<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">sorry for silence, i have computer problems fairly often but anyway, this is what has been going on in my brain</P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I would like to discuss the cultural uniformity effect of globalisation in connection with<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>search for an exotic.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This particularly came to mind as the Jeden Svet (one world) documentary film festival is coming to a close now in Prague.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This year the program had really a full range of countries in the program- from Australia to Middle East, Western Europe to Central Asia.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is something weird about the nature of documentary films because they have explicit aims to achieve, be that as social critique,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>awareness raising, to shock, inspire, spread ideas of sympathy, or as a historical record.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But also because they stake a particular claim on truth.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">One such film was the documentary on kidnapping of women for marriage in Kyrgystan.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As a film it was well constructed, the film maker was immersed, and filmed a number of kidnappings and had candid responses from the people who were his subjects.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There was empathy, humor and human vulnerability, and attracted a number of people from Central Asia as part of it’s audience.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The problem is, yes it was true in terms of the participants not ‘faking it’ for the camera, and that it does take place, but it is such a specific and small scale practice, only amongst the poorer and more remote farmers.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>My question is- it just as representative of Krgys culture as say, a documentary film about mormon polygamy is of American culture? Or strict Calvinists is of Dutch culture? Or outback farmers of Australian culture?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Does the search for the exotic have to function as a tool to deliberately misunderstand?</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I took this up with a few people from Kyrgystan, Kazakstan and Tajikistan who had also seen the film.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The response was a smile and a sigh of “well this is the unfortunate trend in film making in the region”.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Everybody said the film was well-done, but claimed it was completely unrepresentative of Kyrgys life, and that the quality of film making had gone down in post-soviet times.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>No longer state funded,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>the local industry has no money, and funding comes from abroad with interest in ‘local colour’ films, either as documentary or works of fiction, meaning ‘village life’ and the ‘least-similar to western life’ stories are almost the only ones being made.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In short, the film industry has transformed itself into a kind of cultural peep show of foreignness for audiences abroad, left unbalanced by less exotic, more everyday struggles, concerns, or human issues.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Even low budget documentaries are expensive, and foundations (especially those interested in ‘developing civil society’ {whatever that is} ) are going to fund what suits their mission statement and political agenda, no revelations there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">A documentary film is inherently a value judgement.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When non-western countries come into focus,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>it may be that rather than spreading the idea of universal ‘one-ness’ film makers only set people up as the embodiment of ‘otherness’for the sake of bringing something new to the international film arena, to explore all corners of the ‘global village’ where new borders and misunderstandings are the end result.</P>
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