Geoffrey Macnab spoke with filmmakers Isabelle Ingold and Vivianne Perelmuter about their latest documentary film NEW BEGINNINGS, currently screening at Visions du Réel.

Al Moon is a Vietnam veteran living on Yurok nation tribal land in northern California. He’s a wise and philosophical man but one who has experienced a difficult and violent past with more than its share of guilt, shame and trauma. The salmon the tribe depends on are no longer returning in the same numbers they once did. “The river is sick, the ocean is sick, the fish are sick, the people are sick,” he sums up the problem. (…)

There is a very disturbing and intimate revelation late on in the documentary. The fact that Al is prepared to share it with the directors shows the extraordinary level of trust he built up with the French directors during their time on the road. (…)

“The movement of the film is very much to go toward the light. We have to start with the darkness…the night is a way to be close to someone, to a place or to people but to manage the mystery – not to invade too much. We try to trigger the imagination.”

(…) Read the full article now at Business Doc Europe