LIDF2016
The LIDF was born in 2007; it was conceived a couple of years earlier. A group of post-graduate students in the department of Anthropology, University College London, decided to host documentary film evenings once a week during term time. The programme was eclectic and not based solely on ethnographic film. The intention was to bring anthropologists and filmmakers together in a spirit of critical engagement, to examine how film functions as a tool for social advocacy, for philosophical enquiry, and aesthetic experimentation. The evenings were soon overflowing with passionate voices from within and without the academy. The screenings moved to ever larger rooms. In 2007 The British Museum agreed to host the first LIDF – A Conversation in Film.
The idea of free conversation has remained integral to the LIDF. The idea that the films are pretext and context for debate. Since that first small festival edition (22 films over 2 days), the LIDF has continued to grow. In the years since the festival has screened over 700 films. It has featured the work of well-known directors such as Martin Scorcese, Asif Kapadia, Steven Soderberg, as well as first time works by emerging talent. It has cast its net wide and tried to respect the ‘international’ part of its name.
The recent years of austerity have been difficult for many arts organisations and festivals. It has been no different for the LIDF. Times are still austere but, the forthcoming 12 months signal a rejuvenation. The LIDF has many new initiatives and partnerships to announce in the coming weeks.
The films the LIDF screens are entertaining. Documentary film is another form of storytelling. These complex narratives are the products of an insatiable desire to communicate. Communication contains elements of the fabulous, images are seductive, heroes and villains ubiquitous. Nothing is ever quite what it seems. The stories we tell, and the stories we chose not to tell, say a great deal about our assumptions, often naive, about ourselves and the world we live in. But, a festival allows that rare thing; that collective moment when, with the help of others, we can see ourselves, and our relations with others, just that little bit clearer.
The responsibility of filmmakers towards their subjects is often talked about; quite rightly. There are ethical and moral dimensions in claiming and representing slices of reality, intimate lives and moments, or broad historical perspectives. But, there is also a responsibility on us as the audience. We cannot be passive or uncritical in our reading of a film. This responsibility is even greater when we consider how documentary films are powerful providers of ‘information’, ‘knowledge’, ‘ideas’ and can inspire direct action.
Documentary films can be an antidote to the trivialising and closed public discourse we are too often surrounded by. Complex realities remain complex, rhetoric and slogans are avoided, conclusions open-ended. Our encounter with the images is an opportunity to go beyond the films themselves and escape the, all too common, sense that there is nothing anyone can do about anything.