12th September , 2007

ADAM KELSALL

"Ripper’s interviews are stark and honest and give the viewer a rapport and empathy for the story tellers and the situations they find themselves in."

Hope is a remarkable, understated human capacity that allows an individual to stand with only their bare bones against external forces that are so much more powerful than they and should knock them down like twigs.

Velcrow Ripper’s documentary is a five year journey into hope. He begins with a narrative: “One night I dreamed that I am awakened with shouts and cries. Then I’m pushed and shoved into a cattle cart filled with starving people. An old woman sitting next to me sighs, it finally happened, we are on our way to the camps, so it’s our turn now, I always thought...it’s happening to them not to me...to them...always to them. In the light of day I realised it’s impossible to run away. So I decided to take the opposite approach -  I’m running towards. I’m setting out on a journey that will eventually consume five years of my life and take me to the ground zero’s of the world. Searching for the possibility in the darkness...for the sacred inside the scared."

What follows is a double-edged sword of darkness and hope as Ripper travels to the killing fields of Vietnam, Hiroshima where the first A-bomb was dropped, India where the Union Carbide accident killed 8000, Israel, Afghanistan, and New York, scene of September 11.

In all of these ground zeroes he searches for and finds stories of hope. Humanity travelling the spectrum from vulnerability, fear, anger and revenge to grace, forgiveness, change and action. Ripper’s interviews are stark and honest and give the viewer a rapport and empathy for the story tellers and the situations they find themselves in. Particularly touching are the Afghan woman running an underground school and publicly protesting for democracy.

Pleasingly, Ripper lets the pictures and words tell the story and doesn’t see the need to add his comments over the top. Inevitably the people’s stories are paralleled by Ripper's insight into how these stories effect him and his questioning and growth which fits naturally into the flow of the documentary.

This is all complemented by stunning cinematography that helps the viewer share the eyes of wonder through which Ripper obviously views the world. Coupled with his courage and audacity to travel into countries that are hostile and dangerous, I feel it only fair to warn you that watching ScaredSacred will leave you with a jumble of emotions and questions but mostly aghast at the incredible resilience of humanity.

~ www.scaredsacred.org

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