rant is where the heart is

diaryland: sirilyan.diaryland.com: entry for 2004-04-28 (02:06)
In which our plucky young hero fought the power.

So I actually got to do some volunteering for the documentary festival after all - I signed up for five shifts, which became four when I learned that the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are in town on the first. (Hey, wanna go?) Tonight was easily the weirdest, and most difficult, of the shifts.

The film that was playing at the Bloor Cinema, Tibet: What Remains Of Us, is actually a very dangerous movie for the people in it. The filmmakers recorded a message from the Dalai Lama to the people of Tibet, then smuggled it into the country and filmed people's messages back to the Dalai Lama. This is incredibly illegal; it is a criminal offense in China to even have a photo of the Dalai Lama. As a result, the filmmakers asked for heightened security for the showing.

This meant that every single one of the 702 people (we had to count afterward) who were admitted had to be wanded by guards with metal detectors, then had to hand over any cameras, tape recorders, or cell phones with camera capabilities they had, and then had to let another set of guards search their bags and backpacks. Because the Chinese government would very much love to identify the people in the movie and ... deal with them.

Clearing the ticket-holder's line of people normally takes about 30 minutes, but tonight we were still doing it an hour later. Around the 400-person mark I started to get nervous too! There's something about a culture of searches and security guards that brings out the paranoia. The safer we try to be, the more worried we become.

Now I really want to see this movie. To see what is so dangerous. Because I get the sense that it won't be on television anytime soon.

sirilyan.diaryland.com | sirilyan dotcom
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