The power of the documentary

The 27th edition of the annual Encounters South African International Documentary Festival kicks off on June 19. You can visit www.encounters.co.za for more information but here, in celebration of the power and importance of the documentary genre are three films from the last century of turbulent social and political upheaval that offer a timely reminder of the ways in which films about real-life and real-people can shed light in dark times and reveal truths that many would like to keep hidden.

From the streets of San Francisco’s Castro quarter in the 1980s; the jungles of Vietnam in 1968, arguably the most tumultuous year in 20th century history, to the pitched battles between democratic activists and military junta forces on the streets of Chile in the 1970s, these documentaries offer reminders from the recent past that still have lessons to teach for a present that is once again rife with uncertainty, anger and anxiety.

The Times of Harvey Milk — Mubi.com

Long before Sean Penn won an Oscar for playing him in Gus Van Sant’s 2008 biopic Milk, director Rob Epstein’s 1984 documentary, made just six years after the assassination of its subject — the activist and first openly gay elected official in California history — offered a moving and inspirational tribute to his life, times and courageous battles for acceptance for himself and his community. Now, in the absurdity of the Trump 2.0 era, Milk has once again come to attention thanks to a recent decision to rename a US navy vessel named in recognition of his service in the navy and his contribution to a more inclusive, forward-thinking America.

In telling the story of Milk’s brief but significant political career, which saw him move from becoming a community activist working out of his camera shop in the San Francisco gay neighbourhood of the Castro, to his determined repeated attempts to be elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Epstein also traces the evolution of the politics and society of California over the decades from its ’60s summer of love notoriety to the early days of the deadly challenges faced by the gay community during the Aids crisis.

With plenty footage of Milk, who is genuinely likable and open-hearted, the film paints a portrait of a gentle man with an honest dedication to a much bigger cause whose influence is rightfully long felt and celebrated decades after his tragic death.

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In the Year of the Pig — YouTube

Director Emile de Antonio was an avowed Marxist filmmaker and in 1968, when this documentary was released, nothing was making Marxists and young Americans alike angrier and righteously filled with the desire to change the system than the Vietnam War.

In this, the 50th anniversary year of the American withdrawal from Vietnam, De Antonio’s examination of the futility of America’s misadventure and its consequences still holds up as a hard-hitting indictment of that war and the wars that have come since.

Combining interviews with serving soldiers, embedded reporters and historical experts the film did what few in the mainstream American media at the time were willing to do — offer historical context to the Vietnamese battle for postcolonial independence and its roots and origins.

While it earned an Oscar nomination and was applauded by the left and anti-war movement, it was greeted with fury and hostility by American hawks and believer veterans with protests and bomb threats against cinemas willing to take the risk to screen it in the US.

There have been countless documentaries made about Vietnam since, but few have tackled the subject with the urgency and timely courage of this pioneering piece of political documentary, whose argument has long since been justified by the unfolding of subsequent events.

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The Battle of Chile — YouTube

Another classic of left-wing political filmmaking, director Patricio Guzmán’s film is a seminal and exhaustive three-part examination of the many experiences, factors and moments that occurred between the democratic election of socialist leader Salvador Allende and his overthrow and assassination by the murderous American backed regime of Colonel Augusto Pinochet in 1973.

Patiently taking a detailed approach to understanding the varied experiences of the country — from its Marxist peasants; idealistic middle-class intelligentsia and the brute force bluntly anti-Communist approach of Pinochet and his military forces — the film offers an angry counter to the nefarious anti-Allende campaign waged by US president Richard Nixon and his right-hand man Henry Kissinger against the independent country’s democratically elected leadership.

Combining newsreel footage and footage captured on the ground in the increasingly dangerous and chaotic final days of the Allende period, the film stands as a landmark in activist cinema that speaks truth to power. It’s a tragic reminder of a moment when despite the will of its people, Chile was ultimately subject to the influence of the whims of global geopolitical forces it ultimately couldn’t defeat.

Guzmán and his crew were not objective, cooly detached observers but rather active participants in a last desperate attempt to stop the madness and luckily for cinema history, they survived to tell their story.

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