A while ago, I went to a presentation for troubled kids who had completed a course that was about trying to get them back on track - they got awards for passing, for most of them the first thing they got recognised for achieving in their lives, quite moving at times. Anyway, one of the speakers before the presentation told a story, about a kid who went down to the beach after a storm and found thousands of starfish washed up on the beach. She started picking them up and throwing them back in, one at a time, until a passing dogwalker stopped her, laughing and told her that she was wasting her time, there were too many and she wouldn't be able to make any difference. The kid looked at him, picked one up, threw it in the water, and looked back at the man. And she said: "Made a difference to that one".
I thought of that (surely apocryphal) story watching this, and I do totally understand the impulse, and what a difference they made. I guess the thing that bothers me (apart from the 'first law' aspect - after all, we're talking about people, it's not a wildlife documentary, so it is totally different way of viewing the situation) - the thing that bothers me most isn't so much that they did it, but why Sonita,? Not so mcuh 'what about they others', as 'why not the others?'
I've thought more about this since my first post, and I can't imagine standing by, but I imagine I would be wracked with guilt about not being able to help the others too. I'm not a filmmaker, so I can't guess what they were thinking but in the end, their act became part of the story, changed what they story might have been. I think I'd have liked to see it through for how it would have been without their input but the cost would be too great. Maybe we could have heard a bit more about the others, and what their journey was too.
Thought provoking stuff.
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