Vice and virtue are two concepts that will never stop being talked by humans until, probably, their extinction. The concepts become the source of reflection for philosophers, thinkers, holy scriptures; questions regarding it could never be answered in just a lifetime. Within their capacity to do good and bad, humans are an odd being. The divider between the good and the bad is never truly straight; the differentiator is sometimes blur. As though subjects talked in the documentary movie collection in “Human, Frame by Frame”, the subtexts in both concepts sang like a hymn.
In the first sequence, humans and the longing of home, rooms, and places where they could be a part of, haunted by the unanswered question: why they couldn’t acquire it? We presented that question through two selected movies: The Shebabs of Yarmouk (2015) and 19 Days (2016). The former tried to follow the teenage, third generation Palestine refugees in Yarmouk, a refuge camp in Syria. Their hesitations towards their future choices, the tensions arose in friendship, to the yearning to go far away became the primary atmosphere in The Shebabs of Yarmouk. While 19 Days captured the first 19 days adapting in the new house of an immigrant family in Canada.
The second sequence brought human stories which surpassed their painful past through affection. Angin Pantai Sanleko (2018) and Rising from Silence (2016) highlighted the old generation’s journey that saw history not in rage, but in generosity. Whereas Nyanyian Akar Rumput (2015) and Sekeping Kenangan (2018) shift the attention to the young generation and their search of history root; with their gaping congenital wound.
In the third sequence, home and dark past were presented simultaneously in nostalgia. Each movie brought the story of human and his land of birth, in which strong historical ties form a pattern. In Absent Without Leave (2016), the near but distant figure depicted as the starting point of the filmmaker’s hunt of bygone and hiding things. In Holding Hands with Ilse (2017), the filmmaker tracked his beloved figure who was missing when their historical plot diverged. Meanwhile, Goodbye My Love, North Korea (2017) captured the unrequited love towards his land of birth, the dearest but hard to stay together.
The three sequences captured humans, through frame by frame, in their complex dimension. Both concepts were present, cold and warm. Yet, humans bleed, their heart beats, and their skin shivers on the cold night. Fundamentally, it will be seen where they will eventually lean to.
The movies in “Human, Frame by Frame” program will be screened on 6 to 12 December 2018. Specific agenda could be seen on the schedule.
