Scared Sacred

Aroview: Visiting sites of some of the world’s most horrible stories doesn’t seem like a relaxed night’s viewing, but this doco by the interestingly named Velcrow Ripper manages to wring a glimmer of hope out of some of history’s greatest tragedies.

A personal odyssey for Ripper, this chronicles his travels from Bhopal to Hiroshima to Cambodia. As more human tragedies unfurl during production, Ripper makes a left turn and confronts new sites of horror, from Afghanistan to the World Trade Centre. While there’s something a little self-serving and reductive about his odyssey, he manages to infuse the film with some beautiful images, and an outlook that hope and forgiveness are beliefs that we all need to hold onto.

NZ International Film Festival 2006

more matches…