Documentaries and friends

This past week was the idfa in Amsterdam, a documentary film festival. It was great, and I saw some really good ones, and am considering reviewing my criteria for a good film (guns, explosion and good looking women).

On Monday I saw Poison Fire a film about gas flaring in Nigeria. Another of those thinks that reminds you that the current economic system is very deeply flawed. Big oil multinationals drill for oil in Nigeria and when the oil comes up, it brings with it a lot of gas. This gas makes the oil difficult to transport, so the companies burn it off in huge gas flares. This is while Nigerians have very few opportunities for fuel for cooking. And of course the flaring leads to huge health problems for the people living nearby. Shell in particular has been taking to court a number of times in Nigeria over the flaring and has been ordered to stop flaring. They haven't, but now a case is being brought to a Dutch court ... we live in hope!

On Wednesday I saw a film that wasn't on the festival, but was shown by Greenpeace NL. It was called The Deadline and was about pirate fishing off the cost of Africa (New Guinea in particular). It was interesting to learn about pirate fishing, but more to see again how much work goes into a Greenpeace campaign, to end with just one action. I've bought a copy of this one, so if you'd like to see it, let me know the next time I'm on my way to you.

**oh, and speaking of piracy, check out this Sunday Herald article for a really interesting take on the recent increase in piracy off the coast of Somalia**

On Thursday it was Let's Make Money, a film about the world economy and how CRAZY it is. The best quote? An government official from Burkina Fasso saying that if subsidies like the US subsidy on cotton were not ended, the people of Africa would invade Europe, even if they built a wall 10 metres high to keep them out (Kein mensch ist illegal!). Me and Zeina were cheering :-)

On Friday I saw Sea Point Days, a documentary about Sea Point (yes, in Cape Town) and it left me with the biggest smile on my face. A really positive look at SA, and showed of some of SAs best sides!

Saturday was a weird one called A Complete History of My Sexual Failures. A (rather useless) guy going back and interviewing all his ex girlfriends on why they dumped him. It also involved him being whipped by dominatrix and taking 6 viagras. Pretty funny at times. And led to a good discusion between me and Tamar on assholes and what constitutes an asshole. The randomness of the conversation was also fed by the fact that about 4 hours previously I had eaten more baked goods than could strictly be called necessary and then gone to a party where Mel had shown what the snack table would look like in heaven (mint and feta bread? yes please).

Today was the last one and a really good one about plastic called Addicted to Plastic. Not nearly depressing enough to be called a good environmental documentary in my book. Well, seriously it was very good at not getting too crazy about the fact that the pacific ocean is more or less a plastic soup, and showing some really good examples of people working on plastic waste.

So a good week of documentaries and now for the next two weeks I've got meetings most days. Then it's holidays in SA, which I am really looking forward to!