Via facebook you get references to sources within Syria that documents from a country, where the violence of the regime escalates from day to day. Film people are among those who communicate on facebook and other social media from hour to hour. Here are just a couple of examples:

“What is happening in Hama…..Report of a person that escaped from it today…… I left Hama a little bit ago, heavy shelling of the city was still ongoing. It started at Sohour time (before dawn) before 06:00am using fixed machine guns (M85). The military and security forces stormed Jizdan neighborhood and Ajzeh roundabout. Four doctors that worked in Hourani hospital were killed. A christian lady was shot by a sniper today in her home. The army is conquering the entire city, even the sidelanes. I could not count or even estimate the number of martyrs, but it is a high number. Today, security forces launched a massive detention campaign and went house to house raiding the homes, even deserted houses, in the neighborhoods of Jarajmeh, Jonoub Thakaneh and Bab Qalbi. The military and security forces demolished houses and destructed them, vandalized and looted them. They arrested over 80 people from the neighborhoods of Baraziyeh and Farayeh.

Regarding the children of premature babies in Hourani hospital, unfortunately the power cuts have caused a lack of oxygen, but I do not know how many of them died. Verification of news is still a very difficult task in the city as the neighborhoods are isolated from each other. It is impossible for families to escape from the city, but young men can, with many difficulties. The food situation is going from bad to worse.”

And from Damascus suburbs: Dameer: During the Friday of “Allah is With Us” a group of security agents riding in a white pickup truck fired on two young men from Dameer who were on a motorcycle. One of the young men, Mohamad Hazeem Fathalla, died instantly. The other was shot in the leg, and when he tried to escape, the security agents chased him and shot him in the neck. The agents then placed weapons next to the corpses and contacted Al Dunia Television, which reported that two terrorists from Dameer had been captured and killed.

http://www.lccsyria.org/1639

Photo: Hama, Syria, tank attack, from telegraph.co.uk

“Teenage mother Sujeylin Aguilar raises her newborn on the same streets she herself grew up in. Set in Managua, Nicaragua, the film explores the universal issue of second generation of street children.”

This is the brief presentation that is given by the director Koen Suidgeest about his very succesful, well made, non-sentimental and yet touching creative documentary. The director deserves credit for not only his film but also for his extensive work getting the film around (now seen by more than 1 million people he writes on his site), and making the film be the first step to be engaged in helping.

The director communicates strongly and competent through a blog, facebook, website, newsletter etc. Below the site of the film + a site on the initiative to get the babies off the streets. Yes, films can make changes happen!

http://www.karlasarrival.com/

http://www.covenanthouse.org/landing/karlasarrival

With the subtitle ”in the prison of latitudes”, this detailed, autobiographical film is quite an achievement in terms of research into the complicated life of the Russian poet (born 1940), not to talk about the archive material that the director has found, and the many interesting people from St. Petersburg, who knew Brodsky, when he was in his home town before he was forced in exile in 1972. He lived in the US until his death in 1996.

The best in the film, however, is the fascinating images from St.Petersburg, this pearl of a city with so much beauty that Brodsky knew how to convey into his poetry, that is given to the spectator through recordings of his own voice, magnificent it is to listen to poems being recited by him, who in the US also read in a classical English language that Laurence Olivier would have loved!

The director has wisely chosen to let the St. Petersburg years be in the forefront with a voice-off commentary that not only gives information about the life of Brodsky but also quotes him. It is understandable as Brodsky comes alive through his words but it sometimes makes the narrative of the film far too loaded with words and blocks for the experience of the images. Which are also wonderful when the journey goes to his beloved Venice, that inspired him to write the masterpiece ”Watermark” about the city where he is buried. A quote to end this text about an important film introduction to a great poet:

”Being sent to into exile is like being put into a capsule and shot into space and the capsule is your language”  

USA, 2010, 60 mins.

The director Jan Andrews: I do have DVD’S in English and Italian (eventually Russian) which can be ordered from me via my email address. $15.00 plus shipping. shibui@sisna.com.

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