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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 11, 2018)
April 11, 2018 Page 5 Director Alexandria Bombach’s documentary “On Her Shoulders” is the story of Nadia Murad, a Yazidi activist and survivor of ISIS atrocities who works to bring international attention to the plight of the Yazidi. Documenting the Human Experience o PinionAted J udge by d arleen o rtega I just finished my annual trip to the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, N.C, where I saw 16 premiere feature-length documentaries in four days, in most cases followed by a discus- sion with the film’s director and sometimes others involved in the production. This year I can enthu- siastically recommend everything I saw. My reviews for the first two days of films appear below in my order of preference. I’ll follow with reviews of the balance of the films next week. Perhaps the most inspiring film I saw this festival was “On Her Shoulders,” an examination of the experience and perspective of a survivor of ISIS atrocities who, out of equal parts reluctance and deter- mination, became a human rights activist in 2014 at the age of 21. At 19, Nadia Murad’s Northern Iraqi Yazidi community was targeted by ISIS; 18 members of her family were killed and others (including herself and girls much younger than she) were held captive as sex- ual slaves. The Yazidis are a Kurd- ish religious minority in Europe who were specifically targeted for genocide by ISIS. Ultimately, Mu- rad escaped and fled and immedi- ately began speaking out about her experiences, with the aim of bring- ing international attention to the plight of the Yazidi, many of whom still live in bondage. Director Alexandria Bombach keeps her focus on Murad, but with an aim very different from the journalists who pepper her with in- trusive questions that turn her into a sort of celebrity. The result is an exceedingly thoughtful examina- tion of the ways we turn people like Nadia into icons, requiring them to relive their trauma and diverting the focus from the real urgency of their cause. Bombach takes the time to ask Nadia what she wishes people would ask her, and to show us the toll it takes for her to relive her trauma again and again, driven by survivor guilt and the urgency of her concern for those left behind. And in this beautifully constructed examination, Bombach helps us to see, at least for brief moments, the absurdity of our relative comfort in the West and our attendant unwill- ingness to be moved to action on behalf of those who experience un- speakable suffering. The film will have a theatrical release and will also be available on PBS’s POV and on Amazon. Another of my favorites was “Three Identical Strangers,” which explores the story of three identical triplets who accidentally discovered each other for the first time when they were 19 years old. Director Tim Wardle masterfully manages the shifts in tone neces- sary to tell this story well; it begins as a delightful human interest sto- ry of the joy the three young men experienced upon finding each other, but gradually turns darker as their parents (and eventually, the men themselves) inquire as to why they were not told about the fact that they were triplets at the time of adoption. The answers they find over time are incomplete and very troubling and, in the end, the story provides a worthy vantage point for a whole host of questions around adoption, psychological re- search, and the relative importance of nature and nurture in making us who we are. “Hal” is an appropriately loving look at the life and work of Hal Ash- by, who directed such iconic 1970s films as “Harold and Maude,” “Be- ing There,” and “Coming Home.” Director Amy Scott makes astute use of clips from his films to illus- trate both Ashby’s artistic vision and his personal life, and also to convey important things about the era in which Ashby produced his most successful work. Interviews with an array of actors, directors and other professional colleagues and friends fill out a balanced pic- ture of a man whose unwillingness to compromise his artistic vision brought him both success as an artist and failure at working with- in the studio system. Ashby’s films pushed boundaries in so many ways, and seem ahead of their time even now. Indeed, they come across as more racially diverse and more awake to the problem of rac- ism than do most films today. For all his failings, it is clear that he had a way of eliciting the best work from artists and collaborators. “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” is an intimate look at life in a mostly black, rural community in Alabama. Director C ontinued on P age 10