2012 Environmental
Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital
DEAFENING SILENCE
MARCH 20, 7:00 PM, Directed
by: Holly Fisher
Venue: National Museum
of Women in the Arts
DEAFENING SILENCE
(USA, 2012, 120 min.)
World Premiere A
fusion of beauty and terror, observation and anger, roving visuals and intimate
stories – funny, contemplative or horrific – this experimental film provides a
subjective, layered depiction of Burma (Myanmar) under brutal military dictatorship.
Offering a living history of a country arrested in time, this hybrid
documentary focuses on ethnic genocide, but with constant poetic resonance and
a rich multiplicity of references to history and popular culture. Colonial
archives and clips from YouTube are interposed within this tapestry of
fragments, often in ironic counterpoint, and always to pierce the chokehold of
censorship. The filmmaker made two filming trips to Burma – one posing as a
tour guide and the second under-cover with ethnic Karen guerrillas, to film
internal exiles surviving a free-fire jungle war zone. Directed and produced by
Holly Fisher.
Holly Fisher
Fisher will be
discussing DEAFENING SILENCE.
Holly Fisher has been
active since the mid-sixties as an independent filmmaker, teacher, and editor
of feature documentaries including the 1989 Academy Award Nominee "Who
Killed Vincent Chin?" From 1965-70,
together with Romas Slezas, she made independent documentaries that focused on
environmental, rural culture, and political issues. The debut project by Fisher-Slezas Films
Inc., Progress, Pork-Barrel, and Pheasant Feathers, received a Blue Ribbon for
Conservation at The American Film Festival, NYC, 1966. The next project was an
award-winning film called Watermen, a verité portrait of a family of Chesapeake
Bay oyster fishermen, premiered in the late 60’s at Constitution Hall in
Washington, DC. Watermen resurfaced in
2010 when screened by Maryland Public TV and at the 2011 Environmental Film
Festival. Another Fisher-Slezas early
film is a short spoof from 1968 called PSSSHT that will be screened for the
first time in decades in this year’s EFF. To date, Fisher has directed, filmed,
and edited five feature works: Bullets for Breakfast (1992); Kalama Sutta:
Seeing is Believing (2001) about Burma; Everywhere at Once (2010) in
collaboration with photographer Peter Lindbergh and narrated by Jeanne Moreau;
Deafening Silence (2012), a new work about Burma; and A Question of Sunlight
for release summer, 2012. Each is an open-ended essay, exploring ways to fuse
linear narrative within non-linear structures, in order to draw the viewer into
the process of its making or toward what the filmmaker calls the “presence” of
the work as it unfolds.
During the film
“I wonder why people
are so hunger for power? With the money to send a person to the moon, we can
feed all the people on this planet.”
Violence v.
non-violence
Q and A session after
the movie
She said
Made two trips: one as
a tourist, the other under cover with a Karen
It is not hard to edit
a documentary to direct or lead audience to a certain view. What is difficult
is to present the fact in a balanced way.
Every piece is
connected with every piece.
Questions
.. why is this
screened at environmental film
festival?
.. things are getting
better in Burma?
.. .. .. no, the "change" is smoke screen
.. .. .. no, the "change" is smoke screen
.. how did she get
involved in Burma ?
Venue: Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)
HAS FIRESTONE LIBERIA
GONE FAR ENOUGH IN WORKPLACE REFORMS?
The Firestone rubber
plantation was completely shut down during civil war. After re-open, it started
to operate in a socially responsible way, partly because of support or pressure
from new government
INDONESIA'S PALM OIL
DILEMMA
BHOPALI
Directed by: Van
Maximilian Carlson
BHOPALI (India / USA,
2011, 83 min.)
Washington, D.C.
Premiere Examining the aftermath of the catastrophic industrial disaster, the
massive leakage of poison gas from a Union Carbide pesticide factory in the
central Indian city of Bhopal, this documentary consistently maintains a tone
of soft-spoken outrage. The film reveals that the initial death toll of the Dec
3, 1984 calamity, which was estimated at 10,000 or more, has been surpassed by
the significant number of chronic maladies and birth defects attributed to
water contamination caused by the leakage. The film tells often heart-wrenching
stories of the disaster’s living victims. These include severely handicapped
children whose parents, most of whom are very poor, must seek help from
charity-funded or government-operated facilities that often are ill-equipped to
cope with so many in desperate need. Directed, produced and edited by Van
Maximilian Carlson. Co-produced by Kirk Palayan.
Van Maximilian Carlson
Carlson will be
discussing BHOPALI.
Van Maximilian
Carlson, born November 1984, is a Los Angeles-based director, editor, and
cinematographer who has worked on numerous projects including documentaries,
commercials, trailers, and several original dramatic films. His directorial
works have received numerous awards, such as a “Special Jury Award” at the 40th
Annual USA Film Festival, the “Most Promising Director Award” at the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival, and the “Best
Director Award” at the Toronto International Teen Movie Festival for a short
film he completed while in high school. He directed and shot DISSOCIATIVE
(2008), which went on to win a “Best thriller Award.” His film, NINTH NOVEMBER
NIGHT (2004), was considered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Documentary Screening Committee to be “one of the outstanding documentaries of
2004.” His editorial work has also been recognized and awarded three Promax/
BDA awards and one Key Art nomination.
After movie with the director over some light
refreshment
He lives in LA, now
working on a film on Chinese people in China Town in LA
Spent about three
months in Bhopal, at the beginning and end of the year
Why Noam Chomsky?
.. the director said,
he has enormous respect for the professor, though the professor did not have an
insight specific to the Bhopal incident
