HIFF Review: A Paradise Lost is a beautiful multi-media plea to look at the world from a bird's-eye view
There are so many ways to tell a story. There are so many different media, all the genres within those media, sub-genres, means of distribution, on and on. Different people respond more or less to different means of storytelling. You never know what the key might be to unlock someone's empathy or interest. But what we do know is that we, as humans, are storytellers, and we respond to storytelling. It's the way we make sense of the world, find meaning in it, and figure out out place within it.
There are plenty of documentaries made about environmental issues that approach their subjects in a more head-on manner: infographics, talking heads, footage of animals in their natural habitats, stock footage, etc. etc. A lot of documentaries that are made that way are really good, powerful, engaging. It's a solid way to make a doc, and one that can impart a lot of useful information in a way that makes sense. And in A Paradise Lost, there's plenty of filmmaking that falls within that tradition. Lots of great stock footage, interviews with various people who have worked to protect the palila as the population has continued to dwindle, footage of palila flitting in the trees on the slopes of Mauna Kea, the mountain where they live.
Without getting too into the nitty-gritty, the palila's existence is threatened because they survive off of a specific tree, and those trees are being eaten by goats, sheep, and other animals that roams the mountain mainly as game for hunting. The palila itself was names as the plaintiff in the case, which helped it garner a lot of media attention, and the ruling came in the plantiff's favor. Despite that, the case has dragged on for decades (the original decision was in 1981, not long after the Endangered Species Act of 1973 was enacted), and the number of palilas living in the wild have dipped below a thousand. The fight continues on.
And, because the film feels more like what you expect a documentary to feel like as it goes on, it makes the moments where it ventures into more creative or poetic territory pop all the more. My favorite scene, one that I'll carry with me forever, lets extinct Hawaiian birds speak from beyond the grave, noting the years of their extinction. It is a powerful chorus, a scene that is executed in with such perfect, haunting beauty, I was weeping.
Laurie Sumiye, whose documentary A Paradise Lost chronicles to long fight to protect the palila (an endemic species that lives on Hawai'i's Big Island), understands how powerful these different storytelling means are. Her documentary is so many things, and tells its story in so many ways. It's creative, immediate, emotional, and all feels like it belongs together, almost like there's no other way this story could be properly told.
There are plenty of documentaries made about environmental issues that approach their subjects in a more head-on manner: infographics, talking heads, footage of animals in their natural habitats, stock footage, etc. etc. A lot of documentaries that are made that way are really good, powerful, engaging. It's a solid way to make a doc, and one that can impart a lot of useful information in a way that makes sense. And in A Paradise Lost, there's plenty of filmmaking that falls within that tradition. Lots of great stock footage, interviews with various people who have worked to protect the palila as the population has continued to dwindle, footage of palila flitting in the trees on the slopes of Mauna Kea, the mountain where they live.
And all of that stuff is a valuable piece of the larger picture here, one that wants to impart how key the palila's continued existence is in a philosophical sense and a spiritual sense, along with the more practical reasoning. But there's also recognition that some people just will not care about the plight of a bird that doesn't necessarily contribute to humanity's well-being in any concrete way. How do you convince someone that life is worth preserving, that any species going extinct is a tragedy and a failure, that a tiny bird that lives at a specific altitude on a specific mountain on a specific island has value in this world?
A great starting point would be to show them A Paradise Lost. Structured in four acts (each named for a season, a structuring principle I always love), Sumiye smartly starts off her film using perhaps unexpected techniques. The doc is narrated from the perspective of Ānuenue, the stuffed palila who sat on the counsel's table at a historic court case. Kaipo Schwab provides the voice, and does a brilliant, beautiful job, imbuing his character with wisdom, gentleness, and a lyrical matter-of-factness that often feels like magic. Throughout this first act, Ānuenue often narrates via poetry, finding clever rhymes to describes the various ups and downs of the case, and his participation within it. Later in the film, there's music and song that further enhance the sense of place. There are moments of folklore that give a mythological dimension to the importance of this situation, a weight that feels like it comes from beyond our world.
And -- as you might guess since I'm reviewing the movie here -- there's a lot of animation used. Like I Was Born This Way, this isn't an animated documentary, but rather on that uses a lot of animation (Sumiye told me in an email about 25 minutes of the film's 89-minute runtime are animated -- not too shabby). Even the animation is quite varied in its use and presentation, sometimes providing graphic qualities to show the encroaching threat of human interference on the palila's habitat, other times bringing the folklore stories to life, other times placing characters over live-action imagery to bridge worlds real and imagined. The animation is often very colorful, and has a rough/frenzied quality to it that enhances the immediacy of the film's message: scribbled, hurried lines, color seeping out beyond shapes' borders, expressive motion given to things long-dead. The most key use of animation is bringing Ānuenue to life. As the film goes on, we return to him time and time again, still standing on his little perch, still looking for hope in a situation that often feels hopeless.
Without getting too into the nitty-gritty, the palila's existence is threatened because they survive off of a specific tree, and those trees are being eaten by goats, sheep, and other animals that roams the mountain mainly as game for hunting. The palila itself was names as the plaintiff in the case, which helped it garner a lot of media attention, and the ruling came in the plantiff's favor. Despite that, the case has dragged on for decades (the original decision was in 1981, not long after the Endangered Species Act of 1973 was enacted), and the number of palilas living in the wild have dipped below a thousand. The fight continues on.
As we move through the other seasons, the film starts to tread for firmly in more familiar documentary conventions, chronicling the ongoing legal battle, following initiatives to revive the habitat and preserve palila numbers, and also diving into the other side's qualms with meddling with their hunting grounds. While the film is clearly on the side of protecting the palila, it doesn't feel like it's blaming or casting judgment on the hunters who have always lived this way and known this way of life. One hunter talks candidly about the contradictions he feels as someone who relies on the goats as a food source, but also feels called as a native Hawaiian to help protect his homeland. It's possible to hold multiple, contradictory feelings, even truths, inside you, and the film doesn't shy away from that.
And, because the film feels more like what you expect a documentary to feel like as it goes on, it makes the moments where it ventures into more creative or poetic territory pop all the more. My favorite scene, one that I'll carry with me forever, lets extinct Hawaiian birds speak from beyond the grave, noting the years of their extinction. It is a powerful chorus, a scene that is executed in with such perfect, haunting beauty, I was weeping.
It really speaks to how thoughtful Sumiye's approach to this subject matter is. It feels like the rare case where a filmmaker got to have her cake and eat it, too. A Paradise Lost explores the plight of the palila in the past, the present, and the future. It explores scientific fact, and mythological origin stories. It looks at the big picture and the small actors actions that make that picture so big. And it gives voice a brilliant, jubilant little bird that will hopefully be around for many more years to come.
A Paradise Lost is playing at Hawai'i International Film Festival on October 19, October 21, and November 14. You can find more info, including ticketing information, here.
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