Examine Social Contracts and Morality in These Three SIFF Films

It’s my 14th year attending Seattle International Film Festival, which always offers a veritable smorgasbord of cinematic delights (245 films from 74 countries and regions this year alone).

This year, attendees can participate in a fun interactive tradition involving a “passport” provided by SIFF, along with stamps at tables in every venue. These little booklets contain the titles of all the films, and viewers can add a stamp next to each film they see. It’s a fun way to keep track of your experience!

The theme of this year’s SIFF is “Escape to the Reel World,” and with passport in hand, attendees get to travel the globe seeing stories from all over the world—opening your eyes, your ears, and your soul.

Here are just a few of the many movies worth a look:

Baby Doe

Nearly 30 years after Gail Eastwood-Ritchey abandoned her newborn son in the woods and returned to her conservative Christian life, the police arrested her for infanticide. Tribeca-winning documentarian Jessica Earnshaw (Hulu’s Jacinta) has crafted a fascinating, thorough, and compelling documentary which weaves, in careful detail, a portrait of Gail’s backstory; her family life as a child, how the conservative nature of one’s community can shape a person’s decisions and bring about heart-wrenching and seemingly unfathomable consequences, and how living as a girl becoming a woman in a small, conservative town fosters isolation, shame, judgement, mischaracterization, and double standards galore.

Gail Eastwood-Ritchey in Baby Doe

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This documentary also shines a blunt and glaring light on the nature of the American legal system, law enforcement system, mass media, the impacts of religion on young women and girls, and the dangers of the lack of options regarding safe access to reproductive health care, sex education, and birth control.

Baby Doe asks the viewer to ponder existential questions like: Who is pious and who is a monster? What is the right choice or wrong choice? What does courage look like? Who are the victims? The film pulls back the curtain to reveal how those who find themselves in high-stakes, complex, life-and-death situations are forced to make agonizing decisions alone because they have not been prepared or supported by their community and, indeed, are punished by the community that raised them.

This is an important, powerful, and extremely relevant film that provides a unique take on a topic that has plagued humans for centuries—not a woman’s issue, but everyone’s issue.

 

Souleymane’s Story

Souleymane’s Story follows Guinean immigrant Souleymane who has applied for asylum in France. Because he is undocumented, he literally lives outside of French society. He borrows the account link of a fellow delivery driver so that he can deliver food (like Door Dash) to make money—the job requires him to pay a hefty fee for this privilege, and he remains at the mercy of the other delivery drivers’ whims…not to mention termination or deportation if he is caught. He needed to purchase his own bike for his delivery job; Souleymane must also catch a bus that takes him to his shelter bed every night, but if he misses the bus while waiting for a restaurant to fill his order or any other minor delay (like a traffic accident), he’s out on the street for the night. The camera follows Souleymane as he whizzes through the streets of France on his bike, creating a feeling for the viewer of chaos, danger, and tension.

Abou Sangaré as Souleymane in Souleymane’s Story

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Additionally, Souleymane has an “asylum coach” who is helping him craft a story that will elicit sympathy of those who grant the (French version of) green cards; however, the asylum coach seems more interested being paid rather than helping Souleymane obtain asylum. We also learn that Souleymane has a girlfriend back in Guinea whom he might lose to another man, because she doesn’t want to wait for him to return to Guinea nor does she want to move to France. The grand irony is that Souleymane has come to France for a better life and is trying to make money to send back home to his family.

The film drives us ever closer to the interview at the government agency that will potentially change his life, and the film feels like a suspense thriller, but the stakes are oh so high because this is real life. The energetic cinematographic pace and sharp editing exacerbate the lights and glitter of a big city, in stark contrast with the presence of an undocumented immigrant who is invisible, off the grid, and unable to be part of the society into which he is so desperately trying to fit.

Abou Sangaré’s debut performance is spellbinding and heartbreaking in the title role (one that won him the Most Promising Actor award at this year’s César Awards). This is a must-see film for anyone who ponders (or has never pondered) the plight of the most vulnerable in our society, who live and work everywhere in the world, in industries that help to make our lives more comfortable.

 

Free Leonard Peltier

The name Leonard Peltier is synonymous with racism, genocide, and a reminder of a dark chapter in this country’s past. On June 26, 1975, Indigenous American Leonard Peltier was accused of shooting two FBI agents while defending South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, then was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.

Peltier was an active member of AIM (American Indian Movement), an Indigenous rights advocacy group that worked to combat the racism and police brutality experienced by Indigenous/First Nations peoples. As they did with the Black Panthers in the 1960s, the US government developed a hostile relationship with AIM in the 1970s, characterizing them as militant and dangerous, a narrative that was perpetuated in the media with the intent to cause fear and hatred.

A protest in Free Leonard Peltier

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What actually happened on that day at Pine Ridge has become the source of much controversy, the blurring and erasing of facts, and a tireless fight for Peltier’s clemency, led by Indigenous communities in all parts of the US. Peltier’s case has been followed with interest all over the world, and notable political figures such as Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, and the 14th Dalai Lama have called for his release. Filmmakers Jesse Short Bull (Oglala Sioux) and David France have created a thoughtful, content-rich, and gripping documentary with interviews from legal advocates, family members, community members, journalists, and those who were at Pine Ridge the day the shooting took place.

Peltier has been in prison for 50 years, and no fewer than eight US Presidents have had the chance to grant him clemency during that time—none have done so. This film offers some compelling and well-documented theories as to why that may be the case (and it’s not what you might think). As Peltier (who is now 80) faces his final years, viewers learn the facts from the point of view of those who fought for his clemency. 

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Stay tuned for more reviews from our Echo folks at SIFF!