AFS Doc Days a Non-Fictional Film Festival.
AFS DOC DAYS is a non-fiction film festival that happened at the end of April. It lasts about a weekend for the audience to gather all the real-time stories that are shared on film. These days, film documentaries speak louder than words. From a great line up of screenings.
I would love to share with you some of the films I have got to watch.
Bucks Harbor
This film explores the path of a man into the wilderness. As the Film Director, Pete Muller, explains his idea of how some boys grow with a certain atmosphere that leads them to become who they are. The sea, one of the toughest places to live, as the sea and its rebel Atlantic waters take onto the wildest people around it. The film describes the lives of several people that belong to the harbor and unveils the way from the children's perspective. Until they got to ask themselves what it takes to become a real man, like the crust of a lobster that, as it grows from time to time, leaves the old crust behind. Into the wilderness, most men in Coast Maine are holding onto their duty as fishermen, relating all they belong to do, as this knowledge is transferred from father to son. The most beautiful photography and its landscapes and the bizarre habits a man at the sea can do to resist the stress and fear that they live in their daily lives and from which they depend on, the sea. Directed by Pete Muller, Photographer at National Geographic.
Shifting Baselines
As the headquarters of one of the biggest space exploration bases, it happened to be built upon the shores of Boca Chica beach in Brownsville, Texas. This documentary explores the uncertainty from which SpaceX heads outside of Earth. Attracting people with different mind sets and trying to convince the world that life on Mars is possible. This film describes all the cascade of consequences that Space X is experimenting with while giving its back to the Earth and its people. From breaking up infrastructures, violating environmental laws in such an extreme way and the fear of a cascade of crashing satellites before a terrible catastrophe. This black and white film shows the world the uncertainty of the project and does not fear to say why Texans aren’t very likely to have space X on its shore, as the environmental changes have already been negatively impacted even before the man’s eye can even start to notice. Shifting baselines is the winner of a Grand Jury Price at DOC NYC.
Closure
Facing the uncertainties of what today’s social media world can trigger to our younger generations. The Film follows a father who had lost his son, in that quest to find him. Without leaving a trace behind but Tik Tok videos. This documentary treats film with a propose of hope for not only this family but some other families surrounding the same kind of case in Poland. The intensity of the story is found within the river ways or in the intimacy of their family’s home. Film Director speaks about himself reading a story about Impact of social media on younger generations when he finds himself talking with a man searching for his teenager son amidst the profundities of the river. Closure is a selection of the Sundance Film Festival and winner of est Documentary at Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Directed by Michal Marczak.
AANIKOOBIJIGAN
When, in life, science takes hold on your bones and those precious artifacts belonging to your great-grandmother, there is no other turning point but to get them back where they belong and to whom they belong too. Native American tribes had been holding onto the Repatriation Act for about 150 years from now. NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) and it was not until the late 1990s when President George H W Bush impulse it with the purpose of providing federal funds to institutions to return sacred objects to Native American tribes, including bones or linear descendants. The film captures the effort of these communities to remain on the earth and, more than that, the fight they are willing to take against museums and prestigious universities for holding the union and their connection back.
The Film Director shares with the audience that it was difficult to understand how somebody's remains were held in boxes saved in the underground of museums or universities like Harvard.
The Native American communities in Aanikoobijan tell us that there is a unique connection that takes place as the objects and the rest of their ancestors are brought back to where they belong to. From all these communities have been through, this is the least they can have to connect to their identities. And the fight is still ongoing. Winner of an audience award at the Sundance Film Festival.
AFS Doc Days not only tells us about the reality some communities are going through, but it also explores ways to build up a better resource for our freedom. It is important to find ways to communicate and impact the younger generation with a better source for their critical points of view. I would love to read your comments about these films or even other films you got to watch at AFS Doc-Days. Please feel free to comment on what resonates with you the most.
