Bee’s Sheffied Doc Fest Diary: Day 3

I’m writing this a day late so apologies for that! However, I was so tired when I returned back from yesterday’s viewing experience that I fell promptly to sleep. I had to get up early this morning to travel home so I couldn’t risk staying up too late and sleeping through my alarm!

Anyway, enough pre-amble. So, on day 3 of my Sheffield Doc Fest adventure, I managed to see 4 documentaries, all of which were very engaging and well-crafted. The first film was Dina Naser’s ”Tiny Souls”, a beautiful and poetic documentary that details the lives of three Syrian children trying to survive in a refugee camp in Jordon after having to flee their homeland.

Naser began capturing the story of nine-year-old Marwa and her family in 2012, and her feature-length debut grew out of an initial nine-minute short film. Marwa and her family were assumed that their time in the camp would be a matter of a few weeks. However, we find out that their time in the camp will span years. We see from Naser’s interactions with Marwa, that this is a young girl who has been forced to grow up quickly in a response to the hardships she and her siblings have encountered. Naser’s documentary is a powerful one, that tells a very human story that the mainstream media often overlooks and I hope that more people will seek it out.

Next was Karen Stokkendal Poulsen’s ”On The Inside Of A Military Dictatorship” which follows Myanmar’s road from military rule to democracy. The road is long and full of obstacles, and there are no clear cut ‘good/bad guys’. The story is divided into 10 chapters which detail the struggles of this country which was isolated from the majority of the world for decades.

We are left questioning whether the concept of democracy can flourish in this country which has been under military control since 1988. When Nobel Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, it seemed like the country was taking a step in the right direction. However, things never go according to plan, and it would appear that the military is still pulling the strings. ”On The Inside Of A Military Dictatorship” is a political drama which makes ‘House of Cards” seem tame. The truth is almost always far more interesting than anything that Hollywood screenwriters can churn out and if you’re seeking a well-detailed account of this country’s struggle for democracy then look no further.

On to Raúl Pastrana’s ”South Border” which is a film that we perhaps need now more than ever. We have been subjected to many news stories about migrants and much of that news is perhaps fake. Often, this coverage present migrants as a nuisance, or something to be feared. Very rarely, we are presented with a compassionate and empathetic point-of-view of these people who are desperately trying to better their lives.

In ”South Border” Pastrana follows the migrant trail from southern Mexico to the US border. There is the story of Gustavo, a Nicaraguan who has been shot by Mexican police while attempting to get closer to the border. At the very start, Gustavo shows the viewer how he sleeps on the tracks, his head resting on the track so he can feel the vibrations of the approaching train. Gustavo is one of the lucky ones as the documentary also follows Jason, an American anthropologist tracking the remains of migrants in the borderlands, the ones who didn’t make it. ”South Border” is a very strong documentary that helps paint a very human story which we perhaps ignore as a part of our privilege.

My final night at Sheffield Doc Fest 2019 ended with the UK premiere of ”For Sama”. This was one of the most compelling and impactful documentaries of my festival going experience. The film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama. The conflict grows, and Waad manages to capture the stories of loss, survival as well a showing the strength of the human spirit. Waad must make an impossible choice, to decide whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life.

”For Sama” is a truly remarkable experience, which presents us with some of the most unflinching and devastating footage war conflict that has ever been captured on film. The film will leave even the strongest of us in tears and it is impossible not to be moved by this story of survival. The film was followed by Q&A sessions with Waad, her husband Hamza and director Edward Watts led by Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow.

In a question I proposed to both Waad and her husband, I asked whether it was surreal to look back on her life on the big screen. She answered that it was. The fact that they are able to attend screenings and tell their story, is inspirational and shows the power of the human spirit. All 4 of the films detailed in this piece show the lengths we will go in the battle for survival, and our fight for freedom. The power of documentaries is to ensure that these stories will never become forgotten.