Probably. So, when we decided we would go see a film playing at the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis, we had 149 films to choose from, ranging from movies about Christmas starring Willie Nelson (yes, THE Willie Nelson) to a robot love story. How can you not love the variety presented to you at a film festival? We chose to see a film called "Forbidden Voices", about three female bloggers living under totalitarian regimes in Cuba, China, and Iran, and doing nothing more radical than sharing the truth about life in these countries with those of us in the rest of the world.
Yoani Sanchez seems to be the central figure of the story. She's the Cuban blogger who began her blog in 2007, sharing stories about how life is in Castro's Cuba. She lives in Havana, and through her eyes, you see how the government attempts to control every aspect of Cuban's lives - from what they can buy at the market, to how and when they are allowed to travel internationally, to what they see on the state-run television stations, and how, where, and what they can access on the Internet. One of the things Yoani talked about really stuck with me...she said that basically, the thing that kept her relatively safe, and as free as a Cuban can be under Communism, was that her blog got over 14 million hits a month. It's difficult to make someone "disappear" who has been mentioned by world leaders like President Obama, and made Time Magazine's list of the Top 100 Most Influential People.
Farnaz Seifi is the Iranian blogger, though she ended up fleeing Iran to Germany to avoid persecution for the truths told in her blog. Many fellow Iranians had done the same, though the government didn't give up on harassing their families trying to find out where they were after they had fled. She cannot even go back to Iran to visit her family, and talked about how difficult it is to miss sharing their lives.
Zeng Jinyan of China, where free speech is technically a right guaranteed in the Chinese Constitution, was on house arrest for the majority of the time she was filmed for the movie. It started out with police following her everywhere she went, to them trying to stop her from leaving by standing in her way, to finally posting a round the clock police presence outside of their apartment building. Her husband was also an activist, and was sent to prison for 3 years for his part in telling the truth. The couple's daughter spent the first years of her life without a father, and confined to a small apartment while the government kept her mother on house arrest.
While we are tangentially aware of stories like those told by these women, they don't make headlines every day in the US. We know that these regimes do not tolerate dissent, but we don't hear much of the lengths they will go to to keep their people from speaking out and learning the truth. Yoani mentioned that most people in Cuba didn't learn about the fall of the Berlin Wall until 10 years after it had happened - the same with the events that occurred in China's Tienanmen Square. Those of us lucky enough to have been born in free countries can't even fathom not having news at our fingertips.
What can we do to change things? It's a tough question. In the case of Cuba, our government still doesn't want people traveling there without a good purpose, though President Obama has relaxed the regulations in recent years. And the Cuban government isn't too keen on letting it's people share stories of the way life really is there. There was a great organization that helped these women out in the movie though - Reporters Without Borders - who advocate for press freedom all over the world and work to keep journalists safe. You can donate to their cause, or just further inform yourself about what lengths journalists in other countries have to go to in order to speak the truth, whereas we American's can happily spout about whatever we want, whenever we want, on a million different social media sites on a daily basis. Sure makes you think...
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