Karukera, multiperspectives on daily violence
Despite the amount of tissues, my many coughing fits and raspy voice, I still managed to get out of bed to attend the screening of Karukera on March 17, 2017 at the Paris anim' center. I had heard about the film last summer. So I didn't miss the opportunity this time. I had planned to go alone, but luckily @Emeutes_ameres and @Serenblackity were there because I don't know how I would have gotten home afterwards. All this to say that my mind may not have been 100% functional, but my heart was.
Produced by MARKAFILMS and Irina Productions and directed by MarkA, “Karukera” is a documentary film about post-2009 Guadeloupean society. If violence among young people is the starting point, the discourse is broadened by integrating the theme of the family. For sixty minutes, MarkA gives the mic to artists, young people, observers of daily life (psychologist, sociologist, priest, social mediators). By creating this indirect dialogue between the protagonists, the film makes it possible to assess the situation from the point of view of those who actually live it. The powerlessness expressed by the police, trade unionists, parents, educators is counterbalanced by examples of initiatives by young people working hard to change things. That’s why it’s less about the “violence in Guadeloupe”/" “the drug ghettos in Guadeloupe” approach that mainstream media use to talk about the island. It’s more forcused on "how did we get here?" and "despite all this, how can we keep moving forward?
I applaud the efforts to provide diversified representation of the population. Nevertheless, two things didn’t settle well with me. First of all, what is the place/role of women in this violence? These women who grow up in these environments, these young women who may have an active or passive role in this violence, they are women who have become or will become mothers in their turn, what do they think of the situation? Do they feel they have a role to play in changing things? Maybe they were questioned and what they had to say was irrelevant... But in any case, I think that their voices could have given an additional nuance to the debate. Different speakers described why Guadeloupean families were dysfunctional. They all used the same angle of analysis. "There's the Potomitan [t/n : pillar woman] mother who takes care of the house and the boys no longer see their fathers go off to work and bring home the money." Just because Daddy works and brings the money home doesn't mean he’ll be present in his children's lives, that he will make efforts to build a bond with them and love them. Just because Mom works and brings home the money doesn't mean that her efforts will be seen as an example to follow and to inspire boys. There seems to be a consensus on the need to rethink the family dynamics, to give more responsibility to the parents, but I did not understand if the speakers were talking about the "stay-at-home mom/salaryman-father" scheme from a historical (i.e. factual) point of view or if they were talking about it as the scheme that needs to be rediscovered. I think they were talking about it from more of a historical perspective, but the lack of an alternative in what they were saying got me wondering.
The other aspect that isn’t dealt with in depth is education. Personally, when we talk about youth, it seems difficult to me to leave school out of the equation since it is the place where children spend most of their time. Normally. We always hear about the 60% unemployment rate among young people, but who are the 40% who work? What are the prospects for post-high-school training? What happens to those who go to university? Where and under which conditions do they work? And what about those who go away to study but don’t return? From the point of view of both the institution and the students, what role does the school play in the current situation of violence? That wasn’t the purpose of the film, I understand. MarkA said himself that this could be the subject of another documentary. But my question came to me when a young man tells his experience in prison. He talks about his wake-up call and the fact that he could use jail time to educate himself, to learn a language... In short, to do things that you are supposed to do at school.
From a technical point of view, Karukera is edited with intelligence. The pace, the transitions, everything comes together effortlessly. It's really a pleasant documentary to watch. In spite of the dramatic observation and without claiming to have the answers ready, “Karukera” has the merit of valuing a lokal analysis. The challenge was to create audiovisual content to encourage discussions on these issues. It works.
You can rent the documentary on Vimeo.
This article was first published on March 18th 2017 on myinsaeng.com