Duncan Sarkie's Speech at HR Film Festival

I remember feeling at the conference a kind of cultural jealousy – as a writer, if I had been born in Nigeria, it would be my responsibility to report what I could – be it in the form of fiction or non-fiction – everything I saw to the best of the ability – and I would have a role to play in the quest for change, and in the quest for justice.  As a writer I would be an important member of society. 

And perhaps this is one of the functions of writers and film makers, a part from making people laugh and making people think about each other more – it is to portray injustice, to help create a dialogue and a groundswell that will eventually tip the scales.

Instead I was born in New Zealand, fairly middle class – I’ve worked hard to make my upbringing sound as disfunctional as I could and fortunately there is much disfunctional material in my life to draw from -–however, my stories will inevitibly not be about the real struggle of survival, of hardship, of injustice. Instead my stories are a set of bleatings: “oh why can’t I go out with her, why doesn’t she love me, why do I have strange fantasies about my alarm clock, why do I keep opening the fridge and expecting to see a piece of cheese when I know there is no cheese in the fridge, why do I keep putting my thumb in front of the lens? Why when my mum breathes does it sound like there’s a pea in her nose and it whistles? Why did the VCR chew the porno? Why do I still try not to step on the cracks?  Why do I pretend to be happy to the Indian man from the dairy? Why can’t I be happy every single moment of every single day?

I once had a theory that life is more simple in warzones - when it’s about survival only.  That for those of us in the free world, life is infinitely more complex.  And that’s true by the way.  It’s also infinitely a nicer experience.  In fact, we should be thankful we have the freedom to attempt to be happy.

So I imagine there’s a fair bit of middle class guilt in the room. And we don’t need to beat ourselves up about it, but its good to take the piss and its good to get real now and then. I was thinking a lot about world war two rhetoric, and the freedoms that our grandfathers fought for.  And I thought of the speeches by Winston Churchill, and I thought of the speech our leaders should be making to us – the brave, strong, sturdy, kind and caring middle classes.

We shall fight sandflies on the beaches.
We shall fight mosquitoes at the camping grounds.
We shall unblock the drains with the toilet plunger.
We shall keep the wrinkles at bay with our moisturiser.
We shall not be the ones who fail.
We shall wrap our kebabs in aluminium foil.
We shall queue for tickets at the multiplex.
We shall rewind the video before we take it back.
We shall put the butter in the butter conditioner.
We shall soften our towels with fabric softener.
We shall pretend we are happy in front of our friends.
We shall encourage families to stay together.
We shall turn off the electric blanket when it gets too hot.
We shall buy our meat from the supermarket.
We shall protect the magnetic strips on our credit cards,
We shall memorise our PIN numbers and never, never, never write them down.
We shall install car alarms to safeguard us
from those who try to take our cars from us.
We shall breastfeed into a breast pump
so someone can look after the baby for us.
We shall stick together, through all kinds of weather,
even though we don’t know each other.
We shall make love with a towel beneath us
so we do not stain the duvet cover.
We shall not be bullied by the poor and helpless.
We shall cook dinner and clean up afterwards.
We shall push the mute button when the adverts annoy us.
We shall surround ourselves with those who agree with us.
Now is our finest hour.
‘Friends’ is on in half an hour.
We shall fight for freedom and kill for kindness.
We shall strive to find a cure for baldness.
Our headaches will be painless.
Our ovens will be spotless.
Our Arabs will be harmless.
Our chit chat will be pointless.
Our bottled water will keep our livers clean,
Our yoga will keep us strong and flexible.
We will look good,
And we will feel good,
And we will deliver you from evil.....

I guess the lecturing atitude from the west to the east is particularly galling when people are struggling just for survival.  I certainly feel levels of guilt for my comparatively soft existence which is built on others hardship – the modern forms of slavery, and let it be known here and now that I am a hypocrite – unwilling to trade my soft life – that said it is time that we all collectively woke up to the world around us.  The first step in shifting a collective consciousness of a western world’s priorities is acknowledgement and talking about it.  And there is no better forum for that than through the world of film – both through populist film makers like the Mike Moores of the world, who manage to get an admittedly skewed message to a large populace, and through to the more personal accounts that have a more profound affect on far fewer people.

I saw Michael Winterbottom’s film “In This World” last year. It was a horrific recreation of a voyage of two young men trying to escape Afghanistan to seek political asylum or become illegal immigrants in London.  They took enormous risks that would cost lives, but they were desperate.  And when I watched this movie I knew that this story was happening right here right now a million times over, and we turn a blind eye.  When we watch one person’s story it can no longer be relegated to a statistic, or an after the ad break news story.  It is real, and it is around us. I read critics reviews of this movie and they broke into two camps – one said it was brilliant, the other seemed to think it was a bit bleak, like “yeah, I know its happening but I don’t want to be bummed out. I don’t want to be reminded.  It’s a response made up of guilt. 

Its easier not to know.  Its easier to look yourself in the mirror if you think that what is going on has nothing to do with you. Well it does. It has a tiny bit to do with all of us.  Whether or not we do anything about it – whether or not we all rush off to join Greenpeace or Amnesty or any of these organisations – its important that we learn the truths about the world around us.  I’m preaching to the converted here, and maybe that’s not a problem. Maybe every now and then the converted need to gather together and congregrate to summon a bit of collective outrage and will power and to shake ourselves out of being so god damned passive about it all. Cynicism and shrugging your shoulders is much easier to do than giving a shit, so I’m saying to the film makers, the organisers of this festival, and all of you who have bothered to come, thanks for giving a shit.