Two New Films for a New Year
Happy New Year! 2021 is a promising year, and we look forward to further vaccination and easing of restrictions, and of course HUMAN idff 2021, March 1-7. To kick off the new year we present two new films from our program, on ecological grief and Argentinian abortion rights.
One of the best news in 2020 was Argentina’s legalisation of the right to free abortion, as one of very few countries in a conservative region. In the quiet Argentine documentary Mother-Child, we see the consequences of prohibiting the right to free abortion: very young, vulnerable teenage mothers in a clinic who tell health professionals about their lives.
Something that unfortunately can not be celebrated as Argentina’s historical legislation, is the consequences of climate change. More and more people are experiencing a deep grief over what has, or is about to be lost in the nature around us, which has been called ecological grief. In the magnificent The Magnitude of All Things, director Jennifer Abbott dives into her own deep ecological grief, traveling the world to meet others who have suffered climate change in different ways, and the film tells us one thing: You have to act to have hope.
With these films, we welcome 2021: let’s all make this a year of action.
Mother-Child
Argentina / 2019 / 66 min / Spanish
Dir: Andrea Testa
Prod: Pensar con las Manos
A quiet argument for the right to free abortion in Argentina.
Pregnant 13-year-olds and 15-year-old mothers of two – these are some of the girls we meet in this subdued, but hard-hitting Argentine documentary. In sober black and white, we come face to face with far too young teenage mothers at a clinic in Argentina, and get to see the consequences of prohibiting free abortion. In the conversations with health workers, a bleak picture is painted of a society that forces young vulnerable girls, who are still children themselves, to bear the burden of unwanted pregnancies alone. The film is a convincing testimony to the necessity of a new law, and on December 30, 2020, the right to free abortion was finally adopted in Argentina.
The Magnitude of All Things
Canada / 2020/ 85 min / English, Spanish
Dir: Jennifer Abbott
Prod: Magnitude Productions, National Film Board of Canada
A magnificent journey into ecological grief.
Is there hope? That is the question director Jennifer Abbott asks herself in this deeply personal and poetic film about both her own grief over climate change, but also among people around the world. In an epic journey via Canada, Australia and Ecuador, we meet those who have fallen victim to the consequences of climate change and become involuntary activists. We meet Anote Tong, the president of the island nation of Kiribati which will disappear into the sea, Greta Thunberg, and the Extinction Rebellion, who all lead up to the central question: Is it when hope disappears that the action begins?
