Director: Chloe Ruthven.
Starring: Chloe Ruthven.
Running Time: 75 minutes.
Certificate: TBA.
Synopsis: Chloe Ruthven decides to explore a highly personal subject in her third documentary. She remembers her grandparents’ aid work in Palestine and goes to the country to document the current aid work, but soon finds out that not everyone is the same kind of ‘do gooder’ as her grandparents were.
THE DO GOODERS is not a film about Palestine or even the political conflict going on there, but instead an unravelling story about the circumstances and politics of aid workers. Are there any genuine aid workers out there who are helping as much as and in the same way that her grandparents did? Ruthven compares the circumstances of the aid workers currently in Palestine to a party town and gap year destination for many young people; something to do while deciding what to do in life, whilst helping to clear the conscience.
An interesting tone is set from the start where Ruthven discusses the discomfort she feels seeing condescending Westerners in their sympathetic yet misguided way of helping the Palestinians. She soon removes herself from the exploitative and voyeuristic way of helping and teams up with Lubna, a Palestinian woman who has strong negative views on international aid. The documentary takes a turn and Ruthven must work together with the hostile Lubna, while she stands divided between believing in the international aid work and discovering the corruption and futility behind it.
THE DO GOODERS explores the Western desire to help and rescue the less fortunate, and is seen from the point of view of those who do attempt to help, but also by Palestinians who are receiving the wrong form of help and struggle with coming off as ungrateful. However, the real problem is that nothing is changing. It is not that the rate of change is slow or too minimal, but that there is in fact no improvements made and the Palestinian people are left suffering while the politics of the problem goes around in circles. They are helped to survive the occupation, instead of having any efforts made on removing the occupation. However, nothing can be done due to the heavy political issue which aid workers are faced with in the Palestine/Israel refugee situation. Ruthven gets increasingly frustrated and shares her disappointment as she slowly and painfully realises that there is no political framework set. Instead she is faced with the disillusion of aid workers, sufferers and members of the media alike.
The documentary even goes so far as to include a tremendous revelation that USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) are in fact pretending to help distract the Palestinians and other international helpers while they work with the Israeli government. The USAID conspiracy is described as ‘spending money on useless things to buy time’. The concept of buying time while people suffer is terrifying and could have been pursued further, but is left up in the air in THE DO GOODERS. However, Ruthven goes on a tangent and abandons the politically corrupt story to explore her guilt and emotions as she tries to have a friendship with Lubna.
THE DO GOODERS is a true eye-opener and examines tremendously terrifying elements and truths of a very disturbing situation which has gone on for too long. However, Ruthven leaves the most important discoveries to focus on her less important and more personal unfinished business with her grandparents and her sense of guilt and responsibility.
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