I watched Paradise Now last night, and I'm blown away.
Right at the end when Said remains behind while Khaled goes back, I wasn't totally surprised. It seemed like they switched roles half-way through because at first, Khaled seemed more passionate about their cause. Said was soft-spoken and calm under pressure, but underneath that was the cold hard resolve to reclaim his dignity in the face of occupation. This film is powerful because it doesn't sugarcoat the situation, force one to choose sides, or even project a fairy-tale end to the never-ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It does something really powerful: it gives a glimpse behind the headlines and portrays the humanity of a people stripped of their dignity and their extreme attempts to reclaim it; it makes you think about the other side of the story, which is also the name of a book by Marian Keyes I read recently. It's chic-lit with a twist: 3 women narrate their own side of the story. The main reason I read it was to find out Jo's views; she is dating her married boss Mark. Entertaining!
Random rant of the day: What is it with movies or shows being set in an African country and not featuring any of the local people? For example, an episode of 'Next Top Model' (which I don't even like) shot in South Africa barely showed any black people. All the drivers, designers, tour guides, and random people at hotels shown were white or Indian. Where are the black people at? It's like all those Kenyan films where the only black person you see is the cook, a flat character with only 2 words to say "Yes madam." How can we have our story told by outsiders? It's usually biased and condescending towards the people. We need to retain our dignity if nothing else.
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2 comments:
I feel you about the shows that are shot in Africa.There was this documentary about this akataa who went to Africa to take a look at his roots and he said it made him angry when he went to hotels and it was only white people at the hotels with the blacks as servants.I do hope that is not the case in all Mombasa hotels!
If we can't even be feautured in our own countries, then where else? It gets even more tragic when the workers in the hotels internalize the message about being inferior and in turn treat fellow black people badly in comparison to Indians and White people--I've seen this in practice. Very sad.
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