by Travis Mackenzie Hoover
QUESTIONING FAITH
Questioning Faith: Confessions of a Seminarian
**½/****
directed by Macky Alston
On learning of his friend Alan Smith's death of AIDS-related complications, gay seminary student Macky Alston doubts the goodness and existence of God. In order to sort out his beliefs, he talks to a variety of friends and associates about their religious beliefs. I'd like to say that his search comes up with something to ponder, but this atheist was left largely unmoved by his unfocussed explorations, which have resulted in a documentary that should be longer and infinitely more articulate than it is. In all fairness, the gravity of the discussion keeps Questioning Faith moving as it goes from passionate affirmation to passionate denial: here the faith of Alan's mother and uncle, there the atheism of his partner's mother; here the belief of a hospital's Muslim chaplain in the face of a miscarriage, there the fervent Buddhism of a neighbour whose father has died.
Unfortunately, Alston's own confusion regarding the matter means that he can't give the film–nor his search–the necessary form. Despite the odd declaration about God's silence, he doesn't really know what he believes, and his reliance on other people to tell him what to think only further muddies the issue. Had he spoken more on his own relationship to God and the path he chose when he went to the seminary, Alston might have come up with an articulate dialogue with his subjects, but as it stands he leaves the burden of proof up to his interviewees and does little to structure and analyze them. It's fitfully interesting, though not enough to count.
A WEDDING IN RAMALLAH
***½/****
directed by Sherine Salama
A not always complimentary but completely compassionate video about a Palestinian couple torn apart (and thrust together) by historical circumstance, A Wedding in Ramallah begins in 2000, when Israeli-Palestinian relations seemed to be on the upswing. It shows us the arranged marriage of Bessam and Mariam; Bessam, forced to leave the country due to suspected militancy, lives in America, while Mariam stays home and struggles to get her visa to join him. But the situation deteriorates as fighting resumes. Family members can't work because the roads are closed, and Mariam finds herself living with her eagle-eyed in-laws and the wife of Bessam's brother–who doesn't want his children from a first marriage knowing about his second wife. A situation to escape, yes?
Maybe not. Although she finally does get to America, it comes at an enormous cost. With no English and no Palestinian community, she must learn to live in urban isolation and negotiate the vast array of alien gadgets Americans take for granted; the couple ultimately becomes a victim of western individualism, which atomizes the social scene into private homesteads. Without the extended family that seemed so restrictive at the beginning of the film, Mariam goes crazy with boredom, essentially marking time waiting for her husband to come home. Thus A Wedding in Ramallah shows a way of life cruelly disrupted and is essential for putting a face on the current Middle East crisis.
