Digitally divided in society, echo-located in a neighbourhood, sanctified on a mountain... Documentaries that make a world
We came across some beautiful examples of the short documentary form this week. The director’s truth wrested from reality, their edits and montages even more significant, given that we’re all media students now.
From The Guardian:
Doctors' appointments, job applications, personal banking, key services and more are today mostly managed online. While the UK government details its plans for a digital future to transform public services, one in seven Britons are forced to live without the internet.
This film is voiced by three individuals experiencing digital exclusion, revealing how varied and complex the repercussions can be. Through enacted scenes from their lives, it makes visible the expanding digital divide – an issue too often unseen or ignored by policy makers, businesses and society at large.
From the New Yorker:
When Daniel Kish takes his glass eyes out of their sockets, the two boys sitting near him have some questions. Does it feel weird without them? Can he blink? Daniel answers warmly: yes, it feels strange to remove them, and, no, he can’t really blink. He’s friendly, with an endearing sense of humor—mentioning his desire to get a 3-D-printed pair that glows in the dark.
Daniel lost his eyes as a child and, as an adult, has become a pioneer in the use of echolocation among the blind, a skill that he’s developed in order to generate vivid, precise perceptions of his surroundings. “If I click at a surface,” he says, at the beginning of the film, “it answers back.”
During the early production stages of the filmmakers Ben Wolin and Michael Minahan’s short documentary, “Echo,” they wanted their audience to understand what this skill truly meant. They worked closely with Daniel, a self-described audiophile, to record sound for the documentary through a special microphone that works similarly to a pair of human ears—a tool that Daniel also uses for teaching. “You record the audio like you would hear it,” Minahan told me.
Because of this process, the sound design and auditory experience has a vivid, spatial quality that’s rare with a film of this scale. The gears on Daniel’s bike creak and whine with a closeness that makes it feel like we’re riding right next to him, while dogs bark, wind blows, and cars pass in the background. It’s through these rich sounds that we’re immersed in and transported to Daniel’s world.
Bhutan Mountain Man: video diaries from a lone glaciologist
From Aeon:
The only man permitted in Bhutan’s sacred mountains chronicles humanity’s impact
According to local tradition, Bhutan’s highest terrain is considered the sacred domain of gods and spirits. Due to this belief, mountaineering is illegal in Bhutan, making the country’s Himalayan highlands one of the most unspoiled places on Earth. However, this doesn’t mean our impact isn’t felt at all. Indeed, as a result of climate change, the glaciers on these mountaintops are melting, threatening the lives of those below.
The short documentary Mountain Man chronicles the life and work of Phuntsho Tshering, a glaciologist who, accompanied by his team, is the only person permitted to climb high into the mountains. Leaving his family for more than a month to measure changes to remote glaciers and lakes, he sends video dispatches to his daughter, who fears his presence might provoke the spirit of the mighty ‘Snow Lion’ that inhabits these lands.
For his part, Tshering performs rituals both scientific and spiritual to assess threats and assure safe passage. With his rare access to these sublime scenes, the Bhutanese director Arun Bhattarai creates a film that, like the mountains it captures, possesses a hushed power and beauty.