Goldsmiths MA screening

I didn't realise I still had so much enthusiasm for documentaries until the other day, when I went to the Goldsmith's MA screening. I could sit for days watching this type of stuff.

I was really pissed off about what I missed but to review a bit what I did see:

I walked in at the end of Aliya Salahuddin's My Sin and didn't really understand what was going on. Fortunately I spoke to her afterwards and she put me in the picture. What I saw was very well shot and, although I'm not really into narrated documentaries for myself these days, if I had as beautiful a sounding voice as Aliya's I would be.

Aliya has been working in Pakistani TV for 5 years as a producer and came to the UK to do this MA course and expand her horizons into the craft of film. Aliya's TV company campaigned to free women imprisoned for adultery. This film focuses on some of the women released back into a Pakistani society they are still shunned by. We spoke a bit about Pakistan which she reckons is much more secular than news we get over here would make out.

I didn't think Minou Morouzi's Anatomy of Failure was edited so well, but the information and interviews it contained gave a fascinating insight into those the guru Carlos Castaneda left behind. I've never read Castaneda's work but I met a few self styled guru's in India and this tale holds true to my suspicions about the dangers of believing your own bullshit and infecting others with it. I should imagine that if this was edited a bit better it would be the film with the biggest mainstream interest out of this bunch.

I can't see it on the bill but there was another fantastic film about a Turkish guy who lovingly crafted traditional musical instruments...

The last one I'll review here stuck out to me as my personal favourite- Tales from Small Town America by Filmmaker Erin Kennedy was a great rambling piece following her cousins memories of demented life in some backwater American shit hole.

Its weird what people choose to film and why people choose to film. I remember I started this blog thinking I wanted to be a documentary maker who was going to make a difference which seems laughable now. If my cousin could tell a simple story like Erin's I'd be switching the camera on him. Fantastic.