A special film at this year’s Film Fest
29 September 2009
Okay, there are many special films at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival. I’ve tried to glean some of them already, but this one I’ve seen firsthand and the story and the characters in the documentary, This Way of Life are very special indeed.
As a parent, my lenses for viewing films have changed dramatically since I caught my daughter when she emerged from her mother’s birth canal. Recently, I’ve also had the good fortune to read many of Alice Miller’s groundbreaking works which explain how important childhoods are and how parents typically pass on the abuse, neglect, and humiliation that our parents passed to us.
This Way of Life could be used as a Alice Miller-based teaching tool. Both parents are kind and gentle and child-focused; I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they are Maori and respectfully living off of the land. However, the father has to overcome what his father is actively imposing in the film; this provides the contrast that helps prove Alice Miller’s theory but more immediately, allows the enormous strength and integrity of this father and his partner to shine on screen.
The filmmakers – Tom Burstyn directs and Barbara Sumner Burstyn produces – seem to magically pick the right times to film from beginning to end. Their footage shows this growing family living first in an ancestral home, then in remote mountains and finally back in civilization. The gorgeous scenery of the north island of Aotearoa (often called New Zealand) makes a wonderful backdrop for the film’s insightful look at how this family survives off of the land, interacts with their domesticated horses, and finds their own familial path.
This film is truly an inspiration on many levels. It provides a real life example of one way to live respectfully off of the land. It shows the violence that many have to endure in the civilized world. And it portrays the loving kindness that all of us could choose to live with our own families if we work hard and smart enough to ensure it overcomes that gifts of our parents. But ultimately, it is about the children (one of whom narrates the film) and the life that they will inherit from their parents; This Way of Life is one that any parent would be proud to pass on.
