A festival of films is always a cause to celebrate - even more so when it is a collection of documentary films that illuminate our understanding of human rights.
We are well aware of the self-abuse humankind is capable of; television, newspapers, Hollywood blockbusters are full of it. However, it is another matter to ask whether we actually feel anything for the victims, or for that matter the perpetrators of the violence and oppression, we see on our screens.
How can I identify with an Iraqi I see for a fraction of a second on a broken down video - one minute they are there and the next minute they are gone, lost forever amongst the infinite images of death and oppression. Our conscience may tell us to care, but we are limited by our lack of ability to find genuine empathy for strangers and a disconnected image stirs little emotion in us. Without empathy, we are as lost as they are and the chance to ever understand why this happened disappears.
Luckily communication has the potential to save us - I can meet you, talk with you, get to know you and then maybe feel some genuine emotion towards you. Whether it's good or bad is another matter! But from then on you are no longer a stranger to me and I can begin to understand you.
Unfortunately I can't meet everybody on the planet! In fact, despite the shrinking effect of globalisation, the gaps in humanity seem to be expanding. The chances are most of the clothes people are wearing in Glasgow today and the food they eat were produced in a country they've never been to, by people they've never met. That doesn't just leave us disconnected from those we depend on across the world but also from our own communities. In Britain the days of local produce and grannies' home-knitted sweaters are no more! Instead our world in the 21st century has become dependant on a global industry serviced by mass communication. The technology of media has become an integral part of our lives - internet, mobile phones, how did we ever live without them? It's as if in some kind of science fiction film we are fusing with machines and as a result our language is changing.
We live in a world led by visual language - we mimic the adverts we see on television - communicating through images via our mobile phones; surfing the internet; filming our holidays; flicking schizophrenically through the hundreds of channels - violence, sex, spin, adverts, back to violence. But what does it all mean? Are the images ever presented in a context where we can truly understand their real meaning? When was the last time you saw an advert that came with the warning: 'This image has been constructed to make you want to buy Product XXX!' The traffic of information seems to be going only in one direction. Discussing this lack of dialogue a friend of mine joked that I should text a response to every image I saw. I tried for a day or two but the amount of messages I would have to send was well into the thousands. My mobile versus endless adverts had no chance! In this fusion of technology and humankind it seems the mass media always wins.
But, since its very conception, by engaging directly with the changing world through the language of film a dialogue can be created across the gaps that exist in humankind. The film-makers who discovered this went out into the world and used their cameras skilfully as both a witness and a participant provoking the expression that became documentary. The best of these films gave us the opportunity to engage with what we didn't understand and the space and imagination to discover why.
Today, the potential of documentary is as critical as ever but in the mass media context of television and advertising it remains sadly unfulfilled. Confined in our own houses the experience of what we see remains isolated and the demands of commerce disconnect the images from their meanings. The black and white footage of an Iraqi being vaporised by a helicopter gunship ceases to register as a reality. This is why when a film festival comes along it is a cause to celebrate - finally, we have a chance to turn the tables, discover a more authentic language of images and partake in the use of technology as a tool of emancipation.
In the shared viewing experience where films can be presented in their rightful context and where debate and discussion can flourish, the true opportunity of documentary is fulfilled. Here, documentary can go far further than merely cataloguing and recording the self-abuse of humankind. It gives us the chance to get to know those who are strangers, the chance to feel emotion and understanding on a mass scale - a rare opportunity for humankind to partake in a collective experience from which it can truly learn.
Simon Hipkins is a documentary film-maker. His film The Spring Dream is playing in Document 2. He also worked as cameraman and editor on Tanja Milicic's Patchwork.