‘Amazing film but I just don’t get it. Why would a government kill school children?’ stated a visibly moved and slightly angered student at a workshop on Making films that make a difference which Talia Smith and Howard Grace ran at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA), Farnham, Surrey on 5 November 2014. She found it challenging to believe, let alone understand the depth and severity of the Apartheid.
Under the Beyond Forgiving Initiative, the three hour workshop looked at what makes Beyond Forgiving so powerful, the importance of message in documentaries, exploring what people focused on when watching the film (technical aspects or their emotions) and humanity in film-making. ‘As a film-maker it is not often that I think about the human side, the emotions of people – protagonists and audience. I am too tied up with getting the right angle, light, etc. This film (Beyond Forgiving) really made me think about humanity in documentaries’ said an inspired film student from the department.
Initiatives of Change was invited by Dr Yuwei Lin, Course Leader for Media & Communications at UCA Farnham. ‘The workshop was very well-received and there was a lot of food for thought. Let's keep in touch and see how we can develop this collaboration further’, said Lin. There may be a follow-up workshop that can be applied across other departments in the University.
In addition to the Beyond Forgiving team holding screenings themselves, they have also recently supported other networks and organisations in using the film to run workshops on healing and reconciliation, for example Foundations for Freedom (in Ukraine), a High school in Moldova, a group of teachers in Guatemala and Durham University.
The Beyond Forgiving film is a profound form of media and a useful tool for people of all races, ethnicities and religions to use at an individual level – in a quest for inner peace as well as on a national level – for relationship building and reconciliation. The award-winning film and its powerful message of the role that people who have suffered deeply have in addressing the wider hurts and needs societies, has made an impact around the world. It has recently been shown by the IofC network in Canada, at Geneva Peace Week and in Melbourne, Australia.
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