T13:04:04ZHarry & Meghan – what the first episodes reveal about Meghan’s reputation within the royal family<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499992/original/file-20221209-33858-p3m533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4137%2C2445&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Duke and Duchess have revealed a host of previously unseen photographs for the documentary. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81439256/assets/eyJpZCI6ImZrcmJjd211ZCIsIm5hbWUiOiJIYXJyeSAmIE1lZ2hhbiBfQXJjaGl2YWxfUGhvdG9ib290aC5qcGcifQ==">Courtesy of Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As an expert in the contemporary British monarchy, I watched the first three episodes of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new <a href="https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/harry-meghan-documentary">Netflix docuseries</a>, Harry & Meghan, closely.</p>
<p>What came across most was how Meghan’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-intersectionality-mean-104937">gender, race and class intersected</a> in her treatment both by the media and by “the Firm” (an unofficial nickname for the British monarchy and its staff that describes the institution as a business) itself.</p>
<p>As with their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-gkAM0XZMU">2021 Oprah interview</a>, this documentary is a forum for the couple to account for their treatment by the Firm. These kinds of royal confessionals risk damaging the monarchy, as they cast a light “behind the scenes” of an institution which <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526158758/">relies on magic and majesty</a> to maintain its image.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/meghan-and-harrys-oprah-interview-why-royal-confessionals-threaten-the-monarchy-156601">Meghan and Harry’s Oprah interview: why 'royal confessionals' threaten the monarchy</a>
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<h2>Patriarchy and women’s bodies</h2>
<p>Princess Diana’s traumas in the royal family have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/spencer-how-diana-became-the-popular-culture-princess-170765">well covered</a> over the decades, including by <a href="https://archive.org/details/h20939297">the Panorama documentary</a> she used to tell her own story in 1995. Like Meghan, Diana spoke about her mental health and a lack of support from the Firm. Harry & Meghan also makes comparisons between Diana and Meghan, claiming that both women were hounded by the paparazzi throughout their royal lives. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Harry + Meghan.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Meghan talks about “men sitting in cars all the time” outside her house, waiting for her to leave. In any other situation, she says, this would amount to stalking. As Meghan mentions, gender matters here. Celebrities like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12673718/">Britney Spears</a> have spoken out about <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203715406/framing-celebrity-su-holmes-sean-redmond">the unique pressures women</a> face from tabloid intrusion. </p>
<p>The economy surrounding these women encompasses multiple industries, from cosmetic surgery to fashion brands, who benefit from paparazzi exploitation. Britney Spears’ body became an economy in itself as paparazzi pictures of her were <a href="https://www.insidehook.com/article/arts-entertainment/britney-spears-doc-reveals-staggering-profitability-paparazzi-culture">worth so much money</a>.</p>
<p>For royal women, this takes on a new imperative. The monarchy is reliant on women’s bodies for its reproduction – literally, the reproduction of heirs. Royal women’s bodies are fetishised as <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Diana_and_Beyond/v25zAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">reproductive of the nation</a>, as they birth the next “symbol” of Britishness. This also accounts for the hidden meaning behind those questions from within the royal family about the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2021-03-08/oprah-winfrey-meghan-harry-archie-skin-color-racism">colour of Archie’s skin</a> – they are asking how “British” (or rather, how white) her baby might look.</p>
<p>It is not just about clothing and branding, but about how royal women’s bodies take on meaning that <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p080302">connects femininity and the nation</a>. This is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/prince-andrew-the-monarchy-has-a-long-history-of-dismissing-womens-suffering-165927">patriarchal institution</a> that uses women’s bodies for its own ends.</p>
<h2>Respectability politics</h2>
<p>As the documentary shows, for Meghan this is not just about gender. Race and class come to play a part in the <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526158758/">intersectional pressures</a> she was placed under. Headlines like the Daily Mail’s “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/meghan-harry-racism-uk-tabloids-b2241223.html">(Almost) Straight Outta Compton</a>” are discussed as evidence of the racist coverage of the early days of the couple’s relationship.</p>
<p>Meghan also mentions the Firm’s discomfort with her acting career. She explains that there are assumptions made about Hollywood and the people who work in it. Acting is seen as too <em>déclassé</em> a profession to marry into the royal family, despite the fact that the Firm <a href="https://www.torrossa.com/en/resources/an/5015819#page=32">operates like a celebrity industry</a> in and of itself.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499993/original/file-20221209-33805-3bblu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Harry and Meghan photographed from behind, embracing on a dog walk in expansive fields, wearing matching green coats." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499993/original/file-20221209-33805-3bblu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499993/original/file-20221209-33805-3bblu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499993/original/file-20221209-33805-3bblu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499993/original/file-20221209-33805-3bblu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499993/original/file-20221209-33805-3bblu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499993/original/file-20221209-33805-3bblu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499993/original/file-20221209-33805-3bblu5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the previously unseen photographs released for the documentary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81439256/assets/eyJpZCI6InBrY3R2bGdhdjgiLCJuYW1lIjoiSGFycnlfTWVnaGFuX0xpbWl0ZWRfU2VyaWVzX0VwaXNvZGVfMl8yMDg1NDkxXzAwXzQ2XzM0XzA2XzI3OTcwNDUucG5nIn0=">Courtesy of Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Around the time of their wedding, tabloids were also representing Meghan’s father’s (Thomas Markle) side of the family in ways reminiscent of <a href="https://www.routledge.com/White-Trash-Race-and-Class-in-America/Newitz-Wray/p/book/9780415916929%22%22">“white trash” discourses</a>. “<a href="https://theconversation.com/class-stereotypes-chavs-white-trash-bogans-and-other-animals-22952">White trash</a>” is an American slur (equivalent to the UK’s “chav”) for an abject working class figure.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5748403/Meghans-uninvited-family-celebrates-wedding-Burger-King-crowns.html">The Daily Mail</a> reported on Meghan’s aunt and cousin spending the royal wedding wearing cardboard browns in a Burger King, a fast food chain associated with <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10350330500154634">working-class stereotypes</a>. Their meal was positioned in contrast to the upper class and aspirational one taking place at the same time in Windsor. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499994/original/file-20221209-23893-cep7lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A selfie of Harry and Meghan laughing in sunglasses and cuddling a pet dog." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499994/original/file-20221209-23893-cep7lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499994/original/file-20221209-23893-cep7lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499994/original/file-20221209-23893-cep7lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499994/original/file-20221209-23893-cep7lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499994/original/file-20221209-23893-cep7lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499994/original/file-20221209-23893-cep7lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499994/original/file-20221209-23893-cep7lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The personal photographs are very different to the images of the royal family audiences are used to.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81439256/assets/eyJpZCI6ImZrdHZsZ3N2ZCIsIm5hbWUiOiJIYXJyeV9NZWdoYW5fTGltaXRlZF9TZXJpZXNfRXBpc29kZV8zXzIwODU0OThfMDBfNDFfNTlfMDhfMjUyMTg1My5wbmcifQ==">Courtesy of Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Black studies scholars like <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p082481">Brittney Cooper</a> have referred to condemnation of the actions of people of colour as “respectability politics”. Inclusion into typically white spaces is undertaken through observing white, middle class norms, including being “mainstream, articulate, and clean cut, black but not too black, friendly, upbeat, and accommodating”.</p>
<p>Of course, the monarchy is perhaps the pinnacle of “respectable”: an institution enshrined as the peak of British society. The racism which has plagued Meghan, and the fact she was never allowed to achieve <a href="https://www.manchesterhive.com/view/9781526149343/9781526149343.00014.xml">racial uplift</a>, demonstrates how whiteness, gender and upper classness are used to police the boundaries of respectability.</p>
<h2>Femininity and the nation</h2>
<p>Women in the royal family are always subject to more pervasive attention than the men. Princess Diana and Kate Middleton have received intense scrutiny, from what they say and wear to speculation about <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-great-kate-wait-duchess-of-cambridge-doing-well-in-labour-at-london-s-st-mary-s-hospital-8725599.html">what’s going on in their wombs</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499995/original/file-20221209-33857-4pofku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black and white photograph of Meghan sat on a kitchen counter in a gown and Harry in a suit without his jacket leaning in to kiss her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499995/original/file-20221209-33857-4pofku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499995/original/file-20221209-33857-4pofku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499995/original/file-20221209-33857-4pofku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499995/original/file-20221209-33857-4pofku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499995/original/file-20221209-33857-4pofku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499995/original/file-20221209-33857-4pofku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499995/original/file-20221209-33857-4pofku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Harry and Meghan kiss in their kitchen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81439256/assets/eyJpZCI6InAzYzZiY3FidTgiLCJuYW1lIjoiSGFycnkgJiBNZWdoYW5fQXJjaGl2YWxfS2l0Y2hlbl8xLnBuZyJ9">Courtesy of Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>As Harry points out in the documentary, though, Meghan’s situation was unique. Meghan’s story tells us something fundamental about the British monarchy’s relationship to patriarchy and whiteness, and how the two are inseparable. </p>
<p>And media scholar Raka Shome writes in her book, <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p080302">Diana and Beyond</a>, white femininity “is always a doing and not a being. It is always pushed and pulled, routed and rerouted to script national desires.”</p>
<p>The hounding of Meghan is one site of this push and pull. The scripts of white femininity, and therefore of nation, were fought and continue to be fought, over representations of her.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196303/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Clancy has received funding from the ESRC and the AHRC. </span></em></p>An expert in contemporary British monarchy analyses the first three episodes of Harry + Meghan, the headline-grabbing Netflix show from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.Laura Clancy, Lecturer in Media, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1915002022-10-12T19:02:12Z2022-10-12T19:02:12ZI was an expert advisor on the documentary ‘How to Thrive’. Here’s what happened after this wellbeing experiment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488434/original/file-20221006-18-jjy784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1917%2C1270&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/mKJUoZPy70I">Priscilla Du Preez/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.howtothrivefilm.com">How to Thrive</a> documentary, which screens in cinemas from today, follows seven people as they learn to not only survive, but thrive.</p>
<p>The documentary aligns with “<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-positive-psychology-and-how-can-you-use-it-for-yourself-75635">positive psychology</a>”, which aims to provide people with the skills and resources to proactively support their mental health and wellbeing.</p>
<p>I research positive psychology and was as an expert advisor for the documentary, assessing the participants’ progress over 18 months. </p>
<p>My analysis shows the evidence-based strategies in the documentary supported participants to thrive, leading most of them to feel and function well across multiple aspects of their lives.</p>
<p>There are lessons here for everyone. Here’s what we learned from the intensive film-making process that you can apply to better your life.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-positive-psychology-and-how-can-you-use-it-for-yourself-75635">Explainer: what is positive psychology and how can you use it for yourself?</a>
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<h2>The process</h2>
<p>Filming began just before the start of the pandemic. Twelve people from diverse backgrounds – all with varying degrees of mental illness – took part. A two-day retreat introduced everyone to each other, and the journey ahead.</p>
<p>Each person had their own psychiatric supports as a requirement for being part of the program. There was also a clinical psychologist overseeing the process.</p>
<p>Then lockdown began. </p>
<p>Participants connected through Zoom, creating a sense of community and developing a sense of belonging. They were introduced to evidence-based strategies to improve their lives, and filmed their progress on their phones.</p>
<p>All participants learned about their <a href="https://viacharacter.org/">character strengths</a> (the positive parts of your personality that make you feel authentic and engaged), created a vision board of their best possible future self, practised <a href="https://self-compassion.org/">self-compassion</a>, and identified what went well in their life and why. </p>
<p>They also received individual coaching sessions, and were given activities specific to their needs.</p>
<p>Of the original 12 participants, seven were included in the final cut of the film, based on which stories allowed the producers to talk about a range of approaches and diversity of mental health conditions.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R9OTod5j5dk?wmode=transparent&start=160" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How to Thrive, due for release in cinemas October 13.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>How I assessed their progress</h2>
<p>I collected data documenting participants’ experiences, mental illness and wellbeing.</p>
<p>Over eight months, participants made major changes in their lives and saw the benefits. Benefits continuing over the subsequent ten months. </p>
<p>Let’s take a scale from -10 (to indicate high mental distress) to +10 (completely thriving).</p>
<p>On average, participants went from -3.2 (mild-to-moderate distress) to +5.4. Even a 2-point improvement would be statistically significant. But we saw a difference of more than 8 points, clearly showing participants were thriving, and demonstrating clinically significant improvements.</p>
<p>The greatest changes occurred from March to April 2020, during the documentary’s main intervention period. But improvements continued over the next 17 months.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488429/original/file-20221006-16-xxbv1k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="How to Thrive poster" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488429/original/file-20221006-16-xxbv1k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488429/original/file-20221006-16-xxbv1k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488429/original/file-20221006-16-xxbv1k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488429/original/file-20221006-16-xxbv1k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488429/original/file-20221006-16-xxbv1k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488429/original/file-20221006-16-xxbv1k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488429/original/file-20221006-16-xxbv1k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Participants said they were struggling less.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13223254/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt">How to Thrive/IMDB</a></span>
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<p>On average, participants felt more satisfied with their lives, more hopeful, more engaged, and more connected. Participants improved their physical health, and felt less lonely and distressed.</p>
<p>Participants felt like they were struggling less. They felt more supported by others and gave more support to others. They increased their skills, resources, and motivation to live well. </p>
<p>The results support <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0963721412469809">studies</a> suggesting happiness does not just happen – it’s a skill that can be learned and developed, with the right aims and supports in place. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-avoid-toxic-positivity-and-take-the-less-direct-route-to-happiness-170260">How to avoid 'toxic positivity' and take the less direct route to happiness</a>
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<h2>What else could be going on?</h2>
<p>While seven participants were included in the final cut, all the original 12 took part in the assessments across the first 12 months. Almost all demonstrating significant increases in their mental health and wellbeing across the intervention period and beyond. </p>
<p>One participant, who did not engage in many of the intervention activities and remained distant from the group, did not see these improvements.</p>
<p>It’s possible the benefits arose from the psychiatric supports participants had in place as part of the documentary. However, each
participant had years of experience with psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health supports, yet continued to deeply struggle. </p>
<p>This suggests the intervention provided added benefits to usual mental health care. </p>
<p><a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-13-119">Studies</a> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK76780/">suggest</a> that positive psychology interventions can increase wellbeing and reduce the symptoms of depression. </p>
<p>However, we don’t know how positive psychology interventions alone compare with usual mental health care. We also don’t have evidence for adding positive psychology to usual mental care. </p>
<p>Positive psychology interventions have mostly been used with people <em>without</em> moderate-to-severe mental illness. Indeed, one of the extraordinary parts of this experiment was adding positive psychology to typical care for people <em>with</em> moderate-to-severe mental illness. </p>
<h2>What can we learn?</h2>
<p>The documentary suggests several key ways to support mental health and wellbeing.</p>
<p><strong>1. Find your tribe</strong> </p>
<p>Throughout the documentary, participants developed a community. Humans have a natural need for <a href="https://europepmc.org/article/pmc/pmc8095671">belonging</a>. In contrast, loneliness <a href="https://theconversation.com/loneliness-is-a-health-issue-and-needs-targeted-solutions-96262">relates to</a> mental and physical illness, and even early death. Find people that you can belong with and connect at a deep level, beyond superficial “friends”.</p>
<p><strong>2. Engage in meaningful activities</strong></p>
<p>Studies suggest <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6776218/">engagement in life</a> is an important marker of healthy ageing. This means not simply gliding through life, but sucking the marrow out of life. It involves finding and committing to activities that fill you up and give you a sense of life, rather than those that drain the life from you.</p>
<p><strong>3. Be compassionate</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/compassionate_mind_healthy_body">Be compassionate</a> towards yourself and others. We are often our own worst critics. We are doing the best we can. Be kind to yourself, and extend that kindness to others.</p>
<p><strong>4. Be optimistic</strong></p>
<p>Be <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2894461/">optimistic and hopeful</a> for the future. Things won’t always work out, but if we are biased towards seeing the possibility of what could be, the results might surprise us.</p>
<p><strong>5. Nurture yourself</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://study.unimelb.edu.au/discover/inside-melbourne/how-to-look-after-yourself">Nurture</a> your physical, mental, social and spiritual wellbeing. Eat and rest well, engage in moderate physical activity, and actively engage in activities that make you feel and function well.</p>
<h2>But be careful</h2>
<p>Positive psychology interventions are far from a panacea. As part of the documentary, they only worked for those who actively took part in the interventions and connected well with others. </p>
<p>Each participant was dealing with one or more mental illnesses. So positive psychology was not a replacement for conventional psychiatric support. They went hand-in-hand.</p>
<p>While the documentary presents a hopeful story of recovery, if you are struggling with mental illness, it’s important to connect with additional forms of support, including your GP, psychologist or psychiatrist.</p>
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<p><em>If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191500/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peggy Kern has served as a voluntary content advisor for the How to Thrive project and reports here on her professional experience with the documentary.</span></em></p>The documentary presents a hopeful story of recovery. Here’s what this means for you.Peggy Kern, Associate professor, Centre for Positive Psychology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1909672022-09-21T00:57:49Z2022-09-21T00:57:49ZIn The Australian Wars, Rachel Perkins dispenses with the myth Aboriginal people didn’t fight back<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485440/original/file-20220919-14345-deaukn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5472%2C3637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dylan River/SBS</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>First Nations people please be advised this article mentions colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.</em></p>
<p>The Australian Wars is a new three-part TV series directed and produced by Arrernte and Kalkadoon nations filmmaker Rachel Perkins.</p>
<p>Perkins travels across vast territory to capture key aspects of a war that lasted more than 100 years, from the landing of the First Fleet in 1788 until the 1920s.</p>
<p>The series traces some of the key phases, sites and underlying features of frontier wars here on home soil. </p>
<p>It sets out to understand why the war was never declared, why the British didn’t follow their own laws, and the tactics and strategies Aboriginal people deployed defending their land and survival. </p>
<p>Perkins asks us to consider this difficult history, why there are only a handful of monuments to this warfare, and how it should be memorialised.</p>
<p>To ask these questions, Perkins deploys stunningly shot re-enactments, archives, artefacts, biography, expert evidence and uses place to great effect. </p>
<p>The series treats the viewer with the ability to critically reflect and ask why we still struggle to come to terms with this history.</p>
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<h2>The frontier wars</h2>
<p>The “<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/what-are-the-frontier-wars/6ym0q6ic9">frontier wars</a>” were the conflicts between Europeans and Aboriginal people over access to land the British sought to occupy exclusively without any agreement, treaty or settlement. This series emphasises Aboriginal people resisted these wars in multiple ways, including warfare. Aboriginal people are still <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-13/gomeroi-fight-santos-narrabri-gas-project-climate-change/101428862">resisting these wars today</a>, in the courts. </p>
<p>The Australian Wars is an important contribution to truth-telling. Perkins provides a public reckoning with the means by which the British Empire – followed by independent democratic Australian governments – managed to grab the entirety of the land assets of the continent. </p>
<p>The dominant narrative of Australian settler colonialism was once sunny tales of possession, sustained by hard toil. Aboriginal acts of resistance, refusal and warfare were somehow miraculously omitted. </p>
<p>Only in recent decades has a more truthful account of the past emerged. New conversations and responsibility are slowly navigating the realities of the frontier, the shared history of “both sides” and how the past can be remembered. </p>
<p>Reconciliation Australia’s “Reconciliation Barometer” survey identified <a href="https://www.reconciliation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Australian_Reconciliation_Barometer_2020_-Full-Report_web.pdf">only 64%</a> of non-Indigenous Australians believed the frontier wars occurred. Some 30% of respondents were unsure and 6% rejected the factual accuracy of significant aspects of Australia’s colonial history. </p>
<p>The Australian War Memorial, once tasked with considering how to reflect frontier wars in Australia’s story, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/12/australian-war-memorial-ignores-frontier-war">rejected</a> any inclusion of the frontier wars in its exhibitions.</p>
<p>The documentary returns to the theme of rejecting this part of Australia’s history and asks: how can the frontier wars be remembered and memorialised? </p>
<p>Perkins reminds us that as many people – both black and white – died in the frontier wars as did in overseas conflicts featured at the Australian War Memorial. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-death-on-the-darling-colonialisms-final-encounter-with-the-barkandji-114275">Friday essay: death on the Darling, colonialism’s final encounter with the Barkandji</a>
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<h2>The moving frontier</h2>
<p>The Australian Wars draws together experts of Australian history, detailed studies of the expansive colonial records, the oral testimony of survivors’ descendants and new archaeological research. </p>
<p>With this trove of references, Perkins reveals the extent and breadth of violence, the global networks of military men and the strategies they honed on the frontier, and the technology that came to enable this. </p>
<p>Ultimately, we learn unfettered access to the land resource was the driving factor. The rule of law, claims of humanitarianism and Christianity were readily dispensed with in pursuit of land.</p>
<p>Perkins begins this story in the nation’s capital at the War Memorial. She then follows the moving frontier from the Sydney settlement to Tasmania and crossing Bass Strait. The story then moves with rapid pace from south to north and across the top end to the Kimberley, as settlers expanded across landscapes in always violent encounters. </p>
<p>She dispenses with the abiding myth Aboriginal people didn’t fight back.</p>
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<p>In each location Perkins focuses on, we see different strategies deployed, tactical advantage held at times by Aboriginal people, the fear and terror struck in the settlers, and the military actors and strategy that underpinned the colonial settlements. </p>
<p>By the third episode, as the frontier heads north, settlers take lessons from Sydney, Tasmania and the New South Wales grasslands country. Moving with much greater speed aided now by horses, the settlers recruited skilled Native Mounted Police, used repeating rifles and developed systems and infrastructure to confine Aboriginal people to prisons. </p>
<p>But the Aboriginal peoples whose lands were being invaded were fast developing new tactics.</p>
<p>In Queensland alone it is estimated 72,000 Aboriginal men, women and children were killed.</p>
<h2>How do we remember?</h2>
<p>The series prompts us to ask: if not war, then what do we call the process by which the land, once all carefully delineated and peopled, is occupied by settlers? </p>
<p>How do we remember this and memorialise those who died? </p>
<p>Perkins tells us this violence was often very well documented. This violence was acted against people whose eyes you could see. Yet from Lake George, just outside the nation’s capital, to the Sydney wars and massacres, Tasmania, Queensland and to the Kimberley, sites of violence are overwhelmingly unmarked, unobserved, save for colonial names: “Blackfellows Bones”, “Victory Hill”. </p>
<p>The silence continues.</p>
<p>Leading Australian historian Henry Reynolds says the frontier wars are our most important war because of where they were fought and what they were about: the outcome determined the ownership and sovereign control of a whole continent. </p>
<p>As he comments in the series “what can be more important than that to us?”</p>
<p><em>The Australian Wars is on SBS and SBS on Demand from today.</em></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-its-time-for-a-new-museum-dedicated-to-the-fighters-of-the-frontier-wars-155299">Friday essay: it's time for a new museum dedicated to the fighters of the frontier wars</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190967/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In her new SBS documentary, Rachel Perkins travels across vast territory to capture key aspects of a war that lasted more than 100 years.Heidi Norman, Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology SydneyAnne Maree Payne, Lecturer, Centre for the Advancement of Indigenous Knowledges, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1896952022-09-14T18:23:20Z2022-09-14T18:23:20ZLeena Manimekalai’s documentary ‘Kaali’ challenges Hindutva nationalism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483387/original/file-20220908-9232-kzuqe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=124%2C292%2C3104%2C1901&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A painting of the goddess Kali by Indian artist Raja Ravi Varma. The film Kaali by Leena Manimekalai has drawn controversy for the way it depicts the goddess. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(The Ganesh Shivaswamy Foundation, Bengaluru)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the summer, Toronto-based Indian filmmaker Leena Manimekalai uploaded a poster on Twitter of her upcoming documentary <em>Kaali</em>. The image showed the Hindu goddess smoking a cigarette and holding a rainbow flag among other accoutrements.</p>
<p>Predictably, it received widespread backlash from the <a href="https://thewire.in/communalism/hindutva-and-the-question-of-who-owns-india">Hindutva</a> community in India for “<a href="https://theprint.in/features/kaali-poster-complaint-filed-against-leena-manimekalai-for-hurting-religious-sentiments-director-clarifies/1024267/">hurting religious sentiments</a>.” But the popularly dubbed “<a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/twitter-erupts-after-goddess-kali-shown-smoking-in-documentary-poster-director-leena-manimekalai-trends/articleshow/92646337.cms?from=mdr">poster row</a>” challenges us to consider disturbing political questions that Manimekalai’s work has persistently probed.</p>
<h2>Scandal and Censorship</h2>
<p>Following the social media outrage, leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party <a href="https://theprint.in/politics/bjp-leader-files-police-complaint-against-kaali-producer-leena-manimekalai-for-hurting-sentiments-of-hindus/1024842/">filed a complaint</a> against Manimekalai with police in Delhi. Groups opposed to the documentary soon joined the bandwagon by <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/art-entertainment/-kaali-controversy-bajrang-dal-bjp-workers-in-bihar-burn-effigies-of-leena-manimekalai-for-hurting-sentiments--news-207703">burning Manimekalai’s effigy</a> and issuing <a href="https://www.cnn.com/style/article/kaali-hindu-goddess-leena-manimekalai/index.html">death threats</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1543200394477805568"}"></div></p>
<p><em>Kaali</em> was one of the 18 short projects in <a href="https://www.torontomu.ca/cerc-migration/under-the-tent">Under the Tent</a>, a program produced by Toronto Metropolitan University to promote cinema from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. <a href="https://www.torontomu.ca/cerc-migration/events/2022/07/under-the-tent-launch/">In a statement</a>, the university said it removed the film from the program because it felt that it caused unnecessary offense to the religious sentiment of many people in Canada and elsewhere.</p>
<p>In her documentary, Manimekalai walks the streets of Toronto at night donning the image of Kali from Tamil and Telegu village folklore. The performance depicts the rebellious spirit that possesses people, eats meat, smokes marijuana, drinks liquor, urinates publicly and dances in a disruptive show.</p>
<p>She places Kali in the “<a href="https://thewire.in/film/leena-manimekalai-kaali-tribal-goddess">land of immigrants to understand settler colonialism</a>.” Using the goddess figure to tackle politically controversial topics is a recurring feature of Manimekalai’s work that irks conservative factions.</p>
<p>The fluid iconography of Kali and the anxieties it poses for ruling power are not new. <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=1QOWRn_i1kcC&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=risley+chromolithograph+of+Kaali&source=bl&ots=9vRXobq9a2&sig=ACfU3U0SjXGlAoGc1Ssjgsnwx8B42COSxA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi4gMff1Pv5AhURKH0KHbVgDZsQ6AF6BAglEAM#v=onepage&q=risley%20chromolithograph%20of%20Kaali&f=false">Anthropologist Christopher Pinney</a> notes how the British colonial administrator Herbert Hope Risley anxiously censored an 1880s chromolithograph of Kali because some of the faces in Kali’s garland of severed heads resembled Europeans. As India marks its 75th year of independence, Kali’s threatening presence persists with a different array of entrenched anxieties for the ruling elite beyond a cigarette and an LGBTIQ+ flag. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483099/original/file-20220906-4642-he753.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An image of Kali holing a bloodied blade in her hands. She stands above a body wearing heads around her neck." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483099/original/file-20220906-4642-he753.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483099/original/file-20220906-4642-he753.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483099/original/file-20220906-4642-he753.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483099/original/file-20220906-4642-he753.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483099/original/file-20220906-4642-he753.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483099/original/file-20220906-4642-he753.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483099/original/file-20220906-4642-he753.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This image of Kali appeared in various versions till as late as the 1920s. This image attained iconic status in part because of its wide distribution and use to advertise cigarettes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(The Metropolitan Museum of Art)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By imbibing the deity’s pagan form, Manimekalai participates in the Indigenous tradition of being possessed by goddesses or spirits. Her performance critically revisits issues of LGBTIQ+ rights, refugee crises, genocidal history and Hindutva politics that she has engaged with in her earlier films. </p>
<h2>Interpreting Kali</h2>
<p>In the short documentary <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6278278/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_6"><em>Goddesses</em></a>, Manimekalai follows the daily lives of three Dalit women battling systemic caste and gender violence. One of the women, Lakshmi, works as a professional mourner in funerals — headily dancing, singing and chest-thumping to drummers’ beats. Krishnaveni is indispensable for the local police as she buries unclaimed corpses with an acquired deftness. Sethuraki goes deep into the sea to fish with bare hands, tackling adverse weather conditions. </p>
<p>Manimekalai focuses on the strength of these unapologetic, vocal characters who exercise agency through their work. They shout slurs, smoke and drink, help aged people and have a self-assertive bearing. In the final scene of <em>Goddesses</em>, the spirit of Kali possesses Lakshmi, who dances and rolls in the dust unheeded in a macabre trance. </p>
<p>Her recent feature, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8530836/?ref_=tt_mv_close"><em>Maadathy</em></a>, deals with the subversive power of local deities worshipped by subaltern communities across India. The film follows a young Dalit girl from the “unseeable” Puthirai Vannar caste who becomes immortalized as their local deity, Maadathy. In Tamil folk tradition, individuals who have struggled and fought against injustice get immortalized as these local Indigenous deities. They embody the spirit of justice.</p>
<p>Dealing with refugee crises and ethnic cleansing, Manimekalai’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3281094/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><em>White Van Stories</em></a> follows seven women who have lost relatives during enforced disappearances in post-war Sri Lanka. The interviews record their trauma and daily uncertainties as they try to live their lives.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Leena Manimekalai talks about her film White Van Stories in an interview.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In her docudrama, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1683488/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><em>Sengadal</em></a>, Manimekalai situates herself within the narrative to reflect on her shooting experiences in a conflict zone as a woman filmmaker. The film addresses the predicament of Dhanushkodi refugee fishermen caught between the border of India and Sri Lanka. </p>
<p>Throughout all these cinematic contexts, Manimekalai speaks to forms of women’s resistance with pagan renditions of the goddess. She positions them as countercultural avatars intersecting the boundaries of class, caste, gender, race and nationality. </p>
<p>The controversy over the poster of <em>Kaali</em> is hard to assess in isolation. Given the political nature of goddesses in Manimekalai’s oeuvre, her upcoming documentary questions the moral boundaries of Hindutva nationalism and its totalitarian politics. The scandalous concern is perhaps not just the cigarette in the poster but the discomforting issues it ignites. </p>
<p><em>This is a corrected version of a story originally published Sept. 14, 2022. The updated story states that Toronto Metropolitan University removed the film from its Under the Tent program.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Santasil Mallik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Leena Manimekalai’s film Kaali has drawn controversy and criticism, but like her other films, it highlights the inequalities and discrimination many continue to face.Santasil Mallik, PhD Candidate, Media Studies, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1891892022-08-30T07:35:43Z2022-08-30T07:35:43ZHaacaaluu Hundeesaa: sublime Ethiopian singer who inspired Oromo struggle protesters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480868/original/file-20220824-2466-smdg5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C5%2C961%2C542&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dagi Pictures</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>I speak to myself whispering<br>
Our situation has defied resolution, our misery isn’t improving<br>
We are in despair and idling, that is why I am whispering. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>So sings <a href="https://addisstandard.com/in-memory-of-haacaaluu-hundeessaa-singing-freedom-into-the-convulsing-suicidal-empire/">Haacaaluu Hundeessaa</a> to his people, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Oromo">Oromo</a>, in the song Waa’ee Keenya (Our struggle), calling on them to take action against centuries of oppression in Ethiopia. </p>
<p>The Oromo are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, and represent well over a third of Ethiopia’s estimated 120 million people, mostly residing in the federal state of Oromia. Historically, Oromos have been subject to persecution and marginalisation, which has led to them living on the periphery of Ethiopia’s political and social life. </p>
<p>The decades-old struggle of the Oromo people for political and cultural independence came to a head in 2014 when the government proposed a development plan to expand the limits of the country’s capital, Addis Ababa, into neighbouring Oromo villages and towns. It was feared that this move would accelerate the evictions of ethnic Oromos from their ancestral land. </p>
<p>The new documentary <a href="https://www.facebook.com/oyamn/posts/spear-through-the-hearta-documentary-that-examines-a-range-of-issues-and-themes-/10159762549305973/">Spear Through The Heart</a> tells the tragic story of Hundeessa and how he inspired a revolution. A sublime singer-songwriter, Hundeessaa was a fervent activist in the Oromo Struggle and his songs became the anthems of the revolution. It is believed that for this he was assassinated in 2020. </p>
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<h2>Inspired to action</h2>
<p>At the age of 17, Hundeessaa was imprisoned for five years for his political activities. It was in this period that he learned about the history of Ethiopia and the Oromo, as well as how to make music. In the film we are told, “he came out of prison a storyteller able to awaken a pride in all of us”. </p>
<p>In 2009, a year after leaving prison, he released his first album Sanyii Mootii (Race of the King). His songs about the rights of the Oromo quickly made him a star and a political symbol of the Oromo struggle. </p>
<p>Hundeessa’s songs do not shy away from documenting the brutal history of the Oromo people. In perhaps his most famous song Maalan Jira (What existence is mine?), he sings about the beautiful Oromo lands that have been taken. It is a song of exile, sadness and defiance. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>My beloved Galoo
Gullaallee was Tufaa’s<br>
The mountains were Abbichuu’s<br>
The Galaan surrounded Finfinnee<br>
If it were for love<br>
We wouldn’t be apart<br>
They tore us apart<br>
They exiled us, we got separated </p>
</blockquote>
<p>(Translated by Bonnie Holcomb)</p>
<p>For decades the Oromo language and culture have been marginalised in much the same way as many indigenous languages worldwide. Hundeessaa’s songs, sung in Oromo, gave a voice and a sense of pride to a people and language that many were trying to silence. “Something about Haacaaluu spoke to the youth here, he was the cornerstone of being proud, of being Oromo,” stresses one activist interviewed in the documentary. </p>
<h2>A unifier</h2>
<p>Hundeessaa’s songs are defiant and questioning and feature memorable lines that created both a language of protest and hope, which had been absent before. In this, people spoke of him as a great unifier. His songs made people aware of how history repeated – how the same tactics used in the past were being used again to divide and conquer people in Ethiopia. For instance, in the song Waa’ee Keenya (Our struggle) he sings:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Who should we blame, intellectuals or the ignoramus?<br>
We are still oblivious to what causes us deep sadness<br>
Though we have become adept at sabotaging and waylaying each other<br>
Our misery remained with us even though we have worn out one another </p>
</blockquote>
<p>(Translated by Ezekiel Gebissa)</p>
<figure>
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</figure>
<p>Unsurprisingly, criticism of the powerful and his ability to unite people made him unpopular with the government. But he was never afraid to make his voice heard, which is documented in the film through footage of him performing before an audience including top-ranking government officials.</p>
<p>His songs were directly critical of their actions and the officials are shown stony-faced as the crowd celebrate and sing along. Giving an interview later, Hundeessaa says: “It’s not some functionary or government official who chooses what I sing.”</p>
<p>As a result of the struggle, a new leader was elected in 2018 – <a href="https://theconversation.com/ethiopia-abiy-ahmed-brings-new-hope-but-faces-some-familiar-old-problems-109668">Abiy Ahmed</a> who is of Oromo and Amhara (another of the dominant ethnic groups in Ethiopia) origin. There was hope for Ahmed’s initial programme of liberalising and unifying action among different ethnic groups in Ethiopia. However, his tenure has since resulted in a brutal civil war in Oromia and has been roundly condemned by <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/04/ethiopias-other-conflict">international human rights organisations</a>.</p>
<p>In 2020, Hundeessaa was shot and killed in Addis Ababa. It’s widely held that he was killed for his politics and in interviews prior to his death he said he had received death threats. </p>
<p>Hundeessaa’s death sparked weeks of violence and unrest in Oromia. The struggle goes on and people continue to protest for the rights of the Oromo. There are also <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/uk/ethiopia.html?query=Ethiopia">4.5 million Ethiopians</a> who are internally displaced, primarily from Tigray and Oromia. </p>
<p>Spear Through The Heart is an important cultural artefact, documenting the Oromo struggle past and present, while celebrating the generosity of spirit of a man who embodied the movement and gave it a powerful voice. His wife said at his funeral, “Haacaaluu is not dead. He will remain in my heart and the hearts of millions of Oromo people forever.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189189/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Phipps receives funding from UKRI and Europe. She is affiliated with Scottish Government as Convener of the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy and with UNESCO, as UNESCO Chair. </span></em></p>His songs about the rights of the Oromo people in Ethiopia lifted the spirits of a downtrodden people and his death shook the nation.Alison Phipps, UNESCO Chair: Refugee Integration through Languages and Arts, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1882772022-08-17T17:17:45Z2022-08-17T17:17:45ZWhat the declining caribou populations — and total hunting ban — mean for Inuit communities in Labrador<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479701/original/file-20220817-13-ls4gr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C2%2C1345%2C663&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">George River Caribou outside of Nain, Nunatsiavut, Labrador.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(David Borish)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/what-the-declining-caribou-populations-—-and-total-hunting-ban-—-mean-for-inuit-communities-in-labrador" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Inuit in the Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut regions of Labrador have shared a deep and enduring connection with caribou for many generations. But more recently — in the wake of dramatic caribou population declines — the communities who depend on them are being faced with a variety of cultural, emotional and health challenges. </p>
<p>Between the 1950s and ‘90s, the population of the <a href="https://www.northerncaribou.ca/herds/eastern-migratory/george-river/">George River Caribou Herd</a> grew from about <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/return-of-caribou-to-ungava--the-products-9780773532335.php">15,000 to around 800,000</a>. However, between the 1990s and 2010s, this same herd declined by more than <a href="https://www.gov.nl.ca/releases/2018/flr/0921n03/">99 per cent</a>. </p>
<p>Like <a href="https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/74870">many communities</a> across the circumpolar North, Inuit have lived through previous caribou population cycles, but the exact causes for the recent declines in Labrador are not fully understood. </p>
<p>In response to these sharp declines, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador enacted a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OZ_KHfmeoo">total hunting ban</a> on caribou in 2013, which remains in place today. Indigenous communities in Labrador have not been legally allowed to hunt caribou for almost a decade.</p>
<p>In order to preserve the relationships between Inuit and caribou, a multi-year documentary film and research initiative began to gather the knowledge of people throughout Labrador. It’s called <a href="https://www.inuitvoicesherd.com/"><em>HERD: Inuit Voices on Caribou</em></a> (or the HERD project). </p>
<p>This Inuit-led project brings together <a href="https://www.inuitvoicesherd.com/about">representatives</a> from the Nunatsiavut Government, the NunatuKavut Community Council, the Torngat Wildlife Plants and Fisheries Secretariat, Inuit community members and university-based researchers across Canada.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v9hPKZrHJIU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for <em>HERD: Inuit Voices on Caribou</em>.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The HERD project</h2>
<p>Between 2016 and 2022, we filmed over 80 Inuit from across 11 distinct communities in Labrador — hearing from a diversity of genders, identities, ages and connections to caribou. Through this work we produced several documentary films, one of which is available to view on <a href="https://gem.cbc.ca/media/absolutely-canadian/s22e22?cmp=sch-herd">CBC Gem</a>. </p>
<p>The film is a portrait of the interconnections that exist between Inuit and caribou, a glimpse of the loss felt by communities and a testament of cultural endurance in the context of ecological uncertainty. </p>
<p>As co-creation experts, health-researchers and filmmakers who have worked intimately on this initiative, we have been privileged to hear Inuit stories on caribou and want to ensure their experiences are recognized, and their voices HERD. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man on a skidoo" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477756/original/file-20220804-22-oy8wwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477756/original/file-20220804-22-oy8wwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477756/original/file-20220804-22-oy8wwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477756/original/file-20220804-22-oy8wwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477756/original/file-20220804-22-oy8wwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477756/original/file-20220804-22-oy8wwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477756/original/file-20220804-22-oy8wwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Torsten Jacque of Postville, Nunatsiavut.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(David Borish)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Caribou were a vital source of food, and were eaten by many people on a weekly or even daily basis. “The best meat in the world,” said Patrick Davis from Cartwright, NunatuKavut, a sentiment shared by many across Labrador.</p>
<p>But caribou are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102268">much more than just a food source</a>: “It’s almost like the caribou was the reason, and everything else happened after,” described Joey Angnatok from Nain, Nunatsiavut. These animals connect people to their communities, to the land, and to each other through collective experiences, where place-based knowledge and age-old practices are learned and shared. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477750/original/file-20220804-5530-qadce3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Caribou ranges in Labrador" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477750/original/file-20220804-5530-qadce3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477750/original/file-20220804-5530-qadce3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477750/original/file-20220804-5530-qadce3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477750/original/file-20220804-5530-qadce3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477750/original/file-20220804-5530-qadce3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477750/original/file-20220804-5530-qadce3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477750/original/file-20220804-5530-qadce3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Caribou ranges and communities that took part in the HERD project.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shawn Rivoire)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A hunting ban with unintended consequences</h2>
<p>The caribou population declines, in combination with the total hunting ban, are resulting in major challenges for Inuit across Labrador. </p>
<p>Inuit described how the lack of interactions with caribou have been affecting the ways they see themselves on a personal and community level. “We’re just going to lose who we are as a culture and as a people,” Ocean Lane from Makkovik, Nunatsiavut, explained. </p>
<p>These disruptions to culture and identity have led to complex <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/753060/figure/fig01">emotional responses</a>, including strong feelings of sadness, distress, anxiety, fear, frustration, pain and an overall lack of morale. “It just tears me down to think that we don’t even know how long we’re gonna have to wait to get to harvest another caribou,” said Woodrow Lethbridge from Cartwright, NunatuKavut. </p>
<p>And, crucially, Inuit expressed sadness that cultural knowledge and practices were not being passed down to younger generations. “We’re losing language. We’re losing traditional ways, and the loss of a food, a cultural food, is just as high of an importance as language, as craft and art,” said Judy Voisey from Happy Valley-Goose Bay. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477751/original/file-20220804-16-8y51b4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An Inuit woman with her daughter." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477751/original/file-20220804-16-8y51b4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477751/original/file-20220804-16-8y51b4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477751/original/file-20220804-16-8y51b4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477751/original/file-20220804-16-8y51b4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477751/original/file-20220804-16-8y51b4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477751/original/file-20220804-16-8y51b4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477751/original/file-20220804-16-8y51b4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Andrea Andersen and her daughter in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(David Borish)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The future of Inuit-caribou relations</h2>
<p>The stories and experiences that were shared through the HERD project emphasize how caribou conservation is not only an ecological process, but is fundamentally connected to culture, mental health, food security and other dimensions of Inuit well-being. The lack of Inuit-caribou interactions poses a major challenge for preserving cultural knowledge and practices. </p>
<p>To support both the health of the herds and communities who rely on them, future caribou-related policies must respect Inuit connections and values. Inuit have already been leading innovative initiatives to maintain cultural skills and knowledge related to caribou, including the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TorngatSecretariat/videos/646303146820741">Tuttusiugiannik</a> project that facilitates youth and Elders to going out on the land and learning about caribou together. </p>
<p>Additional support for Inuit and other <a href="https://nunatukavut.ca/site/uploads/2019/05/upcart-strategy-2017-11-07-eng-signed-sm.pdf">Indigenous-led strategies</a> for conservation and community well-being must be prioritized. </p>
<p>To learn more about Inuit experiences with caribou declines, visit the <a href="https://www.inuitvoicesherd.com/">HERD website</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188277/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Borish works for the Labrador Campus of Memorial University and the Torngat Wildlife Plants and Fisheries Secretariat. He received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ashlee Cunsolo receives funding from CIHR, SSHRC, and ArcticNet.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Inez Shiwak receives funding from the Torngat Wildlife, Plants and Fisheries Secretariat. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Snook receives funding from the Torngat Wildlife, Plants, and Fisheries Secretariat and ECCC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sherilee Harper receives research grant funds from CIHR, SSHRC, and ArcticNet.</span></em></p>Support for Inuit and other Indigenous-led strategies for conservation and community well-being must be prioritized.David Borish, Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies, Memorial University of NewfoundlandAshlee Cunsolo, Founding Dean, School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies, Labrador Campus, Memorial University of NewfoundlandInez Shiwak, Community Research PartnerJamie Snook, Adjunct Marine Affairs Program, Dalhousie UniversitySherilee Harper, Canada Research Chair in Climate Change and Health, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1873532022-07-21T05:20:42Z2022-07-21T05:20:42ZIn Paper City, Japanese survivors recount their experiences of the 1945 firebombing of Tokyo<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475297/original/file-20220721-23-2xz2gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C1911%2C1080&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Melbourne Documentary Film Festival</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Paper City, directed by Adrian Francis</em></p>
<p>In his first feature-length documentary, Adelaide-born director Adrian Francis offers a rigorous understanding of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo_(10_March_1945)">the American firebombing of Tokyo</a> via survivors’ perspectives.</p>
<p>In a brutal attack nearing the end of the second world war, on March 9 and 10 1945, around 100,000 Japanese civilians were killed. </p>
<p>Many burned to death; others threw themselves into the nearby River Sumida, preferring death by drowning. Others took flight into bomb shelters where they were asphyxiated en masse. </p>
<p>The American air force’s chilling rubric for their unspeakable act was “Operation Meetinghouse.”</p>
<p>In Paper City’s account, the aftermath is principally conveyed by in-depth interviews with three Japanese survivors. At the time of the attack, Tsukiyama-san was 16, Kiyooka-san was 21 and Hoshino-san was just 14. </p>
<p>These testimonies are joined by one-off interviews with fellow octogenarians and nonagenarians who also experienced the firebombing. </p>
<p>Their memories collectively inform the bleak unfolding narrative, attesting to ruthless acts of terror. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o6-WkTKjT6E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-pay-so-much-attention-to-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-45848">Why do we pay so much attention to Hiroshima and Nagasaki?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>We must remember</h2>
<p>Solidly researched and confronting, Paper City was seven years in the making. </p>
<p>The film opens with archival footage of US propeller bombers Tokyo-bound, transporting incendiary bombs, underscored by Don Baker’s 1942 song <a href="https://www.historyonthenet.com/authentichistory/1939-1945/3-music/04-PH-Reaction/19420000c_Therell_Be_A_Little_Smokio_In_Tokio-Don_Baker.html">There’ll be a Little Smokio in Tokio</a>.</p>
<p>Baker’s jauntily vocalised racist lyrics underpin the brutal dehumanisation of Japanese civilians through horrific footage. </p>
<p>The wholesale civilian massacre of innocents acts as a meditation on the passage of time, on collective memory and probable permanent loss. <a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/adam-serwer/the-cruelty-is-the-point/">American cruelty</a> is also at the forefront, not by demonising perpetrators but because there isn’t any other credible interpretation.</p>
<p>Paper City’s pressing proposition is the imperative humankind must remember so such events aren’t repeated. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475057/original/file-20220720-18-lg2hr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A street festival" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475057/original/file-20220720-18-lg2hr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475057/original/file-20220720-18-lg2hr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475057/original/file-20220720-18-lg2hr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475057/original/file-20220720-18-lg2hr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475057/original/file-20220720-18-lg2hr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475057/original/file-20220720-18-lg2hr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475057/original/file-20220720-18-lg2hr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The film argues we must collectively remember so that such horrors do not recur.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Melbourne Documentary Film Festival</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Japanese interviewees don’t apportion blame. Some acknowledge the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy had also acted contra to how they should have. </p>
<p>Paper City is interspersed with deliberate, measured Japanese calligraphy, punctuating viewers’ mounting tension. These interventions mark a change of pace. The focus turns to classical Japanese aesthetics, craftsmanship and skill, evoking longstanding Japanese values. </p>
<p>Calligraphic artistry relies on artists’ mastery of breath control, lest there be mishaps. Paper – an important leitmotif in Paper City – attests to the beauty of the classical Japanese written word, but equally to fragility and impermanence. </p>
<p>In wartime Japan and for eons earlier, interior paper walls were used in mostly wooden dwellings. These building materials contributed to Tokyo’s violent conflagration, triggering the massive death toll; mass suffocation ushered in permanent cessation of breath. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-japanese-avant-garde-ceramicists-have-tested-the-limits-of-clay-184470">How Japanese avant-garde ceramicists have tested the limits of clay</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Honouring the dead</h2>
<p>Tsukiyama-san, Kiyooka-san and Hoshino-san advocate for lasting peace. The firebombing wasn’t an act of war between military groups, but a strike on an unarmed, peaceful demographic. </p>
<p>In one sequence, Kiyooka-san returns to her childhood neighbourhood, giving a public talk focusing on the experience of herself and her family. The audience of parents and children pay close attention. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475056/original/file-20220720-24-kemjmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman on a bridge" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475056/original/file-20220720-24-kemjmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475056/original/file-20220720-24-kemjmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475056/original/file-20220720-24-kemjmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475056/original/file-20220720-24-kemjmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475056/original/file-20220720-24-kemjmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475056/original/file-20220720-24-kemjmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475056/original/file-20220720-24-kemjmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mrs Kiyooka escaped into the river to protect herself from the flames and heat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Melbourne Documentary Film Festival</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kiyooka-san explains she entered the river, spending the night tipping water over her head to avoid her hair burning. In the morning light, thousands of charred bodies were revealed. Kiyooka-san came across her own mother, who’d regained consciousness and was barely clinging to life. </p>
<p>Hoshino-san also addresses a sizeable audience in his neighbourhood. Expressing fears that today’s Japanese memory of this harrowing attack is virtually non-existent, he’s driven by a sense of responsibility to honour those who died.</p>
<p>Hos hino-san observes there has never been any governmental effort to collect the names of the dead and honour the civilians who died as a result of this attack.</p>
<p>But under Tsukiyama-san’s leadership, his Morishita 5 District remains a miraculous exception. Tsukiyama-san’s vision and work ethic prompted resident citizens to create a near comprehensive list of those who perished in the firebombing. </p>
<p>An extensive scroll is now permanently displayed in the Morishita Neighbourhood Centre, commemorating local residents who were killed. Underpinned by citizen power, local memorial services have now been held. </p>
<p>Regrettably, despite these elderly activists heroically fighting the good fight for remembrance, this unspeakable attack remains unmemorialised by generations of Japanese governmental leaders. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475069/original/file-20220720-24-l7xkuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475069/original/file-20220720-24-l7xkuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475069/original/file-20220720-24-l7xkuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475069/original/file-20220720-24-l7xkuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475069/original/file-20220720-24-l7xkuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475069/original/file-20220720-24-l7xkuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475069/original/file-20220720-24-l7xkuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475069/original/file-20220720-24-l7xkuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mr Tsukiyama at the 70th anniversary of the firebombing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Melbourne Documentary Film Festival</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Regardless of the interviewees’ long term, uplifting dedication to Japanese national memory, Paper City is disturbing. </p>
<p>Then again, apropos of this, it is difficult to imagine a better film could have been made on this subject. </p>
<p><em>Paper City is available to stream through the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival until July 31.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: this article originally referred to fighter jets, this has been corrected to propeller bombers.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187353/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine Judith Nicholls does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Seven years in the making, this disturbing Australian film looks at the death of 100,000 citizens in during the second world war.Christine Judith Nicholls, Honorary Senior Lecturer, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1857872022-06-24T14:59:38Z2022-06-24T14:59:38ZFilm review: falling in love with Cabo Verdean singer Cesária Évora all over again<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470779/original/file-20220624-15-i3z49q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cesária Évora on stage in the new documentary by Ana Sofia Fonseca. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Cesária Évora film/Encounters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9599146/">Ana Sofia Fonseca</a>’s feature documentary <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17675266/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cl_sm">Cesária Évora</a> opens with hand-held, bootleg-style footage of the legendary Cabo Verdean morna singer in rehearsal. It is visually inauspicious but subtly heralds the film’s great strength. An intimate approach that illuminates Évora’s extraordinary career while staying close to her personal struggles and triumphs.</p>
<p>The combination of the Portuguese director and journalist Fonseca’s storytelling and editor Cláudia Rita Oliveira’s organisation of myriad archival resources results in a film that will fascinate both devoted fans as well as those encountering Évora’s biography for the first time.</p>
<p>Good music documentaries are often about more than the music, or even the basic biographies of the musicians. Cesária shares a little with <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125608/">Searching for Sugar Man</a> (2012) about 1970s rock singer Rodriguez. Both central characters are shy, and overwhelmed at times by the nature of their fame. As one character muses in Cesária, “How would she survive her success?”</p>
<h2>Cesária Évora and Cabo Verde</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cesaria-Evora">Cesária Évora</a> died in 2011. She was born in 1941 in the tiny port town of Mindelo on the island of São Vicente, part of the archipelago of Cabo Verde in West Africa. She was a natural performer and singer for many years before her breakthrough albums were recorded in her fifties. The film moves back and forth in time, setting her burgeoning international fame in the context of her very humble beginnings singing in bars around Mindelo.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470781/original/file-20220624-22-syb314.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A film poster shows a woman in silhouette, her hand holding a cigarette that send smoke into the lights behind her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470781/original/file-20220624-22-syb314.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470781/original/file-20220624-22-syb314.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470781/original/file-20220624-22-syb314.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470781/original/file-20220624-22-syb314.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470781/original/file-20220624-22-syb314.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470781/original/file-20220624-22-syb314.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470781/original/file-20220624-22-syb314.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cesária Évora film</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fonseca also uses these retrospective sequences to reflect on the experience of Cabo Verdeans under the dying days of <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1762/the-portuguese-colonization-of-cape-verde/">Portuguese colonialism</a>. To provide the context for Évora’s early years, Fonseca digitally rejuvenates damaged archival footage of the Portuguese navy from the 1960s and reportage of the early days of independence. </p>
<p>This mixture of old formats, including celluloid, tape, still images, voice interviews and concert footage creates an increasingly textured film. It situates Évora in the histories of not only Portuguese colonialism and Cabo Verdean independence, but also the ‘World Music’ movement. And, of course, African music. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/5/23/morna-the-music-of-displacement-and-return">Morna</a> – the style particular to Cabo Verde – is a globally recognised sound largely because of Évora.</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/cesaria-evora-documentary/?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2">interview</a> Fonseca discusses how hard it was to find old footage of Évora and to track down people who could shed light on her years of performing in Mindelo and her decade of self-imposed isolation. Fonseca’s patient, investigative approach yields a narrative of discovery for viewers.</p>
<h2>Behind the scenes</h2>
<p>Behind-the-scenes footage in a music documentary is always fascinating. Here Évora’s fans bring her a pot of cachupa (a traditional Cabo Verdean stew) before her performance at the Hollywood Bowl. Her wry and mischievous sense of humour sparkles in the scenes where she sings with legendary singer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/jul/16/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1">Compay Segundo</a> in Cuba. What starts as a disharmonious scene between the ageing legends ends in ribald asides and laughter.</p>
<p>Évora is an intuitive, gifted singer, and like her, the film also follows a free-wheeling style that hits the right notes. From typical tour bus scenes – band members sleeping sprawled on every available surface – to limousine rides in New York, the film tracks her on a punishing schedule of international tours, from Portland, Oregon to Siberia and most places in between, including the obligatory television appearance on Letterman.</p>
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<h2>Barefoot diva</h2>
<p>But she always returns home to Mindelo, to her household of family, friends and strangers offered a meal. Indeed, food is an understated but persistent theme throughout the film. Évora is a queen to Cabo Verdeans, particularly those on São Vicente, as well as those in the diaspora who meet her at her concerts all around the world.</p>
<p>In spite of the considerable fame which Évora attained late in her life, she remained, in the words of one interviewee, an “anti-star”. She was dubbed ‘the barefoot diva’ for appearing without shoes on stage. She was not barefoot for effect, or as a marketing ploy, but because normal Cabo Verdeans <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/magazine/google-honours-barefoot-diva">“don’t like to wear shoes”</a>. </p>
<p>There were no concessions to popular trends in her music. Her songs remained a bewitching blend of insouciant sensuality, tenderness and melancholy. As she says to an interviewer in response to a question regarding her global renown: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>As a person, I am the same person.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Listening to Cesária Évora, I am struck by her amazing ability to find and to make spaces between the notes. There is a casual yet exhilarating precision and feel in the melodic lines that recalls singer Aretha Franklin, and a tone echoing singer Billie Holiday, and yet Évora sounds like no-one else. In a lovely scene towards the end of the film she shuffles around her house singing some lines spontaneously for a guest, and her voice has the same extraordinary quality as it does on stage during her live performances.</p>
<p>The film’s final scenes follow the more typical biopic line, preparing us for the inevitably of Évora’s passing with a montage of bleak poetic shots of Cabo Verde’s volcanic landscapes. Fonseca’s rhythmical return to the plains and mountains of São Vicente is a reminder of Évora’s love for home, and a metaphor for a voice that is both angelic and from the earth.</p>
<p><em>Cesária Évora is <a href="https://www.thebioscope.co.za/attractions/">showing</a> at the <a href="https://www.encounters.co.za">Encounters</a> South African International Documentary Festival in Johannesburg on 1 July</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185787/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian-Malcolm Rijsdijk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On in South Africa at the Encounters film festival, the documentary is an intimate portrait of the great artist.Ian-Malcolm Rijsdijk, Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1813832022-05-04T15:58:02Z2022-05-04T15:58:02ZJimmy Savile: how the Netflix documentary fails to address the role institutions play in abuse<p>Jimmy Savile was one of the UK’s most serious serial sexual predators. Over several decades the television personality groomed and abused up to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/18/jimmy-savile-abused-1000-victims-bbc">1,000 boys and girls</a> in TV studios as well as patients at NHS hospitals across Britain. That he was able to do so without being apprehended, even being knighted in 1990, is the subject of a new Netflix documentary series by Rowan Deacon. </p>
<p>Deacon uses remarkable archive footage and interviews with survivors, journalists and individuals who worked closely with him, to show how Savile hid decades of sexual abuse in the full glare of the celebrity spotlight. Savile always implied that he had a secret life, even while insisting that he had no secrets. The continuous clips highlighting his “wink, wink” views of “young ladies” and “sexual adventures” confirm that the signs were there for all to see. </p>
<p>Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story presents its subject as a fame-hungry manipulator who, through his carefully cultivated relationships with British elites, was able to abuse and intimidate his victims, evade justice and fool the nation. But despite its high production values and impressive use of archival material, it leaves key parts of the scandal under-examined. </p>
<p>In one segment, Savile’s longtime producer, Roger Ordish, says: “You never really got behind the mask.” And certainly, Savile was a skilled image worker and manipulator of celebrity and morality, people and situations, time and place. </p>
<p>But, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1749975520985385">as our research shows</a>, he was not alone in constructing his image. Like the official inquiries after Savile’s death, the documentary fails to capture the pivotal role Britain’s core institutions played in producing his “untouchable” celebrity icon mask. </p>
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<h2>How British institutions made Savile into a celebrity icon</h2>
<p>Validation from the BBC was crucial to Savile becoming a celebrity personality. And the corporation’s support continued to underpin his charmed career. As the BBC’s biggest star, he was embedded across numerous primetime BBC radio and television programmes and afforded a direct line to the inner circle of programme makers. </p>
<p>For decades, Savile-centred programming was core to the BBC’s marketing logic. He was a Saturday evening television fixture in tens of millions of UK households. The BBC projected him into that most foundational of social institutions: the family. </p>
<p>As his television presence grew, so did Savile’s charitable work. His celebrity underpinned his philanthropic endeavours, which in turn boosted his national standing. Over three decades, he raised more than £40 million for the NHS and other other charities. These high-publicity moral feats reinforced his status as the go-to celebrity. </p>
<p>In an increasingly powerful interdependence, institutions and charities depended on Savile for his fundraising Midas touch. They, in turn, made him a celebrity philanthropist. Savile was rewarded with board positions within NHS organisations and the like, as well as unfettered access to restricted areas and behavioural latitude. </p>
<p>It was for this charitable work, more than his celebrity achievements, that Savile was made OBE in 1972. He was subsequently knighted, by both the Queen and the Pope, in 1990. </p>
<p>By then, the BBC, the NHS, the Department of Education and Science (as it was called in the early 1990s), the state, the church, the monarchy, the military and the nation were all involved in his collective validation. Savile was so deeply institutionalised – so self-assured as a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1367549419861630#:%7E:text=On%20one%20hand%2C%20national%20treasures,talent%2C%20hard%20work%20and%20dedication">national treasure</a> – that he interacted with everyone, from royalty to the general public, entirely on his own terms, and despite rumour, gossip and allegation about his sexual predilections that had persisted throughout his celebrity career. </p>
<h2>Savile’s lasting legacy</h2>
<p>By marginalising the empowering role of institutions in Savile’s crimes, both the Netflix documentary and official inquiries ultimately preserve the reputations of those institutions, and absolve key individuals of responsibility. To date, few have been brought to justice for enabling, covering up or failing properly to investigate what he did.</p>
<p>In a 2001 interview with Irish journalist Joe Jackson, Savile <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/interview-with-the-alleged-paedophile-1.555409">reportedly commented</a>: “Whatever is said after I am gone is irrelevant. If I’m gone that’s it. Bollocks to my legacy.” The savvy media operator might be surprised to know that 11 years after his death, his legacy continues to taunt British society. </p>
<p>Savile’s case has become the benchmark against which related offenders and offences – alleged or proven – can be assessed. </p>
<p>Official investigations have dissected his life and crimes from every angle. There can be few further shocking revelations. Despite this, his Jekyll and Hyde persona continues to prove irresistible to directors and playwrights. To date, there have been at least ten documentaries and one play about Savile’s rise and fall. Comedian and actor Steve Coogan is set to play Savile in a forthcoming primetime drama on BBC One, entitled The Reckoning. </p>
<p>And if continuous media coverage has only amplified his notoriety, it also represents an act of bearing witness. It reminds us of Savile’s unique place in British postwar national life, of the scale of his offending and of how he “fixed it” so the truth disappeared in plain sight. It provides an important outlet for survivors to recount the life-altering impact of being silenced or ignored. It encourages others to come forward.</p>
<p>Powerful celebrities, from Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby to R. Kelly and Ian Watkins, have long been able to rely on institutional and cultural protection as well as legal and PR strategies, to manipulate the media, neutralise allegations, silence victims and abuse with impunity. If we are to have any reasonable chance of preventing such cases in the future, we need to pay attention to the role that interlocking institutions – from media conglomerates to religious institutions to universities to governments – play in masking them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181383/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In focusing on Savile as an individual, this investigation downplays the role Britain’s major institutions played in producing his celebrity icon mask.Chris Greer, Professor of Sociology, University of EssexEugene McLaughlin, Professor of Criminology, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1770042022-02-16T17:20:22Z2022-02-16T17:20:22ZFlee: animation is a powerful medium for documentaries about conflict and refugees<p>The Danish animated documentary <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8430054/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1">Flee</a> directed by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1853542/?ref_=tt_ov_dr">Jonas Poher Rasmussen</a> is a powerful feat of storytelling. So much so it has earned <a href="https://mubi.com/films/flee/awards">several awards and nominations</a>. </p>
<p>Flee tells the story of Amin Nawabi, a gay Danish citizen and former Afghan refugee who has become a succesful academic. Audiences travel with Amin as he recalls his childhood in Kabul, Afghanistan during the rise of the Mujahideen, and his family’s escape from the country as they fear for their lives in the late 1980s. </p>
<p>It is the first film in the history of the Oscars to be nominated for <a href="https://www.dfi.dk/en/english/flee-nominated-three-oscar-categories">best international film, animation and documentary</a>. These awards and nominations speak to the importance and potential of animated documentaries to reach global audiences and illuminate key social issues.</p>
<p>At first glance, animated documentaries may seem like a contradiction in terms. Animation is commonly associated with comedy, <a href="https://theconversation.com/cartoons-have-always-been-for-adults-but-heres-how-they-got-tangled-up-with-kids-130421">children’s entertainment</a> and fantasy. Documentaries are associated with the representation of social and political realities by means of visible evidence. The first implies escapism and subjectivity, while the latter a degree of objectivity and a form of photographic or archival evidence.</p>
<p>Yet, animation has a long history of being used as a tool to express political and social commentary, and was used within documentaries as early as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0009620/">1918</a>. Flee follows other animated films from conflict zones that have found international success, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808417/">Persepolis</a> (2007) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185616/">Waltz with Bashir</a> (2008). These films use animation as means to mediate the realities of the trauma of war from a subjective point of view. </p>
<h2>Flee, the power of animation and the personal perspective</h2>
<p>The filmmaker, Jonas Rasmussen, has been a friend of Amin’s since they were at school together. Their relationship is key in creating an intimate portrait of the life of a refugee, as Rasmussen interviews his friend in a manner that recalls therapy. This allows Amin to tell his own story of fleeing Afghanistan as a teenager for Russia and his subsequent journey to Denmark. </p>
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<p>In animated documentaries, the animation is usually a substitute for what live-action cannot depict. It tends to moves on an axis between realism and abstraction. In Flee the choice of using animation also emanated from the political circumstances of being a refugee. The form allows for the <a href="https://variety.com/2021/artisans/news/flee-art-director-jess-nicholls-cinematography-live-action-1235126068/">necessary anonymity</a> that protects the protagonist’s identity (Amin is a pseudonym). </p>
<p>As the film relates to actual events it was important that the animation style maintain a connection to reality. The film’s aesthetic is therefore largely realist. Drawing scenes from the perspective of <a href="https://variety.com/2021/artisans/news/flee-art-director-jess-nicholls-cinematography-live-action-1235126068/">an imaginary live-action camera</a>, the film follows many visual conventions of documentary films. </p>
<p>The film also intersperses news footage with Amin’s animated recollections. This provides the historical context and, combined with the realist animation, places Amin’s individual story within the social and historical realities shared by many asylum seekers fleeing Afghanistan in the late 1980s. </p>
<p>Where the liberating nature of animation takes full form is in parts of the film that engage with Amin’s traumatic memories. These are represented using more abstract and poetic imagery. </p>
<p>One of us (Yael) <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/animation-in-the-middle-east-9781786731715/">recently wrote a chapter in a book on animation in the Middle East</a>. She argues that animation functions evocatively to visualise the “invisible” nature of trauma, allowing us a glimpse into the protagonists’ subjectivity. This, we argue, is where the animation in Flee holds the potential to break the stereotypical representation of refugees, homosexuality, Muslims and Afghans.</p>
<h2>The role of film in humanising asylum seekers</h2>
<p>Films that present the points of view of asylum seekers <a href="https://bylinetimes.com/2021/10/07/in-limbo-understanding-the-painful-human-existence-of-asylum-seekers/">challenge anti-migrant views</a> in the media and politicians who portray them as criminals. Flee goes a long way to counter these harmful narratives that continue to shape the refugee experience today. While portraying an experience in the 1980s, the film transcends its historical moment through presenting pointed parallels with the geopolitics of our current moment.</p>
<p>In particular, the film resonates with contemporary events surrounding <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/20/failure-create-safe-routes-forcing-afghans-make-perilous-journeys-uk">failures to protect Afghan refugees</a> following the withdrawal of US and international forces in 2021, which led to the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/31/asia/taliban-control-kabul-airport-intl/index.html">Taliban’s seizing of control</a> of the country. </p>
<p>The film also highlights the differences in the contemporary refugee experience. Flee could be seen as a public relations boost for Denmark, a country that is seen to accept and integrate asylum seekers. However, the reality that Amin would face today is very different. With nationalism increasing around the world, policies that restrict migration and asylum are on the rise. Under current Danish asylum policies, it appears less likely he would have been granted asylum. </p>
<p>The Danish government is seeking to <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/06/denmarks-immigrants-forced-out-government-policies">prevent asylum applications</a> with new legislation that allows refugees to be deported from third countries where their applications are to be processed. This is a move that has <a href="https://eumigrationlawblog.eu/denmarks-legislation-on-extraterritorial-asylum-in-light-of-international-and-eu-law/#:%7E:text=On%203%20June%202021%2C%20Denmark's,refugees%20in%20the%20third%20country">concerned human rights scholars and EU institutions</a>.</p>
<p>Through the liberating lens of animation, Flee presents a heart-warming tale of a man who is given another chance to live, love and thrive. It shows us that the world has taken steps backward in recent years, showing a more welcoming Denmark of the past. Let’s hope that governments who set immigration policies heed this tale and learn the stories behind the statistics, before turning away the asylum seekers that western policies have helped to create.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Animation allowed the makers of Flee to tell a story that challenges the pervasive narrative of it means to be a refugeeYael Friedman, Principal Lecturer in film theory and practice, University of PortsmouthDeborah Shaw, Professor of Film and Screen Studies, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.