Heart of Light: Eleven Songs for Fiji

kate

in the q&a, beatt said that she felt it became more ethical to make a film which sidelined narrative, prioritizing instead a portrait of the landscape and culture of fiji. i'm not sure i agree with this considering the gaze of the white protagonist is still inescapable. i found the scenes where that gaze is addressed more powerful, and fundamental to the film working at all.that said, much of this is very beautiful and moving, and does feel like it came from earnest collaboration. just not entirely sure to what end.

me feat. oklou & underscores3.0

— Colonial kitsch desperately flaunting it's performative self-awareness. Though, precisely not 'performative' in the linguistic sense of the word, as the presumed decolonisation it signals is of course not brought about by such signalling. Cynthia Beatt continues this act in the Q&A, constantly reiterating her deep reflections on her internalised colonialism. As if any of this absolves her film from what it's too ashamed to admit it is: a white artist going to Fiji, with an unhealthy dose of essentialism, determined to overcome her sense of guilt. Along the way, she invites a bunch of her white artist friends for somewhat unclear reasons. (Love you Simon, but why where you in this?)— Born in colonial Jamaica, „which has a horrible colonial history“, Beatt seems to find in Fiji and it‘s „soft colonialism“ her way out — adding air quotes around ‚soft‘ doesn’t take away from the fact that she felt the need to make the comparison in the first place. The narrative of the ex-colonist trying to reaffirm their sense of 'home' is interesting to me. Because, going by my own family history in Algeria, these people truly lost homes — rightfully so though. They're not victims, but rather side-effects. But despite all her intellectual posing, Beatt just seems to want to reaffirm her sense of belonging.— Tilda talked about integration during the Q&A, which might seem like a sensible answer to the problem, but her words ring kinda hollow considering how little time both she or her character spent in the community; barely enough to even begin to acquire the knowledge necessary to participate in any productive fashion.— I don‘t even take issue with her core idea to „make Fiji the main character“ and to reduce narrative elements as much as possible but it ends up feeling like an afterthought to save her passion projects from the changing political tides, despite the majority of the screen time actually being devoted to local people. Perhaps it is because of the aforementioned uncessary chapters of white people going to Fiji (for the first time?), or perhaps it is the fact that Tilda‘s chapters close the film with a „sense of home“. As if to say: my job here is done.

Feliks4.0

Very Slow cinema. Very Tilda Swinton.Hab ich sehr gemocht.Ein eindeutiger Kolonialblick auf den Inselstaat Fiji, verklärt, zu Besuch, verkopft und doch auf der Suche nach Gleichgewicht.Wirklich tolle ruhige Aufnahmen und viel viel Zeit zum Abdriften...