Elephant needed
Just back from an International Film Fest showing of “Burma VJ” at Huntington’s Keith-Albee Theater, and am quite blown away. I’m still taking in this devastating, searing film, cobbled together from citizen video-journalist footage from concealed cameras, documenting street protests led by Buddhist monks a while back in Rangoon and repressed by that country’s awful, awful regime. With all the effort and hours spent viewing frivolous, brain-candy YouTube video, here is what the camera can do when trained on the heart of human darkness at a moment when courageous souls hold a light up to it.
Honestly, “Burma VJ,” a candidate at tonight’s Oscars for Best Foreign Film, left me both wrung out and asking myself the question: Well, what are you doing with your camera? The film is deeply inspiring in its depiction of defiant courage in the face of overwhelming force. Yet it also left me needing a pick-me-up. Here’s the pick-me-up, courtesy of a goofy elephant and loving dog. This isn’t brain-candy, but soul food. There is always hope, there is always spirit somewhere alive in the world.
I’m your elephant, baby. Although, I usually prefer to be associated with a donkey.