Over the weekend of April 7-9, I had the privilege of traveling to Seattle to participate in the “Film, Faith and Justice” forum, sponsored by The Other Journal. It was a transformational series of keynote presentations, panel discussions, and documentaries culled from the Human Rights Watch traveling film festival.
What moved me most was exploring the interplay between justice and forgiveness, and how they are distinguished from a reactive worldview of justice based on atonement and revenge. What began this exploration was a documentary entitled Pulled From the Rubble, by Margaret Loescher. Here is the official film description:
In August 2003, Gil Loescher went to Baghdad on a humanitarian research trip. He and his colleagues were in a meeting with the head of the United Nations in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, when a truck full of explosives was driven into the side of the building. Gil was the only survivor from the most devastated section of the building. All of the other people in the meeting died. Through poignantly honest narration, and observational scenes of high emotion, his daughter records the family’s recovery during the months after the bombing. Filming becomes her way of dealing with the suddenness of the family’s changed reality, and a way of re-visiting the haunting images of the bomb site—a place of both horror and hope.
Film’s website http://www.pulledfromtherubble.com
One image buries itself into me, hidden there, a sacred stained glass image:
How after the explosion, shards of glass pierced deep into his flesh. Weeks passed, old skin sluffed to make way for the new. Shards of glass, burrowed closer to the surface, week by week, layer by layer, expelling the shards of glass, a sliver at a time, redeeming them from his body.
His daughter Margaret sees, through the camera’s smooth glass eye, an image
“…at once Hell and hope… a death place and a birth place.”
2 comments:
Strange -- I was just considering a similar image from a different source. Last week I read Truth and Beauty, about Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy's friendship, and Patchett talked about a childhood car accident that lead to glass coming out of her scalp for months, cutting her fingers when she scratched her head. I like the parallel to grief -- sharp-edged things gradually working their way out. As usual, you write beautifully.
[and I'm glad you're my friend too]
I really need to check this film out. I'm glad you posted it and reminded me to do that. I've been meaning to check out your blog, and now I'm letting you know that I've done that. Keep on writing.
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