Documentary death

One of the major differences between the US and the UK at the moment is the day-to-day attitude towards Iraq. In the UK we know that some of the people who volunteered to be part of the armed forces may be sent to Iraq. Every few days we hear that some of our sons and daughters have died over there. In the US it feels as if you are in a country at war. Adverts on TV, at the cinema, elements of the stories we tell each other are constant reminder of the war. For example, there’s an advert on US TV that advises parents to be ready to deal with the conversation they will need to have as a family when a child announces that they want to join up.

I don’t think that kind of involvement will ever come the the UK. But there are signs of wartime appearing elsewhere. This evening I went along to a screening of the finalists in the Documentry category of the Rushes Soho Shorts festival. There 14 finalists. 7 of them were about death! Suzanne was told that was a topic that came up a lot in this year’s entries.

The evening was not as morbid as this sounds. There are plenty of laughs, and you’ll be thinking about and debating these films for a while to come. The documentary session lasts two hours, so check it out at Tuesday 31st July at 10am at Soho Screening Rooms, 2pm at The Montague Pyke, Wednesday 1st August at 10am at Curzon Soho, 4pm at The Hospital and Thursday 2nd August at 10am at Soho Images. Suzanne’s doc is called Out of Time, and is shown approximately 25 minutes into each session.

Will this topic be popular for a while to come, or will we be telling each other stories about something else?