click on the title below to get to their website.
What are documentaries? To me they are a lens in which I can see the larger fabrics and workings of our society, environment and the world at large. This is a great way to tap into community, the whole community. Of course, there is an agenda and direction that is taken by the cinematographer and editors, but the essence of documenting, acknowledging the vast ecosystems of thought, rather than a monoculture, gives me the viewer a greater understanding of what is at stake. Though the documenters may approach such a process with a desire to express their personal intentions, views and ideas, the messages underlying these five films above have touched a deep chord of resonance and wholeness in me.
I see the pressing nature of time and circumstance. The human race is accelerating at a speed that will catapult us into a great change. History has laid its tracks for us. At some time, quite painfully and at others with joy. And yet, there is a considerable sense of apathy and inaction in my generation- or is this just what the dark forces want me to believe.
There is no questioning that forces of power, control and domination exist. We can see it in Vanishing of the Bees, by the corporations and mega-agriculture businesses who put money above life and health. We can see it in the Hempster situation, when the DEA and US government burn off a sustainable and secure source of wealth and holistic well being from US farmers and Native American Nations. The motives behind such actions, portray the caricature of the devil, laughing at peoples suffering.
Is that what's really happening? Is it right to demonize those who condone practices that appear illogical, irrational, unsustainable and dumb?
Or do we decide that we do not know the entire story. That people do not deliberately and essentially make wrong decisions, perhaps they just don't know any better, or their hearts where in the right place but it came out in the wrong way. Who is to judge? Society is complex.
This juxtaposition between solitude and community is peculiar. As soon as I think I have a grasp at some concept, I find immediate contradiction coming to my mind. Yet a sense still floats within. Perhaps all this learning and knowing is transient, but the senses we acquire in our life time remain. For example, this idea of peace and community. As far as our history-- our ancestors and all actions of the past-- has led me to understand that war, violence and theft are just as much part of reality as is love, peace and justice.
To live in a community and a society at large that is based on these principles, if sometimes only unconsciously, is futile. What I mean is that for every action there is a reaction and causal effect. The acceptance of duality puts me in duality. On one side I become indifferent to the effects that occur in the world, while on the other side I pray and advocate for harmony.
Does Harmony include the harmony between war and peace, love and hate, acceptance and rejection?
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