AIFF 2009 - Playground and Other Documentary Thoughts

It's been somewhat foggy all day.  Here's 4th and C as we head for the Alaska Experience Theater.

If we sit in the back row the large, close screen is bearable.

Again, we chose to go with a documentary - Playground - instead of a feature.  This was one of the documentaries in competition, but so was the feature, Against the Current. 

It's clear why we'd rather see entertainment than go to class, but this is another topic everyone should know.  This was about child prostitution.  After a brief introduction that talked about the issue overseas, the movie zeroed in on the US.  Did you know that Atlanta is the 13th most frequent destination for people arranging to have sex with kids? 

I can understand that a lot of public policy issues are  hard to grasp.  I don't really know whether the bank bailout put the brakes on the recession or not.  And while I'm convince global climate change is real and is serious, I can understand that someone who doesn't want to believe that can point to experts that support their position. 

But child prostitution?  There's nothing to debate here.  The movie makes it clear that these girls (it mentions boys, but focuses on girls) are not doing this voluntarily.  In one interview a girl explains how she's trained to act like she enjoys it, and when she considers telling the client he smells and she doesn't want to do this, she thinks of the money she'll lose and the beating she'll get. 

The movie says while this used to be thought of as a low income problem, with the internet, that's no longer the case.  One mother talked about how her wonderful middle class daughter got caught up in drugs as a teen and is still on the streets at 22. 

And there was discussion of situations where a known sex offender was in a motel room with an underage girl, but since they were both dressed, nothing could be done.  Or a father who was told when he snatched his underage daughter off the streets, that he could be prosecuted if he didn't let her go.  Or the issue of privacy violations that prevent publishing pictures of kids being bought and sold - even though their pictures are up online in sex acts.

If the anti-abortion crusade but a quarter of their time into this issue, actual living kids might be saved from physical and mental torture that drives them to death, drugs, and/or lifetime psychological issues. 

Why don't we want to see this sort of movie?  Why don't we want to take an hour to educate ourselves on these horrific events happening in our own towns?  I don't know. 

As a movie, this was more in the educational documentary mode like Tapped, the one the other day on bottled water.  Not like Mount St. Elias which was basically an action film, or Prodigal Sons which was almost a reality show with the lead character - it appeared - videotaping part of her life.  Prodigal Sons is still my favorite so far among the documentaries I've seen. 

   It's clear that we deal with this sort of subject through feelings easier than through logic.  The interviews told far more than the statistics, though both are needed. The special part of this movie was the exquisite animation by Japanese animator, Yoshitomo Nara.  These animated interludes were brief timeouts from th heart rendering realities. 

I also caught this quick video with one of the AIFF volunteers at the desk before we went into the movie.



Then we went over to the Bear Tooth to see American Primitive.  I'll talk about that one later.