Just like the World March for Peace and Nonviolence, the cinematic series, “Nonviolence goes to the movies” continues its journey.
Each film takes the viewer on a journey, leads them to discover new locations, people, countries and cultures, but also takes them on an emotional ride, invites them to listen to their emotions and makes them think about the absurdity and meaning of the stories they watch.
The films are fiction or documentaries that portray dramatic situations, but also show the return of courage, dignity, kindness and human strength.
On 13th November the André Malraux cinema in Bondy showed Laurent Bécue Renard’s “De guerre lasses” (Growing tired), followed by a meeting with the director.
The next day, “Une affaire de nègres” (Black Business) was shown at Le Studio in Aubervilliers, attended by the director Osvalde Lewat.
The comments after the showings, as well as the acknowledgements given to the directors for the emotion they incited, highlighted the necessity of freedom of speech for all victims of war atrocities and other exactions.
According to Laurent Bécue Renard, whatever war it is, the internal damage is the same. War leaves psychological traces that continue from generation to generation. Following a showing of his film in the French centre of culture in Sarajevo, one of the women that the story was based on was present. The public was mainly composed of middle-class Sarajevans, all of whom have experienced the same war, albeit in a more urban environment than the young girl from rural Srebrenica, and they thanked the director for putting words to their feelings.
Osvalde Lewade stated that speech allows the grieving process to happen when families of victims are denied a burial. Because of these documentaries, the families are no longer stigmatised and relationships are renewed. How is it possible to carry on when justice hasn’t been served, the dead haven’t been buried and we can’t grieve? Breaking the silence is a nonviolent act that renews our faith in life.
These two stories, whilst factually miles apart, so similarly demonstrate that if violence is universal, so is nonviolence. We presume that the next two showings will lead us along the same road.
On Tuesday 24th November, Anne Aghion will attend the showing of her documentary “Mon voisin, mon tueur” (My Neighbour, My Killer) at 9pm in Le Bijou, Noisy-le-Grand. How is it possible, seven years after the Rwandan Genocide, to forgive those who killed our children? Will the local “Gacaca” courts help with this?
On Saturday 28th November, Simone Bitton, with her film “Mur” (Wall), clouds the issues surrounding hatred by affirming the Arab and Jewish double culture. Along the wall everyday words and sacred songs in Hebrew or Arabic withstand war talk and the sound of bulldozers.
After the showing, Jean-Pierre Rehm, director of Marseille’s International Documentary Festival, will comment on the film.
*(Translation provided by Heather Armitage)*
