By Danny Peary
What conversation did you and Sharmeen have at the beginning when deciding the kind of movie you were going to make?
We thought were going to make this film about these “bad-ass” Muslim women going out and doing all this incredible, crazy work. Obviously we had no idea what the logistics would be like, despite the research we did. I hadn’t even been to Haiti. But with all vérité films, you never know what’s going to happen, it’s always a mystery. You don’t control it. The key thing for us was that no matter how the women’s stories played out, it was already significant that they took this peacekeeping job and left Bangladesh for a year.
I bet few of them had been away before, particularly on a plane.
Some had never left their districts. They were so excited to go. The whole thing for them was brand new. Most of them had never been apart from their husbands for more than a night. Mousumi says in the movie, “These are women who go from their father’s house to their husband’s house.” That’s all they know.
What was their first impression landing on Caribbean island?
I found it amazing and quite moving that they thought Haiti itself was such a beautiful place.
When you arrived, were you as surprised by the awful conditions in Haiti as they were, since you hadn’t been there either?
I was very surprised. I grew up in India and think of myself as a traveler who’s fairly well schooled, yet I was astonished. There are places in Haiti that are different, but I was unprepared for the conditions in Port-au-Prince, of the poverty, the amount of people still living in camps, and the sewage issues. It’s close to New York but it felt like I had landed in a place that was at war for years, yet it’s not a war zone. And there was corruption and elections that were delayed. I was devastated.
I think part of the shock is that it has been several years since the earthquake and there has been tremendous attention paid to Haiti and a huge relief effort, yet it’s in turmoil.
That was part of it. Where does the money go? Honestly, a whole other film could have been made dealing with an investigation of Haiti and the UN in Haiti. But we wanted to stay with our women, because that’s the story we wanted to tell. I feel the people of Haiti have remarkable patience. There were violent protests, but I’m talking about the daily grind, the daily struggle to survive, and figuring out where you’re going to get your water and food and how you might make a dollar. It’s so dire. And what’s heartbreaking is that the relationship between the Hispanic people and the UN was ruined by the cholera epidemic, which was started by visiting UN peacekeepers.
I’m sure you said at some point, “Once they arrive in Haiti, something had better happen!”
That’s true. The elections were supposed to happen the year we were there. They never happened. They still keep getting postponed. As vérité filmmakers, we were really upset by that. We wanted to see a transformation to what Haiti was meant to be.
Did you worry about what could go wrong?
We thought the women we were closely following might drop out or get injured. And we thought about going to a place that was unstable, where there was a lot of struggle. And the cholera epidemic also threw a wrench into our filming. These women were going to a place where they weren’t welcome. That would make it harder for them.
Were they warned that the people were hostile toward UN workers because of the epidemic?
They were not warned, they didn’t know. As with foot soldiers, the women were told only what the higher powers felt was important for them to know. They had a job, they had to do their duty without asking questions. They could make decisions in the moment but they were not meant to think critically. So there was a lot they didn’t know about–the cholera, the extent of the poverty, how angry the population was, that UN peacekeepers were not welcome. They say in the film, “We were not briefed. We’re just encountering these situations as they are happening.”
I’d think in making your movie you were at a disadvantage because you weren’t allowed to really question the women about the mission, because as policemen working for the UN, they can’t express their feelings about what they see without getting into trouble.
We did ask them questions. But they were like soldiers and had not been taught to think critically. They didn’t question orders. We put in what they did talk about. They did talk about the fact that they were never briefed. They talked about wishing they knew the language. They talked about the fact that no matter how much they did, the people needed so much more. They talked about how they understood the people’s anger and frustration. They talked about how the people genuinely feared the corrupt Haitian police and believed that if the UN wasn’t there, they would be killed. And they talked about how the people who feared the Haitian police feared them too because they assumed they were the same. There was just a general distrust. All this was new to the women.
I’m sure everyone asks you if you think the mission was worth it?
I think so. I think the people at the places they patrolled in Haiti definitely felt safer having them there. They also showed the Haitian females that women can do this kind of work, so that’s empowering. I think the women themselves benefitted greatly from the mission. They were hugely impacted from having had a life experience independent of their husbands and their families, which is completely unusual in their culture. I’m sure they learned an incredible amount of what they’re capable of. And they were able to go back and relate that, as well as relate the gaps in training.
Are the three women going to see the movie?
Yes. There is no film festival in Bangladesh but we’ll do a screening for them. We’re going to take it there. I think they’ll be proud. They had a lot of fear about not doing anything that would upset the government.
Has the UN talked to you about your film?
They’re very happy with it, which is surprising. I guess they figured it could be far worse as far as it is concerned. We told them what we thought were the problems with the mission. This film serves as research for them when they’re planning future missions.
A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers will screen at Sydney Film Festival, which runs June 8 to 19, 2016.
