A Critical Evaluation of a Screening Event - Essay Example

A Critical Evaluation of a Screening Event (The Kurdish Winter) By In the last decade, documentary field has experienced considerate growth. This has seen the production of major high profile documentaries that have become the centre of attraction and focus in different regions around the world. With the new advanced technology, there are many opportunities availed to documentaries to achieve their objectives; including making social impact and reaching as many people as possible. It is widely believed that documentaries have a social impact on their audience, and hold the capacity of spurring social change in society (Marfo 2007). Nonetheless, this paper presents a critical evaluation of a screening event involving the documentary “The Kurdish Winter.” The documentary “The Kurdish Winter,” bears the story of the Kurdish people. These are considered to be the largest nation in the world, but without a state of their own (Gendercide n.d). Documentaries are one of the major ways of revisiting genocide and its effects, in an effort to prevent such future occurrences (Wilson & Crowder-Taraborrelli 2012). In the 1980’s, and years before, the Kurdish people suffered continuous genocides in Iraq. This therefore, had a negative impact on their life and heritage (Ibrahim & Gurbey 2000). Nonetheless, this documentary aims at collecting evidence from the Kurds that are alive today, and lived in the 1970’s. This will eventually help in shaping the truth about the Kurdish genocide, as witnesses testify in the documentary. Although the Kurdish people during that period suffered a lot of atrocities, the media publicised the events that unfolded, but the world closed its eyes and ears to the situation and cries of the Kurdish people. Being the director of the documentary, I had the responsibility of ensuring that the filming process was successful, and making sure that the content of the documentary was on point and convincing. For filming, I travelled to various parts of the world, identifying the key people that I would include in the documentary. The conditions for these people was that they had to be Kurdish, and must have been alive when the genocides occurred, as well as been affected in one way or another by the detrimental events that made up the genocide. I gained diverse insights into the situation of the Kurdish people from different parties, including political prisoners, politicians, leaders of different calibre, as well as the common Kurdish people that were victims of the genocide. As the director of the documentary, I shared the pains of these people, since I was also affected by the Kurdish situation. Having escaped the chemical attack as a Kurdish refugee, I felt obligated to unravel the whole truth; truth that the media concealed at that time; and show the whole world the real picture of the Kurdish situation back then and today. The documentary “The Kurdish Winter” is considerably long, as it runs for approximately one hour. The film mainly involves various Kurdish victims of the Kurdish genocide. These through narrations, tell their stories of what happened then. They also share knowledge on the various challenges they continue to face today in the world as Kurdish people. As highlighted, this documentary aims at revealing the truth to the world about the Kurdish situation. This therefore, adopted the enlightenment theory of truth, as a major way or technique through which documentary could present its truth. In this case, this documentary aims at ensuring that after watching, the audience are able to think critically. The audience will therefore, be better placed to comprehend how the real Kurdish situation is, apart from the notion provided by the mainstream media. Screening this documentary was one of the most important exercises I was involved in. I considered this as an opportunity to judge the feedback of the public, basing on the reactions of the audience present at the time of screening the documentary. This would therefore, give me a clue on the level of impact the documentary will make after receiving a wider audience from different parts of the world. When screening a documentary, there are different challenges that one should expect; however, this depends on the nature of the documentary to be screened (United to End Genocide n.d). In my case, I although I was keen enough to follow the right procedures of screening a documentary, this did not shield me from various challenges that I experienced during the process. Nonetheless, to start with, I had a ready documentary, which I intended to screen before an audience. Apart from having the documentary ready, I had to ensure that I make a choice of the location, date, and time of screening the documentary. The country of screening of this documentary was the United Kingdom. However, I experienced considerable challenges in finding a specific location, where I could launch the screening process and accommodate the audience. The reason for this challenge was that I do not live in the UK, thus was less familiar with the area and people therein. However, I succeeded in finding a venue, and so assured of hosting my event at the Nadi Park. Apart from the venue, it was also considerably challenging finding a large audience for the screening of the documentary. Basing on my low familiarity with the UK, I did not succeed in attracting a large audience. However, I would have wished to host a big audience, as this would help in publicizing the documentary. For this reason, I managed to screen the documentary in front of an audience comprising about 50 people. These included some of my friends and associates in the UK. Before screening the documentary, I engaged in different efforts to publicize the screening event. This was aimed at ensuring that I obtained an audience for the event. Nonetheless, some of the ways I utilized in order to publicize this event include writing emails to my friends and contacts, family members, neighbours, and community members. Through the emails, I notified them of the upcoming screening event, including the location, time and venue of the event. I encouraged them to share the message with their contacts, so that whoever will be in a position to attend the screening event would not miss out on the chance. Apart from use of email, I also highly utilized the social media platform to publicize the screening event. I posted the details of the screening event on my Facebook and Twitter profiles, so that my connections would be informed of the event, and also spread word across. Another method I utilized to publicize the screening event was through posters and flyers. This was however, only done in the location of the screening event. I distributed flyers to a number of people, and had posters of the screening event in major social halls. I felt that this would therefore, draw considerable attention, and enable the event to have a big audience. Although the screening event of the documentary did not attract a large audience as anticipated, I feel that this is will not serve as a hindrance to the gaining of high publicity by the documentary. The present advanced technology will play a major role in ensuring that this documentary reaches worldwide audience. I have continued to post and share this documentary with friends and contacts on social media. For instance, I uploaded this documentary on YouTube, and it is already receiving considerable number of views. Considering YouTube is universal, I expect that as many people as possible from various regions of the world will be able to view this documentary, and hence know the real truth about the Kurdish situation. A few hours to the screening event, I had to prepare the materials that I would use in the event, and generally get ready for the event. For instance, there had to be sign sheets, in order to keep track of the audience. In addition, I considered it important to prepare fact sheets, which I would distribute to the guests. These were important in order to provide the guests with an insight on the Kurdish situation. The venue, Nadi Park provided me with a large hall, where I was to host the event. I therefore, ensured, with the help of the venue operators that the projector was functional, as well as other public address system. The assistants at the venue were supportive, as they had helped me with advertising for the event through their social media pages and leaflets. Furthermore, they offered me assistance with ticketing for the event, and I was able to charge 10 pounds per ticket for the event. At the start of the screening event after all guests were comfortably seated, I thanked them for coming, and introduced to them the context of the documentary that was about to be screened. During the screening, I was keen to observe the reaction of the audience, as this would give me a clue on how the documentary had impacted the audience. Nevertheless, I noted that the audience were greatly moved by the documentary. Most of the audience were familiar with the victims of the anfal campaign that were part of the documentary, giving an account of the situation during the anfal campaign and its aftermath. After the documentary was over and before the guests left, I initiated a conversation with them, where I let them share their initial reactions to the documentary. Furthermore, this was a platform where we discussed the themes in the documentary, as well as the relevance and significance of the documentary. I was sure to thank the audience for their presence, before they left the hall. Overall, I consider the screening event of the documentary to have been successful, as everything went as planned. The small number of the audience was a major issue in this screening event. However, technology would play an important role in ensuring that the documentary gains more online audience from various world regions, in order to compensate for the low number of physical audience at the screening event. According to Routt (1991) documentaries serve an important purpose of revealing the truth about a situation. As seen, the documentary “The Kurdish Winter” aims at unravelling the truth about the Kurdish situation. The previous versions of the Kurdish situation by the media and other information sources can be considered to have been flawed and sometimes fabricated. Therefore, as a Kurdish, who experienced the genocides and effects of the anfal campaign, I took the prerogative of searching for the truth and showing it to the world. This is the only way through which the Kurdish people might gain confidence, knowing that their true story has been told to the world. Nonetheless, in order for the documentary to portray truthfulness in it, it was imperative for me as the director of the documentary to employ techniques in the process of film making that would make the documentary to have the truth effect, and bring reality to the screen (Walley 2010). In unearthing the truth about the Kurdish situation, the documentary employed the reflective narrative strategy. This kind of strategy is used in documentaries that seek to ‘expose’ (Spence & Navarro 2011). In applying this strategy, the documentary involved different first-hand witnesses, who narrated their stories and how they were victims of the Kurdish mass atrocities. These people included men and women, and people of different professions. Nonetheless, these were able to expose various devastating events that happened to them, their families, and neighbours back in the years. Most of these devastating events had not been highlighted by the media. Therefore, this documentary told nothing but the truth, and this I could see in the eyes of the audience as they watched it. Another aspect that makes this documentary to demonstrate a high level of truthfulness is that the documentary did not make reference to any historical book or other source, apart from the witnesses. The witnesses thus gave a breakdown of history of the Kurdish situation. Nonetheless, it is more convincing hearing an account of an event from a person that was present at the time of the event, than reading it from a secondary source (Torchin 2012). Therefore, the use of primary sources for information enabled this documentary to bring reality to the screen. The documentary was based on facts, and therefore, this makes it to be truthful. This is especially considering that the facts come from people who had first-hand experience in the Kurdish genocide and mass atrocities. The stories provided by the witnesses were not made up or fabricated. The audience heard it from the horse’s mouth, since I the director of the documentary, did not manipulate the information in any way whatsoever. This documentary therefore, makes it quite easy for the audience to rate its truth level. For instance, the audience could relate with the facial expressions and emotions that overwhelmed some of the witnesses while they were narrating the devastating events that they experienced together with their loved ones. The fact that I saw some part of the audience tearing made me believe that at least the documentary had driven its point home, thus accomplishing its objective. Another aspect that enhanced the truthfulness of this documentary was the fact that some of the audience were familiar with most of the witnesses in the documentary, as they knew each other personally. Therefore, hearing the bizarre stories from them might have come as a shock to this audience. This made the audience realize how the mainstream media and governments of the so-called powerful and influential countries were inefficient and ineffective in dealing with the Kurdish situation. Worse is that the Kurdish situation did not receive the focus and attention it deserved, leave alone the highly needed intervention. The stories and experiences of the witnesses in the documentary just proved to the audience how the Kurdish people today have to bear with past pains and carry on with their life, as there is no one to remedy them. I consider this to be one of the reasons why the audience was moved by this documentary. It just proved how much past pain the Kurdish have to deal with. Overall, the documentary “The Kurdish Winter” was a success. This was filmed successfully and screened successfully too. Despite the various challenges that the director and some of the crew faced in the whole process, the screening of the documentary was commendable. It was noted that the documentary moved the audience, and this is a good sign of how many more the documentary will move in future screening and online viewing of the documentary. Although the screening event was the climax of the documentary starting from its production, as the director, I consider it necessary that a follow up is done on the screening event. This mainly involves keeping in touch with the guests that attended the screening event. Through this, it will be possible to learn more about how they feel about the documentary. In addition, the follow up will involve revisiting the ideas that the guests presented during the discussion after the screening of the documentary. Although it is important to evaluate the success of the screening event (Karlin & Johnson 2011), I feel that this alone is not sufficient. Therefore, a follow up on the guests, as well as ideas presented at the screening event will be a major way of gaining insights into the perceptions of the people on the documentary. As also noted before, the number of people comprising the audience at the screening event was quite low. Although this was owed to less familiarity with the location, thus low connections, there is a way this could be resolved in future. In the near future, another major screening of the documentary might be conducted. This might however, be in a different location. Unlike the first screening event, this one will involve massive campaigns to gather as many people as possible. Therefore, the planning of the event will be more effective. Nonetheless, this will include those friends, family, and other community members that did not make it to the first screening. Although online viewing of the documentary will be encouraged, it is also important to hold physical screening events. These provide a better platform to interact and share ideas. In conclusion, the screening event of the documentary “The Kurdish Winter” was a success. The documentary moved the audience, considering its content. The documentary was aimed at exposing the truth about the situation of the Kurdish people. This therefore, achieved this objective based on the filming techniques employed. The witnesses in the documentary narrated their first hand experiences during the mass atrocities that affected the Kurdish people starting the 1970’s. The documentary did not make any reference to historical books, journals, or secondary source, but had the witnesses as the primary source of information. In addition, the narrations of the witnesses were presented directly to the audience, without manipulation from the director. For these reasons therefore, the Kurdish Winter documentary is considered to be truthful, as it bases on primary stories, and nothing else. Since this moved the audience at the screening event, it is expected that the documentary will elicit similar reactions from the other online and physical audiences in diverse world regions. Works Cited Gendercide n.d, “Case Study: The Anfal Campaign (Iraqi Kurdistan), 1988,” Accessed 7 April 2014 < http://www.gendercide.org/case_anfal.html> Ibrahim, F. & Gurbey, G 2000, “The Kurdish Conflict in Turkey: Obstacles and Chances for Peace and Democracy,” New York, LIT Verlag Munster. Karlin, B. & Johnson, J 2011, “Measuring Impact: The Importance of Evaluation for Documentary Film Campaigns,” M/C Journal, 14 (6). Marfo, A. (2007). The Evolution and Impact of Documentary Films. Senior Honors Projects. Routt, W 1991, “The truth of the documentary” The Australian Journal of Media & Culture Vol. 5, No 1. Spence, L., & Navarro, V. (2011). Crafting truth: Documentary form and meaning. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press. Torchin, L 2012, “Creating the Witness: Documenting Genocide on Film, Video, and the Internet (Visible Evidence),” University of Minnesota Press, New York. United to End Genocide n.d, “How to Host a Movie Screening,” Accessed 7 April 2014 < http://endgenocide.org/take-action/activist-resources/how-to-host-a-movie-screening/> Walley, J 2010, “Lessons of Documentary: Reality, Representation, and Cinematic Expressivity,” Accessed 7 April, 2014 < http://www.aesthetics-online.org/articles/index.php?articles_id=51> Wilson, K., Crowder-Taraborrelli, T 2012, “Film and Genocide,” University of Wisconsin Press, New York. Read More