War and Peace

Sri Lanka: Doc Editor Chooses Cinematic Open, Misrepresenting Story

by Daniel J Gerstle

categories: Armed Conflict, Recovery And Reconcilation

Published November 22, 2009 @ 04:59AM PT

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Vanguard has a documentary segment out about Sri Lanka with correspondent Mariana van Zeller. Wow, it packs a punch, but at the same time the documentary reminded me of how influential, and potentially story-changing, film editing can be.

In this case, the documentary as a whole provides important insight and context. There is some incredibly frightening footage and some very important reporting. However, at the same time the editor chose to frontload the documentary with the counter-terror government point of view, saving the critical and Tamil minority points of view until the end.

The result is that it clobbers you over the head, as the government representatives do in the first interviews, with reasons why the Tamil political force may be a set of bloodthirsty terrorists. If one stops there, one would feel that the Tamil resistance is no different than Al Qaeda. Indeed, there is a scene right off where a woman, presumably a Tamil Tiger rebel, walks into a civilian office and then blows up, but...

Then through the second half of the segment the reporting presents the Tamil point of view, that millions of people have few options for addressing government discrimination. The point is, too often when we bloggers and journalists present a conflict we present it as two-sided, say the Sinhalese-led Sri Lankan government versus the Tamil-minority Tiger rebel force. My suspicion is that van Zeller reported the story well, but she and the editor, JD Buffalo, then knitted the footage together for the most explosive cinematic effect, incongruously presenting Tamil suicide bombers as representatives, which they are not, of the Tamil opposition as a whole.

We need to be careful how we edit films and stories to be sure that if we address something like the horrors of a Tamil Tiger suicide bombing that we do not present it in such away that the story gives a bad impression to newcomers on valid, peaceful Tamils as well as the legitimate Tamil political opposition. Some argue that the Sri Lankan government was able not only to defeat thet Tamil Tiger rebels this past year, but to do so without having to concede to many of the valid demands for improved human rights protection since they were waged by ethnic Tamils.

Don't get me wrong. I think that it is important to show that suicide bombers were a threat to civilians around the country. But I believe with that there should be balance in showing also the threat of artillery to civilians in the fighting regions and showing that many who are political opponents do not necessarily believe in these extreme violent tactics.

Check out this documentary segment and see what you think. Then read stories by Nimmi Gowrinathan and S L Neelavan on the perspective of the pragmatic members of the Tamil opposition.

[Photo: Patients waiting for treatment during nearby fighting, in Jaffna, Church Mission Society]