Oppression of a minority, or even a majority, can lead to surprising acts of creation and discovery, in this month’s selection of documentaries. Whether the heart of a South American revolution, watching lives unfold on a remote island, a community create a building that reflects their own values, or the rise of an African-American fashion icon, there is much to learn and to inspire in the latest selection.
Island of the Hungry Ghosts
Gabrielle Brady’s Tribeca-winning documentary explores the entwined existence of lives on Australia’s Christmas Island. The tiny territory in the Indian Ocean has home to generations of migrants lured by the island’s phosphate mines. Today, it is better known for housing political detainees and its bright red migrating crabs. Brady sees Christmas Island as a microcosm of humanity, one subject to extreme pressure.
Ever the Land
Te Wharehou o Tūhoe is New Zealand’s first “living building”. Its creators, one of New Zealand’s most independent Maori tribes, the Ngāi Tūhoe. Director Sarah Grohnert eschews the typical talking head approach to architectural and social documentaries, instead seeing Ngāi Tūhoe as a community, and the building as an extension of this community.
Born in Syria
To illustrate the lives of the 4 million child refugees, forced to leave Syria during the civil war, director Hernan Zin focuses on the lives of seven children. By keeping his focus on the aftermath of the war and avoiding sentimentalisation, the film becomes a matter-of-fact account of itinerant lives in the aftermath of war.
Chile Hasta Cuando?
Australian documentarian David Bradbury’s Oscar-nominated account of life in Chile under the Pinohet regime in the mid 1980s is a film full of anger. Bradbury’s partisan approach to the uprising against Pinochet, filmed under the pretext of covering a music festival, finds his sympathies firmly with the victims and those working for a democratic future.
The Gospel According to Andre
Andre Leon Talley’s journey from the son of a sharecropper in the Jim Crow South to global fashion icon within an industry not known for its diversity, is a remarkable one. Employee of Andy Warhol, friend of Diana Vreeland, Anna Wintour, Naomi Campbell and a host of other famous names, Kate Novack’s documentary takes in the story of one wildly charismatic individual, and what this says about the fashion industry.
