Sundance: The Giant Buddhas
Monday afternoon, January 23, 2006. This was the only documentary I saw at the festival. It tells the story of the two giant buddha statues which existed in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, until the Taliban destroyed them in 2001 (prior to September 11). This powerful film by an Oscar-nominated Swiss director, Christian Frei, contained stunning footage of pre-9/11 Afghanistan as well as some fascinating interviews at the Al-Jazeera headquarters in Qatar. The film was preceeded by a 20-ish minute short called Fantome Afrique that was produced at my graduate school alma mater, the University of London’s Goldsmiths College. I must say that I didn’t really follow the short…though the scenery was fairly beautiful. I believe it was a comment on American cultural imperialism…though this would suprise me out of Goldsmiths, which is much more critically up-to-date in its views on media transnationalism and cultural hybridity.
