{"id":774572,"date":"2024-01-08T09:19:52","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T14:19:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=774572"},"modified":"2024-01-08T10:22:09","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T15:22:09","slug":"all-illusions-must-be-broken-documentary-probes-mankinds-capacity-for-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=774572","title":{"rendered":"\u2018All Illusions Must Be Broken\u2019: Documentary probes mankind\u2019s capacity for violence"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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'All Illusions Must Be Broken' packs a walloping punch in the face of complacency and acceptance of a global social order that remains plagued with horrific, ceaseless environmental destruction as well as unrelenting warfare and grinding degradation of our own species.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

STEVEN GAYDOS:<\/strong> \u201cAll Illusions Must Be Broken\u201d is the third feature documentary the couple Laura Dunn and Jef Sewell has made for executive producers Robert Redford and Terrence Malick; they picked up SXSW and Nashville Fest awards for the 2016 portrait of celebrated poet Wendell Berry, \u201cLook & See,\u201d and the Indie Spirit Award for their 2007 environmental doc, \u201cThe Unforeseen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

For those who love documentaries filled with provocative ideas that demand engagement, \u201cIllusions\u201d<\/a> packs a walloping punch in the face of complacency and acceptance of a global social order that remains plagued with horrific, ceaseless environmental destruction as well as unrelenting warfare and grinding degradation of our own species.<\/em><\/p>\n

The duo explained how their original plan to make a documentary about what Dunn calls \u201cthe denaturing of children\u201d quickly grew into an opus where Becker\u2019s work connected the dots on several social and environmental ills which they felt needed examining.<\/em><\/p>\n

It soon became clear to both Dunn and Sewell that there was a bigger story to tell \u2014 a larger, more expansive view of humanity \u2014 and they saw the work of Becker as essential to explaining the roots of so many vexations that loom ever larger as mortal threats to the human species.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sewell and Dunn focused their film on a powerful conversation that occurred a half century ago between Becker and a young Psychology Today reporter named Sam Keen. That encounter, which took place on the 49-year-old Becker\u2019s deathbed in 1973, features prominently in \u201cIllusions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Challenged by Keen about the darkness of his vision of humanity, Becker asserts: \u201cIf I stress the terror, it is only because I am talking to the cheerful robots.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Shades of \u201cBarbie!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

If Becker sounds slightly messianic, Dunn and Sewell are clearly in sync with his passion for rigorous, discomforting honesty.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sewell sees \u201cIllusions\u201d as \u201ca conversation,\u201d albeit one that requires some heavy intellectual lifting. He elaborates: \u201cIt\u2019s just a humble little handmade movie that tries to explore and contemporize Becker\u2019s provocative ideas. Which aren\u2019t easy,\u201d the filmmaker acknowledges. \u201cAt the beginning of the film when Laura asks Sam, \u2018Why would you recommend Becker?,\u2019 he says, \u2018I probably wouldn\u2019t.\u2019 You can\u2019t read Becker without dealing with your own darkness! Are you up for that or not?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Dunn recounts the childhood roots of her current career, describing her early affinity for the doc form: \u201cSince I was a little girl, I was on a quest for the truth. I thought, \u2018I\u2019m going to document injustice, because if people see it, they\u2019ll fix it.\u2019 As you grow older, that lens becomes more complex.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

To that point, as an adult Dunn found herself drawn into reading Becker more deeply, and soon, she recalls, \u201cBecker was my companion through a very dark time. Becker is a wonderful comfort. If you look squarely at the truth, as painful as that moment is, on the other side is deep joy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Dunn agrees with Sewell that \u201cIllusions\u201d should be seen as an intimate, casual introduction to Becker, since it was a film that Dunn recalls \u201cstarted pretty small. We had been working on the idea of nature eclipsed by culture for quite a while.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe started by looking at our own kids, at the presence of screens in childhood, and what it meant to be immersing them in the virtual world. We were very influenced by Richard Louv\u2019s book \u2018Last Child in the Woods,\u2019 which talks about a \u2018nature deficit disorder.\u2019 This is the first generation so totally disconnected from the natural world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Malick and Redford got on board for their documentary about the denaturing of childhood, and Dunn cites Malick\u2019s instincts to dig deeper into the ideas behind the documentary for the couple\u2019s ultimate excursion into Becker. \u201cTerry always says, \u2018It\u2019s not just the facts. Imagine the forces behind the facts.\u2019 And when you start to ask, \u2018Why do humans always seek to escape from reality?\u2019\u2014 that\u2019s where Becker enters the story.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

For Sewell, current events are a grim reminder of how clearly Becker saw the patterns of human behavior. \u201cSince the terrible events in Gaza,\u201d says Sewell, \u201cI\u2019ve been struck by Becker\u2019s quote to Sam Keen: \u2018We all need somebody to give us a sense of specialness, of special purity. Someone says, \u2018Well, the enemy is just dirt, just an animal.\u2019 All human degradation is based on the fact that a person tries to show that he whom he is degrading is less than human. Scapegoating, of course, has that as a mechanism. This is what is meant by Arthur Miller\u2019s phrase, \u2018Each man has his Jew\u2026\u2019 Everyone needs somebody to help him see that he is not a creature, someone he can pick on, someone he can humiliate.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Sewell hopes that \u201cIllusions\u201d \u201chelps develop a new interest in Becker\u201d and points out that last December was the 50th anniversary of the publication of \u201cDenial of Death\u201d and this March marks the 50th anniversary of the tome\u2019s Pulitzer win.<\/em><\/p>\n

And lest one wonder about the couple\u2019s truly total immersion in their work, Sewell helpfully notes that, \u201chalfway through this film, we discovered Laura was pregnant at 45. Our youngest was already five. It was a complete shock. We named the boy Becker.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIllusions Must Be Broken,\u201d but life goes on. <\/em>SOURCE…<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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