I believe forgiveness is overrated. I prefer to say, “letting go of anger which does not serve me.” By virtue of being human, anyone can make a mistake with minor to catastrophic consequences. But when you add in intent to inflict harm, that is another matter.
In our current climate, the sense of outrage and injustice is palpable, and at the 33rd annual Hamptons International Film Festival, filmmakers from all over the world created fascinating films addressing the subject of injustice. Their compelling narratives, whether documentary or fiction, showed differing approaches to “Don’t let the bad guys win.”
“It Was Just an Accident” From Iranian Filmmaker Jafar Panahi
Don’t stoop to the level of the bad guys.
Winner of this year’s Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or, “It Was Just an Accident,” sets us on a literal road to revenge when a random accident spurs a series of events as a car mechanic believes he has found the government interrogator who tortured him. Filled with both gravitas and humor, this tale explores survivors of political violence who embrace their future while followed by ghosts or very much alive tormentors of the past. The members of the group who faced unspeakable horrors grapple collectively and individually about what to do when they assume the role of interrogator. Does it debase a human to descend to the level of evil, or is it cathartic to do unto him as he did unto you? Does taking the “high road” show that you do not become the monster, or does that leave you then still at risk?
“The Librarians” From Filmmaker Kim A. Snyder
Have a spine, literally.
Short of the cliché costume of the sexy librarian, those serving as our public and school librarians are the more unseen and unsung heroes. But know they are far more than experts on the Dewey Decimal system. They are the front line of the fight for democracy in the age of book banning. Snyder is a master documentarian, giving faces and names to headlines and creating a film as compelling as any life-and-death medical drama. Books focused on race and LGBTQIA stories are in sweeping book bans across the country. And when a book can literally save a young person’s life, the censorship is not just a threat to the constitution but to a real person. The danger to these seemingly unassuming librarians ranges from harassment to firing to jail to death threats. But no shrinking violets here, these word warriors show what it means to have a spine and to defend the spines of the books which shape our lives.
“All The Empty Rooms” From Filmmaker Joshua Seftel
Don’t give the bad guys any air — or air time.
In this short documentary, reporter Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp embark on a cross-country journey to memorialize the bedrooms of children lost to school shootings. Over seven years, they followed eight families from five school shootings. What is documented is every heartbreaking reminder of lives cut short. In these sacred spaces frozen in time, you see the hair band on the doorknob, the friendship bracelet or single bear slipper, or it may be the picture of the Eiffel Tower as a reminder of the trip to Paris for the graduation that never came. Or perhaps the basket of dirty laundry the mother does not have the heart to ever wash to eliminate the last chance to smell her son. One jewelry box holds letters of a young girl to her future self to have faith on her first day of high school, which would never arrive. At no point is any mention given of the shooters who heinously murdered these young people. No air given to their names or their desire for fame. The film is done with such incredible respect and compassion, where the only shots are those of a photographer capturing a day in the life, which was its last. In this case, the devil is not in the details. It is the angels.
