Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brohy are well-known to the VIFF audience as the directors of hard-hitting films on subjects like peak oil, the drug war failure, the wars in Iraq--subjects primarily involving American foreign policy.
This is the first fully Canadian film production they have made since having moved to Vancouver, but it also is about global implications. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, the Inuit-inflected
Belonging leavens its informational load and scarifying message with dazzling shots of the Canadian Arctic and, ultimately, a very hopeful message. It serves as a primer on both how we got into this mess and what we can do about getting out of it. Not just science, but religion too, can be brought to bear to open our eyes and strengthen our resolve.
The more natural resources are consumed, the more the human population explodes, increasing the need for more resources. This Catch-22 has resulted in massive numbers of species extinctions, dead zones in the ocean that are increasing in size and number every year, and more horrors than most people can even bear to contemplate. Although clearly a strong and pointed in-your-face challenge to us to change our ways,
Belonging makes the refreshing argument that, as UBC professor Dr. William Rees puts it, "In many countries we now find that as incomes increase, as people consume more and more, they're less and less happy. So, the reality is that we might actually gain, in terms of quality of life and lifestyle, by easing up, by reducing our ecological footprints." It is this return to a more gentle way of being that is eloquently shown to be within our reach.
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