On May 31^st, a team of Toronto’s social media geniuses will be participating in the World Partnership Walk-A Social Movement to raise money for the fight against global poverty.  Check out Ms. RedWire and the Dynamic Duo, Mr. Daily Challenge, Super Blogger, and others.  Or to see who’s winning the race to raise the most, visit the HeroMeter.

About the Charity:

Before Hot Docs came to an end last week, I was able to squeeze in one final film about global issues.  This one featured a Dutch artist travelling to the Democratic Republic of Congo and trying to convince impoverished people that they should, as the name of the film suggests, Enjoy Poverty.  Martens’ main point is that we are profiting from others’ (in this case, Congolese) poverty and that those in poverty should try to reclaim ownership over it and start to exploit it as a natural resource.

The controversial film has been reviewed all over the internet, but I thought I’d share my thoughts as well.  As you watch this movie, there are moments when you cringe at the upfront and sometimes exploitative way the director, Renzo Martens, interacts with the film’s subjects.  But after watching several films in a row, Marten’s style is also refreshingly different from the other docs dealing with development issues in this year’s festival.

He interacts with each of the subjects as a human first and a victim of structural violence second.  In my last post, I talked about how each of the three films I saw before this one focused on some international hero, rather than a particular cause itself.  In doing so, the people that the heroes were trying to help tended to come across as objects, rather than active subjects in the film’s plot line.   In Enjoy Poverty, Martens films himself in a purposefully narcisitic way, which somehow made his interactions with people less glossy, and certainly less heroic.  In the question and answer period after the show, he explained that he wanted to be in the film himself, as an exploiter, because to try and remain neutral in telling this story is to deny the role of the West in creating poverty.

Obviously, not every person should be as exploitative as Martens, but I think his vision and his voice is VERY important because it challenges the “solution” as well as bringing attention to the problem of extreme poverty.  During the debate after the screening, one development worker piped up, “You’ve done a very good job of highlighting the problems of poverty and the NGOs working in the Congo, but very little to offer constructive solutions.”

Martens didn’t hesitate: “No, I think I was very clear about the solution.  We have to be willing to pay a fair price for what we’re getting from places like the Congo.”  Plain and simple.

If you haven’t already, watch this movie.

Three hot docs so far: Fig Trees, Sergio and Reporter.  All three take on global issues, HIV/AIDS, humanitarianism, and compassion fatigue, respectively.  It turns out that they don’t really focus on these issues, but rather on 4 individuals that are trying to do something about them: two activists, a humanitarian and a New York Times reporter.

The avant garde Fig Trees (it’s all done in opera) tells the stories of AIDS activists Zackie Achmat (South Africa) and Tim McCaskell (Toronto).  Inspired by Samantha Power’s book Chasing The Flame, Sergio weaves the story of UN hot shot Sergio Vieira De Mello leading to his death in Iraq in 2003.  Reporter follows Nick Kristof as he travels to the Congo to find the story that will help us beyond our complacency about the Great Lakes conflict.

This focus on a single actor, or hero, dealing with each of the issues is approached differently in each film.  Fig Trees questions it by positioning the activists as saints. In the question and answer period the director noted explicitly that the change that has happened as a result of AIDS activism is the result of an army of activists rather than individual activist-heroes.  At the start of Reporter, Nick Kristof cites a study that shows that we feel the most compassion for one person, but as the group who we should feel compassion for grows that caring declines even after two people.  In the movie, he finds a woman so sick from starvation and injury that she can’t lift herself who becomes his “story”.  It seems that the directors have used a similar technique to bring attention to each issue addressed in these three films.  Beyond getting our attention, how does this focus on heroes affect how we view global issues in general?

Another interesting parallel in both Sergio and Reporter is the value De Mello and Kristof place on talking to the ‘bad guys’.  After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, De Mello saught out a meeting with the former ministers to arrange safe transit for thousands of refugees.  According to the film, this meeting was one of the first times that Western representatives were in contact with Khmer Rouge leaders.  Reporter ends with the cast sitting down to dinner with General Laurent Nkunda, leader of a rebel faction in Congo’s Kivu province.  They had come for an interview, but couldn’t turn down the hospitality of a warlord when he offered.

Top Hot Docs Picks (so far)

1. Fig Trees
2. Sergio
3. Reporter

Tonight I’m on my way to Enjoy Poverty, and I really don’t know what to expect.  Stay tuned!

If you’re wondering what to do in Toronto over the next couple of weeks, the answer is watch documentary films.  Opening this week, the annual Hot Docs film festival offers plenty for the development-interested.  Highlights from this year’s lineup include AIDS activism, high profile humanitarians, questions about who owns poverty, migrant journeys, analysis of neoliberalism, overcoming compassion fatigue in Congo, and feisty caregivers in South Africa.

Encirclement-Neoliberalism Ensnares Democracy
Neo-liberalism’s battle cry is famous: deregulate, privatize and let markets rule. Thirteen renowned intellectuals, including Noam Chomsky, rigorously analyze the mechanisms that enforce this ideology and deliver our democracies into the hands of multinational financiers. More>>

Enjoy Poverty
Starting with the compelling thesis that poverty is Africa’s most significant export, artist provocateur Renzo Martens journeys through the Congo, attempting to make its citizens aware of their primary resource. A blunt, biting satire. More>>

Fig Trees
Opera, documentary, and surrealist fantasy converge in this heartrending, joyous, outrageous and outraged tribute to the activist-hero-saints of the HIV/AIDS movement who fought billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies and apathetic governments for access to life-saving drugs. More>>

Reporter
Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof delves into the horrific humanitarian atrocities in the Congo, searching for the story that will galvanize an increasingly jaded and detached Western reader. More>>

Rough Aunties
Fearless and feisty, a resolute group of remarkable women protect and care for abused, neglected and forgotten children in Durban, South Africa, confronting their nation’s social strife while battling their own personal tragedies.  More>>

Sergio
A dashing James Bond figure, Brazilian diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello was known in the UN as “Mr. Fix It” for his ability to diffuse the most dangerous of crises. A riveting account of his remarkable life and tragic final mission. More>>

Which Way Home
Award-winning filmmaker Rebecca Cammisa wistfully captures the determination, innocence and longing of child migrants travelling alone through Mexico to the United States, where they hope to be reunited with their parents.  More>>

For the dates and times of these films and more events, check out the Unpacking Development Events Calender