Deadline Screens At Buenos Aires Film Festival
By roving Deadline Outreach Director, Angela Tucker
Deadline screened three times here at The Buenos Aires Film Festival, an international film festival featuring 300 films, where we are in competition for the Human Rights Award.
It was helpful to read the blurb in the catalogue because it really gave me a window into how Deadline might be preceived in Argentina:
¨Considering a series of convicing facts - the number of executions that considerably increases year after year; the fact that the death sentenced tend to be black men of low economic resources or the failures in the judicial system that sent to jail a great number of innocent people - the film leaves quite clear the need of a profound reflection and the fear for the permanence of this lethal and fallible system.¨
I was a little nervous mainly because this was my first international festival and people had warned me that people in Argentina are fairly philosophical and will ask many questions. Thank goodness I had great translators!
People seemed to be quite moved by the film. They all had a great knowledge of the capital punishment system in the United States which made things a bit easier. Most people were curious if I thought that capital punishment would ever be gone in the states. They were also curious (two people asked me this in fact) what role religion plays in the capital punishment system. A few people mentioned that Bush´s election had a lot to do with religion and were curious how that applied to other difficult issues.
Several people, including a reporter who interviewed me for an arts and culture show in Argentina, wondered if the government tried to stop us from making the film. This always surprises me because I never see the film as being as radical as many other people do.
Like I said, the questions were difficult, especially the ones about racism in the United States and what role it plays in our capital punishment system. You try to answer the questions the best you can but these are big issues to have to speak publicly about.
Overall, it was a great experience to talk to people from all over the world about the film and how the issues within it apply to countries all over the world. We are currently in the running for the Human Rights Award so keep your fingers crossed!
Posted by beth at 10:39 AM
Comments
The question about whether the government tried to stop the film from being made is a reminder of how complicated the intersection of politics, culture and legal rights is. How bizarre it must seem that a country primitive enough to have the death penalty could also be a place where the government cannot stop a film from being made (at least not yet).
Posted by: Elizabeth at April 22, 2005 03:31 PM
