Alex Gibney: "Film is the human drama"

On February 26th, Academy Award winner Alex Gibney spoke at USF's 2009 Human Rights Film Festival on a large range of topics, from his film Taxi to the Dark Side to the art of the documentary to celebrity news' place in mainstream media to his experience winning an a 2008 Oscar for documentary feature. Being unfamiliar with his work, I was a little nervous about how much I would take away from this event, but I found myself completely absorbed in no time. He spent a large chunk of the interview commenting Taxi to the Dark Side, an up-close look at the US military's torture practices in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The topic was extremely fascinating, given the little amount of information we citizens are able to learn about it from the press. Alex explained his approach to speaking with soldiers unlike the “Gotcha!” tactics of 60 Minutes, a refreshing perspective to hear.



My favorite aspect of the interview was how humble and personable Alex seemed to be. He had no problem admitting how cocky he felt the first time he attended the Oscars (and lost) in 2006 and never at once came off like he thought documentaries are better than any other category of film. But along with humble, he was genuine, passionate, and poetic when he spoke and answered questions, and it was great to see someone who has been successful in Hollywood and still keeps themselves from getting jaded. As a media studies major, it was very interesting to hear him comment on things like mainstream media, celebrity news, blogs, and paper journalism (and comment he did, answering the completely absorbed audience's questions for two hours). Alex Gibney is definitely someone who's brain I could pick for days.



For more information about Taxi to the Dark Side, visit the film's site here. For more on Alex himself, check out his IMDB page.

Trouble the Water: "We're the last of the Mohicans"

As a “documentary nerd”, I was extremely excited to watch the film Trouble the Water at USF's Human Rights Film 2008 film festival. Trouble the Water follows a lower class New Orleans couple, Kim and Scott, through their horrific experience of Hurricane Katrina. The filmmakers, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, ingeniously incorporate Kim and Scott's own home footage of the hurricane, including scenes of being trapped in the attic of their house with five young children, watching the water rising. These scenes are easily the most compelling, scary, and heartbreaking of the entire film, especially when coupled with audio clips of 911 distress calls, such as this one:

911 operator: I'm sorry, but the police are not not sending any emergency units out until the weather gets better.
Caller: So I'm going to die?
-silence-
Caller: Hello?
911 operator: -pause- yeah?



It is impossible to fathom what it would be like to be one of the callers or the people who had to take them, but Trouble the Water does the best job possible. Kim and Scott are extremely likable and charismatic (Kim refers to Katrina as a “bad chick”) protagonists – both are self declared “thugs” who once used and sold drugs on the street, only to become undeniable heroes for the people in their neighborhood. The film takes us full circle, keeping up with Kim and Scott six months after the storm, and then another six months after that, when they had finally moved back to their old neighborhood. The audience laughed at Kim's banter throughout the ninety minutes, gasped at footage of dead animals, and shook their head in shame at the clips of President Bush'. Thousands of miles away in San Francisco, everyone watching was able to experience the Hurricane Katrina tragedy truly through the eyes of the victims.



To learn more about Trouble the Water, visit the film's website.