Compassion on Film
Posted by Dylan on May 26, 2009One of the most pre-eminent documentarians making films today is Kim Longinotto. She has created, over her thirty year career, extraordinary and amazing portraits of humans and the controversial issues that we all become involved with. Her work is filled with compassion and sensitivity and have garnered acclaim and awards worldwide at festivals. A 2 week exhibition at MOMA in New York concluded today, resulting in many checking out of their best Manattan hotel but not leaving the memories of the program behind. This festival opened with a dramatic account of the women of South Africa who care and protect the neglected and abused children in the African city of Durban. These women work and collaborate with and organization called the Bobbi Bear Child Welfare League. Their nicknames are the ‘rough aunties’. During the past Sundance Film Festival this film was given the jury prize for world cinema and will be broadcast nationally in 2010 on the cable network HBO.
Longinotto has won two awards previously at Cannes, and a Peabody Award in 2005. Her 2003 film ‘I Will Never Forget’ was recognized and awarded by Amnesty International. She studied directing at in England at the National Film School which she documented the experiences of living in a boarding school, and also made a documentary during that time about a shelter for homeless females. She worked for others, doing camera work, upon graduation but in 1986 formed her own production company with Claire Hunt called 20th Century Vixen. She has since created works covering the Dresden bombings that occurred during World War II, a documentary about the women of Egypt as well as one about the women of Tokyo, the musical theater of Japan, and the situation and consequences of women seeking divorce in Iran. This was a festival of work created by an incredible and is one that has left those travelers and spectators felling fortunate to have been witness to such creative and compassionate genius.
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