Pavee Lackeen - La fille du voyage

I was delighted to have the opportunity to see Pavee Lackeen at Soho and take part in the Q&A session with Perry Ogden afterwards. Even though I can appreciate the artistic aspect of the film and Perry Ogden's intention to highlight certain aspects of lifestyle problems, i.e, housing and education, I cannot understand what he is alluding to when he says that he wants to 'challenge people's perceptions'. Far from challenge, I think Perry has managed to confirm some people's entrenched and negative views of the travelling population. What aspects of the film celebrated the culture? When I put some of my concerns to Perry at the Q&A, he was keen to point out to me that it was not meant to be a 'bleeding heart documentary'...(not that I inferred that, his words, not mine)...and he 'told' me that ...I had to 'understand about the culture'. O.K Perry, so not only do you think you have a license to represent the traveller community ('I understand the language, it's my language now'), you obviously feel you can talk for others. As a professional involved in children's right's, I was concerned about your lack of sensitivity to Winnie and her mother. The boundaries in the film were so blurred, viewers were confused as to what was fact for the family and what was fiction. When a vulnerable 10year old child is brave enough to speak up for herself and ask for something quite specific (Please take out the glue sniffing scene as I am worried about what people may think of me), best case scenario, Perry, it could be seen as ignorance on your part to leave it in, worst case scenario, it could be perceived as abusive. In a world where the media groom and manipulate vulnerability for the purpose of achieving artistic recognition...well done, I'd say that's a 10 out of 10.

I worried that Pavee Lakeen would fall at one of two hurdles; either do-gooder worthiness in covering the subject matter, or the hokey staged quality often associated with both 'docu-dramas' and use of non-professional actors. No need to concern yourself on either count.

The fiction/documentary thing works to the degree that you forget you're looking at something that isn't pure documentary. The professional actors don't stick out like sore thumbs, and the feel of the entire film is very naturalistic.

In avoiding the urge to moralise, and investing so much time and effort in capturing the essence of the Maughan's day-to-day life, Perry Ogden has produced a real gem of a film. He managed to produce something that takes the qualities of his social reportage photography work, and extends it naturally into cinema. For a first feature, it exhibits nothing of the excessive tinkering you sometimes find. Ogden was blessed with a photogenic lead, but he avoids leaning on the aesthetic crutch he might have done.

The film isn't big on narrative, and don't go expecting plot resolutions, or arcs, or whatever. It's a great intimate snapshot of a girl's life, a family, and (unexpectedly) a city, in this moment in time. The 'issues' that the film touches on are handled with a light touch, and all the better for it.

One warning; I don't know if the film is shown with subtitles outside Ireland, but the accent/dialect of the Travellers will challenge some.

Let me say, straight away, that I am always suspicious of films that set themselves among the most under-privileged. There seems, for the most part some element of directors gazing down with virtuous intent from a great height onto these poor sods.

Pavee Lackeen suffers less than most from this syndrome, but it falls into the trap of thinking that a slice of life is the same thing as a slice of cinema. It isn't.

Two things stick out like a sore thumb in this film. The first is that it has no dramatic structure. We join the family of travellers on whom it focuses at, apparently, some random moment, some things happen, and then we leave them at another apparently equally random moment. On the way, have we seen character development? No. Have we been given any insight into the human psyche? No.

What we have had is a glimpse into the life of a young traveller girl, who is full of fun and life, and has lots of problems. We are sorry for her (we were probably that within five minutes of the start). We have learnt a few things about the way that travellers live in outer Dublin - but less than we might have by reading a well-written newspaper article.

At the screening I attended, the director, a nice man and former still photographer, declared himself to be in the line of film-making that came from Alan Clarke and early Ken Loach - that later Loach films, he thought, were too contrived. Hmmm. Yes. That says it all.

Here we have a naive belief that to film 'reality' without interference is art if that reality features the under-privileged. It isn't.

The director pointed out that it was shot on a minuscule budget (£320,000) - and, in fairness, he wasn't saying that this meant we had to make allowances.

It would be my belief that one of the most important things in a film is what is taken out. I don't mean edited. I mean that as much of what we see must be expressive and not confuse the viewer as to what each shot is about. Here, everything is cluttered and unstructured. I am not looking for 'beautiful squalor', but I am looking for some obvious attempt by the filmmakers to direct my eyes in a particular direction. I don't see it.

The 'acting' by these mainly non-professionals is fine. The archetypes created as characters are fine. But there is no structure and no visual strategy... that is, until the last shot, when the camera which has been jiggling about like a yo-yo for the rest of the film, is allowed to come to rest and in a single shot, say more about the plight of the characters than the previous 90 minutes - and for the first time, it uses non-diegetic music!! Great!

I saw a screening of the film at the DGA on Oct. 28th followed by a Q&A with director Perry Ogden. The film is shot documentary style with real people rather than actors and while it is scripted, there is a lot of improvisation and "real life" activity going on. The girl who is the focal point of the movie is terrific and it is amazing how matter-of-factly she goes about her daily life in a trailer with no running water. To his credit, director Perry Ogden does not delve into the rich versus poor clichés, but presents a very straightforward look at life for a family on the edge of the social system in modern Ireland. The film won top honors at the Galway Film Festival and has been well-received at other festivals as well.

A documentary-style snapshot of the life of a Traveller family in the docks area of Dublin. (Travellers are the Irish equivalent of Roma gypsies, but those two groups have entirely different histories.) A resilient mother and her ten children occupy trailers, or caravans as the Brits call them, on land owned by the local council. The film primarily follows Winnie, a ten year daughter, but the mother also plays an important role as she fights eviction notices and tries to improve the live of her children. Issues of discrimination, difficulties with the authorities and a social security net that, while well intentioned, can do little for the family are topics that permeate the film. Members of the family and their neighbors play themselves, while actors take up non-Traveller roles. The director should be commended for integrating professionals and non-professionals into a seamless whole.