04/08/2024
In a carefully crafted theatre-alike tent, brought together by DokuFest’s relentless team, composed of white chairs that contrasted with the butterfly colors of the New Order slogan, the beginning of the DokuTalks series finds its haven. The open-air space of the Shani Efendi Garden, filled with long-standing trees and a chill breeze that reminds everyone very briefly (and outrageously) of the extreme heatwave just a couple of moments before, gathered this Saturday afternoon three filmmakers to talk about communities, materiality, and the climate crisis. Moderated by Dea Gjinovci, joint curator of DokuTalks with Eroll Bilibani, the conversation that took place tackled the particularities of each filmmaker’s films in the face of the ecology crisis, the importance of communities and collaboration struggling with adversity, and the connection to film and filmmaking as a tool in fostering new ways of being and becoming in moments of hardships.
Sofie Benoot, the director of the competing film in the Green Dox program, “Apple Cider Vinegar”, shared her experience of having been diagnosed with a kidney stone and how that discovery startled her understanding of minerals growing in one’s body. This bodily experience inspired the embodied perspective of looking at stones in the natural landscape, thus using that perspective to put into question how one looks at nature. “The world resides in us”, Sofie says, but sometimes it is difficult to grasp the meaning of it all due to the world being a big place compared to one’s small existence. Intrigued by the question of scaling—or else, how one relates to totalizing phenomena compared to the small-sized space that one occupies on Earth—Sofie expressed the wish to bridge the distances of ecological imaginaries and people’s everyday experiences. As the climate crisis is a starting point for Sofie’s film, the filmmaker also expressed the intention to interrogate the ways in which we look at nature, helping thus new ways of talking about nature and looking at it. Whereas the connectedness to nature might be perceived in an idealized way, Sofie brought to attention the importance of other, maybe looked-down-upon feelings, such as disgust and uncomfortableness, that are important to include in the conversation despite the heavy emotional realm that they bring into the conversation. The utmost importance, however, is put on the audiences that slowly turn into a public; meaning, it is important for Sofie to see people in the audience to be able to share the sentiment of ecological awareness. It is precisely this feeling that transforms audiences into public.
Petra Holzer, filmmaker and director of the Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentary, talks about the experience of working with communities in Turkey, impacted by cyanide gold mining. While efficient for the companies that use it, Petra brought attention to the way in which this dangerous system impacts people’s health, which can be a way to think about the infected land’s relation to people. On the other hand, the people’s relationship to the land is also crucial, defined by the ambiguity of grave health risks and employment opportunities, best illustrated by the members of the community saying that “gold in itself is our earth”. As the director of the International Festival of Ecological Documentary, Petra says that the motto continues to be “small, slow, local”. In the making-of the festival’s philosophy, the importance relies on getting multiple voices to co-exist together, especially the voices that have been heavily marginalized in the dominant historical narratives. It is in this way that the voices and the films that bring them together manage to somehow start a conversation with one another throughout the festival, for “the crisis is big, but we try to come together and make each other stronger”, according to Petra. Acknowledging that the festival has disrupted the life of the island in which it is held, both social and natural, Petra hopes that the impact of films and discussions that are held will be beneficial for everyone and everything in the long term.
Leonie Witka, co-director of Forest of Frames, a long-feature film included in this year’s edition’s special program, shared the experience of collective filmmaking while every individual of the crew was faced with fostering a particular relationship towards the forest in which they were living. For Leonie, the creative experience of making a film in relation to the topic of ecology found meaning in the time spent together, cooking food together, and being outside one’s comfort zone collectively. While Leonie expressed a few challenges concerning the visual aspect of making human bodies co-exist with the natural landscape, the filmmaker also highlighted the importance of everyone’s experience with non-human beings to be felt through film. While different voices and opinions of the filmmakers are meshed together, they still compose a unique network that allows the audiences to also perceive different perspectives and let themselves be transported by the exchange found within and outside of the film.
Although the conversation expressed the intention of researching the artistic representation of hands-to-hold in the face of the climate crisis, the questions from the audience revealed an important understanding of film as a working tool in fostering connectedness and bridging relationships. Confronted with the importance of encouraging audiences to take activist stands through their films, Petra reiterated the need to open the dialogue further and include as many voices as possible. For Sofie, film is a handy tool that operates on various levels, thus the filmmakers’ intent should be on creating and bringing forward new imaginaries of the ecological system, which then in consequence will help people stand still and reflect on the world around them. For Leonie, the experience of the film should be enough to sublimate the audiences, and consequently guide them in however one feels best to cope with the ever-ongoing ecological distress.
While filmmaking and surrounding environments entertain a crucial relationship, Sofie says that the relationship to nature affected her filmmaking skills in the way in which the filmmaker creates deep connections with the subject/object of the creative process; it is in the ‘spending-time’ with something, or someone, that we are able to fully encounter one another. Thinking of collective filmmaking as a method that heavily relies on the process in which it occurs, Leonie mentions the way in which the environment flows through the filmmaker; making the relationship between the two intrinsically linked. Petra, on the other hand, recalling the experience of growing up around the risk of acid rain and nuclear war threats, directs the attention to the interconnectedness that characterizes the human experience. “It is intriguing that the butterfly image of this DokuFest’s New Order edition survives the chaos”, Petra says, “because the flapping of the wings is also what starts the chaos to begin with”. “While the monarch butterfly is not a dangerous being on its own”, Sofie follows, “the impact of all the monarch butterflies together flapping their wings in Brazil, can be felt all the way to Florida”.
By: Enxhi Noni
Photo: Suer Celina
