Feelings almost too deep for tears – Freedom from Despair
DENNIS KUCINICH
“First of all, I want to thank Brenda for what is really an achievement in following your father’s story and sharing it with the world. It’s an important story. As I was watching this I was reminded of some words from a poem by Wordsworth where he talks about feelings that almost were too deep for tears….That’s why this work by Brenda is so important because it really reflects a broader human experience of war itself and the genesis of war, the idea of the inevitability of war. We really need to challenge that thinking which produces war. Your work gets into the thinking and the ideology of war, the violation of human rights which precedes war…..One of the things that I think was so important in the film was this meeting a hall where one of the persons stood up and said “look, they…” at this point we know who “they” were, “they don’t really care about Croatians. They don’t care about the Serbians either!” In a sense people were left without any kind of help from the world outside. It was almost as if it was their thing and we shouldn’t get involved. You told the story in depth that needed to be told about the suffering of the Croatian people…..We can never excuse violence of any kind, but I think when you see the human experience that has occurred here, it’s so profound when we start to realize the tragedy, the human tragedy on such a scale that effects so many people that it leaves an indelible imprint on people, makes it very hard to let go of the war, but you did this! The thing that is so powerful here, you really did this without any hatred. There was no hatred here. This was not a propaganda film. Anybody who would try to label it that didn’t see it! Because you did it without any bitterness, without any hatred and you did it, in a sense, the escape from despair here, is really a celebration of the human spirit, that’s why it is so powerful. I mean really, she deserves so much credit for making this film.”
http://www.freedomfromdespair.com/