After a few years of ‘radio-silence’ IDFA decided to give again special attention to online projects with their program Docs Online. The Story of Boris was noticed by the editors of IDFA and mentioned at a special lecture during the festival. More online storytelling is assembled on their website, which gives an interesting variety of projects to browse on.
The sessions of Boris are completed, but the story isn’t finished. During the publishing of the dossier a specific combination of a session and a file was presented. There was always a certain connection between the two. But there are many more connections to make, with different files, what may change your opinion on Boris’s story. The coming period new files will be published and new combinations with existing files will be presented at the homepage. With this remixed version new and old visitors are given the opportunity to enter the story of Boris again.
Filmrelease beginning 2006.
The website is completed; a full dossier on Boris is formed. The central line, the sessions, has resulted in an exposure of the most traumatic event. By browsing the sessions and the files, the visitor of the website can form a well-founded opinion on the story of Boris.
But the story of Boris continues. At the beginning of 2006 a film under the same title will be released. It will be based on the material of the web dossier. So as a visitor of the website you have an inside look on the origin and the full context of the used material. Therefore you can see if in your opinion the interpretation of the filmmakers will honour the truth as expressed by Boris.
Session 15 this week, the final session. This session would be called ‘the exposure’ by professionals. It is a session prepared by patient and therapist in the time before and is very structured. The patient has to choose a traumatic event, best is to choose the most traumatic event regarding the PTSD symptoms. Together with the therapist the patient reconstructs the event step by step, minute by minute. With as many details as possible and with special attention for sensory perception. Everything that is necessary to create a complete and vivid remembrance.
It may seem contradictional to relive an event that caused such a trauma. Most of the traumatic memories are dominated by strong feelings of fear, pain or death agony. The narrative of the event is very often overwhelmed by these emotions. To recreate this narrative helps the patient to (partly) step out of the event and look at it without being completely overtaken by these emotions. Very often the exposure session is (audio)taped and the patient is asked to relisten his own story again and again in combination with breathing exercises, which gives in many cases a remarkable improvement in the patients condition.
In this update the final session of the Story of Boris, session 15, and the file named S1 Scar.
Again a link to a BBC site, but it is justified by it’s quality. This radioprogramm (downloadable) will give you a perfect scientific insight in what memory is. All of that within a few minutes! To the point and lucid information.
Now Boris’ story almost comes to its climax it is interesting to put our storyline in perspective by this analytical radiodocument. It explains choices we made in developing the storyline. How Boris behaves, the development in the treatment, where the psychiatrist focusses on. Especially the way the memory gets fragmented within traumatic events and how to resolve this, is explained clearly.
In this update session 14 of the 15 sessions and three files: E1 Evacuation, N2 Nightshot and O1 Offensive.
Guards who abuse prisoners. Soldiers celebrating their leave where silence would be in order, remembering the thousands of victims. Pictures from inside, made without political goal. They show images which are normally hidden, out of reach for journalists. For some reason the perpetrators are willing to put them on film.
Why do they record these acts? Is it sheer aggressiveness? Do they want to show of, displaying their willingness to carry out these deeds? Or is it even a search for the wrath of the world, to encounter their possible guilt. It’s a strange phenomenon that we can actually show the atrocities refugees tell us about. In session 11 and session12 we find examples regarding the story of Boris. Pictures made by the same militia Boris was a member of.
Last night on television, a BBC Panorama documentary on British soldiers who suffer from PTSD. In World War I they called it shell shock, today soldiers who are send on a peacekeeping mission under UN command endure different kinds of intrusive experiences. “Normally a soldier fights, takes care of the wounded and grieves over his dead comrades and then prepares for the next battle. But now we encountered different situations. We had to deal with families, killed children, bury mothers…”, so tells one of the main characters. On the BBC website you can find more on this documentary.
