22. December 16, 2023
THE NOBLE GUARDIAN and ISLAND IN BETWEEN, two documentary shorts I highly recommend, not just for all they have to tell us about peace and how to achieve it
I’m looking forward to sharing some writing I’ve been doing about all the end of year Oscar-contending feature films and documentaries I’ve been watching with Ted and making sense of their narratives and meaning in today’s war-torn world. But as some real Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) voting is taking place at this time, voting that is not at the barrel of a gun or under figurative or literal threat, (though too often, Oscar campaigns do come down to ridiculous amounts of money), I want to offer two recommendations of films I love for your consideration. I hope their audiences widen and they reach more people around the world who need to hear and know their stories. They are The Noble Guardian by Anna Coren and Island In Between by S. Leo Chiang. They each have a ton to teach us about peace and security, equality and freedom.
The Noble Guardian by Anna Coren
The Noble Guardian is a short documentary story of Mahbouba Seraj, an Afghan American women's rights activist, who bravely stayed in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal in August 2021 to fight for the education, freedom and safety of Afghan women and girls under the brutal Taliban regime. Director Anna Coren, an Emmy-winning war journalist working for CNN in Hong Kong, has been reporting from Afghanistan for the past decade. She returned to document Mahbouba's courageous struggle and obtained rare access and interviews that would no longer be possible.
Here is an exclusive first look at the film’s trailer:
The film won best documentary short at the LA Shorts Festival in July, which qualified us for the Academy Awards. The film can be viewed on the Academy site. I’m an executive producer on this film produced by Anna Coren, Tim Beers Jr., Bahman Naraghi and Kasia Neiman. We had a very successful screening at the Museum of Tolerance in LA, where the Q&A with Mahbouba and Anna Coren was moderated by Jenelle Riley, who wrote this article about the film in Variety.
The film marks Coren’s directorial debut, and she knew early on she wanted it to be a film rather than a news segment. She and her director of photography had covered Afghanistan for years and were looking for a way to tell the story. The first time she had a Zoom call with Seraj, she knew she had her way in. “It was just electric,” Coren recalls. “I just had goosebumps, the hair on the back of my neck was standing up and I knew: this woman was a documentary.”
Seraj admits she wasn’t initially comfortable being the center of attention, particularly as the film goes into private details of her life she hasn’t discussed publicly. But talking to Coren convinced her. “The way she talked to me, I realized that if there is any time in my life that I’m going to share this story with the people of Afghanistan and the women of the world, this is the time to do so.”
Christiane Amanpour made a 15 min piece on the film on CNN - you can watch here:
I came to this film through Anna and my mutual friend Kristie Lu Stout, also of CNN in Hong Kong. But producer Bahman Naraghi and I quickly realized we share his cousin Sanam Naraghi Anderlini in common. When I received my first grant on Invisible Nation from the Compton Foundation to focus on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), (a field whose thinking also applies to The Noble Guardian), I became part of the WPS community in which Sanam is a star.
As Founder and CEO of the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, MBE has over two decades of experience as a peace strategist working globally on conflicts, crises, violent extremism and peacebuilding with civil society, governments and the UN.
Through ICAN, she spearheads the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) comprising independent women-led organizations active in 40 countries globally, preventing violence and promoting peace, rights and pluralism. …ICAN’s Better Peace Initiative (BPI) is also a flagship program providing strategic guidance, practical tools and capacity development for UN, governments, and civil society on best practices in inclusive design and gender responsiveness in peace processes. …
Throughout her extensive career, Ms. Naraghi Anderlini has led groundbreaking initiatives..including… being a civil society leader, advocate and drafter of the seminal UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on WPS in 1999-2000; directing the Women Waging Peace Policy Commission in 2002-2004 with design and delivery of the first multi-country research initiative on the evidence of women’s contributions to peace processes; and publication of her book, Women Building Peace: What they do, why it matters (Rienner, 2007).
Filming with Anna and Mahbouba in New York on May 12th this year, was my first experience being inside the United Nations. This running tally of how the world is over-armed and peace is underfunded caught my eye:
Why Is Gender/Women Included in the UN Peace and Security Agenda?
Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on WPS …was the first Security Council resolution to link women to the peace and security agenda, looking at the impact of conflict on women and women’s contribution to conflict resolution and sustainable peace.
The resolution consists of four pillars: 1) The role of women in conflict prevention, 2) women’s participation in peacebuilding, 3) the protection of the rights of women and girls during and after conflict, and 4) women’s specific needs during repatriation, resettlement and for rehabilitation, reintegration and post-conflict reconstruction.
Men who predominantly occupy roles in both armed groups and public decision-making, have long been considered the only relevant actors in conflict and its resolution. However, women have always been involved in conflict in different roles, be it as peacemakers, combatants, dependents, politicians or activists, and are greatly –often disproportionally – affected by conflict. Women have a fundamental human right to participate in decision making processes that affect them, but women’s inclusion in peace processes is also a strategic imperative, as adding a broader range of perspectives can lead to more sustainable peace. For these reasons, and to answer to its responsibilities stemming from the human rights agenda, the United Nations is strongly committed to include women in its peace and security work.
The work Mahbouba Seraj is doing is invaluable not just for the women and girls of Afghanistan, but for global peace and security. Jill Filipovic wrote an excellent piece for the New York Times just a few days ago about how: Denying the Gender-Based Violence of Oct. 7 Helps No One. Violence against women is the single most important predictor of violence between countries. Redressing the inequality between men and women is one of the most critical steps to take toward peace.
When I was inside the United Nations filming with Anna and Mahbouba, the subject of how people who hold Taiwan passports are not even allowed in the building came up without me having to ask. It’s as big a failure of diplomacy, equity and justice as Taiwan not being in the U.N. or the president of Taiwan not being allowed to visit countries like the U.S., Germany and other major powers unless in transit for 48 hours or less. Most people don’t know of these injustices against Taiwan’s democracy.
That’s why my next Oscar-contending documentary short recommendation is all the more urgent and important.
Island In Between by S. Leo Chiang
In S. Leo Chiang’s beautiful, poetic short documentary, Island in Between, he offers a personal reflection on Taiwan, and rising tensions coming from China through the perspective of Kinmen (Jin Men/金門), a small island close to China’s coast.
The short is an Op-Doc viewable here on the New York Times site, where Leo has written a personal op-ed to accompany it. It’s also available on Youtube here and the Academy site following its successful film festival screenings and tens of thousands of views online.
Leo’s film is really speaking to audiences everywhere in this moment when the need for nuanced foreign policy and diplomatic negotiations to achieve, support and finance peace based on equality, justice, sovereignty and autonomy for people in countries around the world has never been greater.
As Leo put it in a recent post:
They say the personal is political. I would add that the geopolitical is personal. I am a proud Taiwanese and American dual citizen who has been struggling to reconcile my connections to China. I made this film to offer a personal, and hopefully resonant perspective on Taiwan - China - US tensions from my particular vantage point. I hope our film enables more folks to grasp the complicated emotional impact of the current Taiwan Strait Crisis on those of us who live it.
We Taiwanese treasure freedom, and we love peace. I hope the day won’t come where we have to sacrifice one to keep the other.
As a friend of Leo’s and a person who’s also contemplated my place or voice in a world governed by geopolitical relationships between the major powers and the powerless, particularly as an American who has spent many years living in China and in Taiwan, I found it inspiring. I have deep respect for how Leo met the challenges of making this kind of personal narrative on film at such a high level. I love seeing Leo and his parents on camera!
What’s also amazing about Island in Between for me is how complementary it is to the documentary I’m on the festival circuit with now, Invisible Nation which Leo has been so kind to support. Leo and I have discussed this. We hope to do screenings together in the future. And I really want to collaborate with him!
I hope everyone will be motivated to watch these two, outstanding Oscar-contending documentary short films. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and your film recommendations too.
Fantastic post- thank you! I was deeply moved by The Noble Guardian and look forward to seeing Island In Between which sounds like a perfect companion to Invisible Nation. Hope to see a joint screening in 2024. Mad respect as always for your commitment to foregrounding the role of women in building a more peaceful world and the supreme importance of gender equality in that world. Keep up the good work!!!
Amazing insight into these 2 films. I've just watched Island In Between yesterday and I enjoyed it very much.
"Leo’s film is really speaking to audiences everywhere in this moment when the need for nuanced foreign policy and diplomatic negotiations to achieve..." underlying how important it is what you said, would add (and this goes for both films) that the subjective point of view is truly important here. These stories are told by people who have had that lived experience and we get so much more nuance.