LIDF

The best documentary films evoke a change in the viewer, they plant the seeds of an idea from ‘I want to try that’ to ‘I’m going to think differently about that from now on’ or even ‘I’m going to do something about that’. Tonight was awash (note silly pun) with such thought-provoking films, beginning with a collection of water related shorts that were being screened in partnership with Ecover and WaterAid, who are working together on projects around the world with an aim to bringing clean drinking water to areas devastated by poverty and water-related illness.

Immersion is a particularly wonderful film, and the Horse Hospital’s ‘secret hide-out’ ambiance added to my, rather pleasant I must say, feeling of being some sort of curious fish spying on the strange mammals that are human beings as they enter my watery world.

Both hilarious, beautiful and original this short film is something to rave about, and I subsequently  decided I would make sure I went swimming at least once a week….

Tonight was also the world premier of Justin Peach’s simply stunning film Lonely Pack, that unobtrusively documents the lives and tight-knit camaraderie of a group of street children in Katmandu.

It is a sight everyone who has traveled in Asia is both familiar with and has a strong opinion on. Many times while I was in India travellers would tell me why you should or should not give to beggars, or indeed which type of beggars you should give to –

‘Never give to the kids,’ a lot of people will tell you, ‘it just encourages them to continue doing it and not get a job’. I must admit that this film made me readdress all my previous reactions to beggars in Asia, and I was profoundly shaken by what seemed to be such a hopeless situation.

The reliance on glue sniffing as a form of escape was the most shocking aspect of these children’s daily lives, along with requests of sexual acts by tourists seeking to take advantage of their situation, and the lack of any opportunity for a different life.

“ If I had had the chance to go to school, maybe I would have been someone important,” one young boy tells the camera, “now all I want is to stay a kid forever, because it’s easier to beg as a kid and the police arrest you less often”. It is a devastating and disturbing retelling of the longings of Peter Pan, and one of the many things within this film that will stay with you long after you leave the cinema.