StephanieCaouetteFilmAnnotation1

The 2004 documentary //Darwin’s Nightmare// by Hubert Sauper is a film that touched on a lot of the major problems that are plaguing Tanzania right now including famine, disease and the effects of the fishing industry. Darwin’s Nightmare received a lot of national attention when it first came out from film critics and governments around the world for the issues that it brought to the surface. When the film was released, the Tanzanian government wouldn’t even allow it to be viewed because of the negative light it shed on the fishing industry and the government for not helping their people. Also, the African people are tired of seeing Africa as a mess when only certain parts are, and they can’t get foreign investment to help with such negative press surrounding their country.

The film opened up with a glimpse at what life in Tanzania was like for the average person. The viewer was hit with images of garbage littered streets, rundown buildings and skinny, battered children some with missing limbs roaming the street. This set the scene for the types of images you could expect to see for the rest of the film, they did a good job of walking you into the situation and making you think for yourself about what was going on. Although I think the central argument of the film was intended to be about the challenges of overfishing, the introduction of new species, and exporting fish out of a starving country, Hubert Sauper did an excellent job showing the life threatening diseases and horrible state these native people are living in.

The major sustainability problem that the documentary addressed is within the fishing industry itself. The film shows the dependence the people have on Lake Victoria and its population of fish. Almost all of the jobs in that region depend on fish in some way whether it is working in the factories, finding the fish in the lake or transporting them to the factory. Without the fish and the jobs they bring a higher level of poverty would strike this country. As an experiment a new fish, the big perch, was introduced into Lake Victoria in hopes to revitalize the fish supply and ensure security for the fishing industry. The devastating effects of this fish can be seen today by the lack of the native fish species that once helped Lake Victoria flourish. The perch has turned out to be the most dangerous predator to Tanzania and their livelihood, as it ate the native fish and multiplied so rapidly the other species could not keep up. In addition to the lack of other fish species, the water in Lake Victoria is losing its Oxygen and causing other marine life to die off. The film revealed that fish is one of the biggest exports to the European Union at 25% which could be a reason for the EU’s choice not to interfere with the struggle in Tanzania or other countries providing fish to the rest of the world. Also, approximately 200 white people eat fish from Lake Victoria each day, and without this supply, the cost of fish would increase dramatically.

Also, spiraling from this issue is the fact that the country itself has a lack of food for its people to eat. Fish is the biggest export for Tanzania and the film shows the pilots coming every day, filling their planes to maximum capacity and taking massive amounts of food from a starving country. Some of these planes would fill up with so much fish they would exceed the cargo limit and end up crashing, ruining the plane and the food in it. The worst part of this situation is that the planes either come empty or with weapons to fuel the wars happening elsewhere in Africa. The nations that are receiving the fish from Tanzania are not giving anything in exchange for the food, they care only about the cargo and not of the people in the country it left from. This problem can be seen as a failure of the global system that is in place, these countries know they are receiving food from starving nations but choose to do nothing. Something as little as a label campaign that shows how many miles your food traveled before it got to your table, or the country it came from could raise more awareness of the problem. Within Tanzania as well, the wealthy are not helping their own people, in one of the interviews a factory owner blatantly said that he would not donate fish to the starving children on the street because it would be too expensive for him. They feel that the fish excrement and scraps are enough charitable contribution to the surrounding areas, when these bones and skins are not edible. Fostering a charitable sense in the wealthy of the country as well as from those around the world eating the food could help Tanzania and other countries like it.

Another sustainability issue that was evident in the film was the AIDS epidemic and the subsequent effect on the families left behind. Many of the orphans out on the street of Tanzania were put there due to parents dying from AIDS. These children then sleep in the streets, fight and kill each other for sport, and sniff drugs to pass the time. The women that are left behind by their husbands end up at the lake prostituting themselves out to the fisherman and pilots in order to survive. The spread of AIDS throughout the country is due to the lack of knowledge and protection being used, such as condoms. A surprising interview with a local pastor uncovered that although the churches know that AIDS is a major cause of death, they do not advise the use of condoms because it is considered a sin. The pastor said he wouldn’t tell his people not to use them, but he does not promote their use or provide condoms to use. Not to say it is his responsibility to provide contraception to the Tanzanians, but the complete ignorance of the number 1 killer of his people is alarming.

The most compelling part of the film for me were the graphic shots they caught on film, of the children with missing limbs, fighting over food and hitting each other in the street, and the women sick with AIDS and prostituting themselves out. The raw human aspect of the film was what caught my attention the most. The complete lack of compassion of the factory owners and pilots was important, showing that some people really don’t care much about the well being of others. Also if it is a known fact that someone has AIDS, they send them to the “back country” to die there because it is cheaper to travel when you are alive than it is when you are dead, according to the man being interviewed. In this same interview the camera scanned the local area and stopped on a banner that hung from a house lining the water that said “if you sleep with a whore just beat her”, which solidifies the struggle for the women and prostitutes in Tanzania.

The film was hard to follow at some points which made it less compelling for me. The people being interviewed were hard to understand because of accent and broken English, but also because of sound quality. They could have been saying things that were very important but their message was lost because of other elements. Also, the lack of background information on the state of Lake Victoria before the perch was introduced and the actual effect it was having today made the story a little bit harder to relate to. We saw the social side of the problem but did not see much of the environmental ramifications and the long term effects it would have on the people.

//Darwin's Nightmare// showed that there is a fisheries institute in Tanzania that might have the ability to come up with some solutions to the problems they are seeing. They didn’t tell the viewer much about the institute or what they did, which made me wonder what kinds of things were going on behind the guarded fence. It made me want to dig deeper and find out if there is research that can be done on the exact amount of fish that could be taken from the water each month in order for the lake to regain its health, and if so, why hasn’t someone done it for this region. Also it made me want to look further into the water clarification problems that Tanzania is seeing, not only do they depend on the water for fish, but they bathe and drink that water, so it needs to be clean. These issues if solved could be used in many struggling countries across the globe to help with clean water and sustainable practices.

This film definitely brings things to light that I did not know about before seeing it. I think that the documentary was aimed towards those who are compelled by striking images and have some knowledge of the state some parts of the world are in. It is a well known fact that countries around the world struggle from things that we in America may not see every day, but seeing the graphic pictures from the film really show the devastating reality for some countries. It makes you think more about the food that you eat, where it is coming from and also of how lucky we are to live in the US where these problems are seen less. I don’t think that the documentary will necessarily change many viewers’ actions, but it may make them think more about what they are eating and where they are getting it from. One problem with the documentary was the fact that the viewer felt helpless to the problem, since the issue is so huge it is hard for people to get involved to help fix it. They could have mentioned some environmental groups that are attempting to address the problem, and how to get involved or relate sustainable fishing to something people could do every day like buying food locally, to decrease dependence on exports. Some narration could have been added at the end to help the viewer get more involved and support the issue, but overall they did a great job of including the viewer in the film. The documentary was very raw and made the viewer feel as if they were a part of the situation instead of on the outside being preached to. The images and interviews were perfectly selected to stick in the viewers mind and foster a sense of compassion for the people who live in Tanzania.