Here and Away

PBS | Indies this month has some great short videos on the theme of home.

The first, Here and Away is about fleshing out a place of belonging in a world full of vastly different, possibly unrelatable landscapes. But rather than dismissing the immediate differences of city life and rural life, the two narrators come to conclude that “we’re all just an island onto ourselves” and that “you can be content wherever you are.” On an island or in the countryside, what may seem to be a border may be what connects us all, like the water that connects all shores. And in the city, because it “doesn’t dictate” but rather absorbs, it is a “place where you don’t have to explain yourself,” “a place that contains all other places.”

It reminded me of the ethical questions that may arise out of doing a practice experience abroad. I personally chose a local PE but I think this film reminds me that bridging across differences is possible. 

The second clip “Home” animates the filmmaker’s childhood home using photos and home videos that was flooded during Hurricane Katrina and then mistakenly torn down in the rush to rebuild. It was provocative because I personally see home not only as a physical space but a specific time and place in memory. It’s the latter than can’t be destroyed yet we spend so much time focusing on the former. Click the link to check out the award winning film.