Icarus Films has set Aug. 4 for the DVD debut of
documentary Tim Slade’s The Destruction of Memory,
which in turn is based on Robert Bevan’s 2005 book, “The Destruction of Memory:
Architecture at War.”
Bevan’s book took a look at war and the destruction
of landmarks, even entire cities, and argued that it is not always a by-product
of combat, but often the destruction of architecture; its obliteration, is a
conscious act to erase cultures. He used
examples ranging from the decimation of the Aztec culture by Cortez to Hitler’s
1938 “Night of Broken Glass” (Kristallnacht) and more to illustrate to the
deliberate use of destruction as a form of “cultural genocide” (his words).
Filmmaker Tim Slade (Blank
Canvas, 4, I was Robert Mitchum)
used Bevan’s book as a backbone for his documentary, which is more contemporary
in tone, focusing on such events as the looting of the Iraqi National Museum,
the destruction of the national library in Sarajevo, the Stari Most shelling in
Mostar and more.
Slade sketches out the early efforts by Polish
lawyer Raphael Lemkin to build an international legal framework and details
about the landmark 1954 “Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural
Property in the Event of Armed Conflict” and then blends in interviews — along with
some very dramatic footage — with various experts on the subject, including
Fatou Bensouda of the International Criminal Court, Irina Bokova, the
Director-General of UNESCO, Corine Wegener of the Smithsonian Institution,
among others.
Icarus Films timing is exceptional, in that
contemporary news is filled with headlines featuring the destruction of
monuments throughout the United States by angry mobs. At first glace, these actions appear random,
but in light of Tim Slade’s The Destruction of Memory film,
it could be argued that such actions as pulling down the statues of Ulysses S.
Grant and Francis Scott Key in Golden State Park in San Francisco are actually
with purpose.
This award-winning film is narrated by Sophie
Okonedo (Oscar-nominated for her performance in Hotel
Rwanda).
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