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above: The LasT Days of yasser arafaT

Metro Magazine 150 • 75

By cynthia karena

DocuMentaries explore the truth of the worlD.

the MockuMentary explores the truth

while pretenDing to Be a DocuMentary anD can

offer a Deeper insight into a topic if DirecteD with one

hanD on the truth while Milking it for laughs with

the other.

One of the most fascinating documentaries in this year’s Melbourne International Film

Festival was Palestinian-Australian Sherine Salama’s The Last Days of Yasser Arafat (2006). It is an historic film in that she filmed the last interview ever given by the then Palestinian President. A month later he was dead.

MIFF also featured a mockumentary that (at last) doesn’t involve the ramblings of a drugged-out rock band. Thank You for Smoking (2005) is Jason Reitman’s first feature film. It may as well be a documentary, as it blows apart the wheeling and dealing inside the tobacco industry. But it’s unlikely that a documentary filmmaker would get access to the behind-the-scenes spin doctors of the tobacco industry. Mockumentaries are the documentaries you make when you don’t want to get sued.

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Documenting The Last Days of Yasser Arafat

One person’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist. This is a subject deftly covered

by Sherine Salama in The Last Days of Yasser Arafat.

She almost didn’t have a film. The crux of the documentary was the interview with Mr Arafat, which proved very hard to get, and involved a couple of trips from Australia to Lebanon. After a year of filming the frustrations and strategies involved in getting to the President, Ms Salama inadvertently captured an historic event when Mr Arafat died.

I was relieved to have the interview. I was frustrated, as his minder insisted on translating and prompting answers.

I found him surprisingly relaxed and informal and warm. He had a good sense of humor. He was interested in personal things, about me and my family. It was the ordinary touch that endeared him to people.

The most difficult part of the process

for Salama was the barriers put up by the people close to Arafat. Yet the developing relationship between her and the minders is one of the more fascinating aspects of the film.

However, all the game-playing was frustrating, especially since there seemed to be no prospect of an interview.

No film had been made about him. Surely he could lend time to that. His minders jealously guarded him.

I was invited to dinner with him a couple of times. He wrote on my letter [asking for an interview] ‘help this woman’.

He made jokes about his captivity and gave a lot of attention – he was a good host.

She had luck, instinct, dogged determination and a lot of friends who helped her. At the Q&A after the first screening at the festival, Ms Salama deflected any political questions with the comment that it wasn’t a political

It’s heartbreaking to watch Arafat’s minders encourage Salama and put her off in turn. She is basically given the

runaround and takes a long time to realize they

are playing games with her.

left/right: The LasT Days of yasser arafaT. (above: filmmaker sherine salama in

arafat’s compound)

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film; she was making an observational film and recording the events as they unfolded. To a certain extent this is true, but there is a lot of commentary in the voiceover, and, as she says herself, it is a film from her point of view based on her experiences.

I got what I got. As an observational film the outcome is unpredictable. It ended up being two films – the journey and what I’d learnt and his demise. I couldn’t have predicted that ending.

I didn’t set out to condemn or praise him. I went there because I was fascinated by his plight in his compound, and I had a feeling he would die. I was really surprised that no one had made a film about him.

Salama maintains she just observed events and let the story unfold, but then offers narration and makes herself the subject of her own documentary. And, in speaking her thoughts out loud, she unintentionally shows us how naïve she is. Which is fascinating in itself. It’s heartbreaking to watch Arafat’s minders encourage Salama and put her off in turn; for example, she is asked to submit a list of questions, which are discussed and amended and reduced, promises are made that never eventuate, and she is basically given the runaround and takes a long time to realize they are playing games with her.

Salama finally gets frustrated enough to start chasing other leads, whom she interviews as well. The interviews she conducts with Palestinians living there is enlightening, as we don’t normally get to hear their points of view in the mainstream media (except perhaps with Phillip Adams on ABC Radio national).

Her dogged determination in turning up to Mr Arafat’s compound every day to get an interview is admirable. And the way she goes about forging relationships with Mr Arafat’s minders gives us an interesting insight to that world. But when she finally gets an interview, she blows her nose and shakes the hand of this frail old man before getting down to business! That aside, apart from the interview itself, the film also provides interesting coverage of the media circus following Arafat’s death.

True Fictions: Thank You for Smoking

THANk You for Smoking targets the pro-smoking lobby in a no-holds-barred

assault. The inside eyes of the tobacco industry are seen through nick naylor (Aaron eckhart), a spin doctor for the Academy of Tobacco Studies. The film opens with nick on ‘The Joan Lunden Show’, sitting next to a bald 15-year-old boy who is dying of cancer. nick says: ‘It’s in our best interests to keep Robin alive and smoking. The anti-smoking people want Robin to die.’

At bring-a-parent-to-school day, nick challenges, and embarrasses, a girl whose mother says cigarettes are bad for you: ‘Is your mother a doctor?’

The film is based on Christopher Buckley’s book of the same name, and explores product placement and strategies on how to nullify links

between smoking and death, pay hush money to the former Marlboro man who is dying (shades of Yul Brynner, who came out strongly against smoking as he was dying). It also highlights the honesty of the meetings between lobbyists for the smoking, alcohol and firearms industries – referred to as the Merchants Of Death (MOD) squad.

All without getting sued.

There is truth beyond the jokes, and that’s the strength of this film. Facts about smoking are reeled off, just as

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they would be in a documentary, but instead of showing the negative effects of smoking and images of the sick and the dying, Mr Reitman has gone for the jugular with a dark comedy. He tells the

truth in a few well-chosen lines, such as when nick’s son asks why the American government is ‘the best’. The response: ‘Because of our endless appeals system.’ Says Reitman:

I needed to make this. The book spoke to me. It was hilarious. It speaks to the issue of cigarettes.

There’s something wonderful about a joyful hero who loves tobacco and never apologizes. There’s something funny about his commentary and how brash and honest he is. There’s a real honesty and it’s funny.

Film is the most versatile way of telling stories, with actors, music, and photography

all rolled into one. And you can reach out to more people.

Aaron is a new talent who has a knack for roles that are subversive and likeable.

Reitman also consulted Jeffrey Wigand, the tobacco industry whistleblower whose story was the subject of The Insider (Michael Mann, 1999). And, just like any good documentary filmmaker, Wigand listened: ‘He read the script and made notes, lots of notes.’

Jason reitman was interviewed courtesy of the Melbourne international film festival. Quotes from sherine salama were taken from the Q&a after the premiere screening of her film at Miff.

Cynthia Karena is a Melbourne-based freelance writer and researcher. •

‘It’s in our best interests to keep Robin alive

and smoking. The anti-smoking people want

Robin to die.’

this page: Thank you for smoking (inset below right: director Jason reitman).