I was sent a copy of a review from The New York Times
accompanied by a link for a new documentary from Werner Herzog the German
filmmaker. Herzog, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders, was
said to be one of the leading lights of the New German Cinema and is probably
best known for feature films that include Aquirre,
The Wrath of God (1972), The Enigma
of Kasper Hauser (1974), Fitzcarraldo
(1982) Rescue Dawn (2007) and the
unfortunate remake of The Bad Lieutenant
(2009). Although he has also made many documentaries this latest is only 35
minutes long and is seen as a wee bit of a departure for the man that Francois
Truffaut called ‘the most important film
director alive’
This most recent piece of work, From One Second to the Next
(2013), released on line, demonstrates the perils of texting on a mobile phone
while driving. Financed by four of America’s largest wireless carriers with the
intention of being distributed to over 40,000 high schools in the US. Described
by The New York Times as an ‘art-house
public service announcement’ it forms part of AT&T’s It Can Wait campaign urging young people
to put their mobiles away while driving and that no text message, e-mail,
website or video is worth the risk of endangering your own life or the lives of
others while driving.
This poignantly emotional project tells the true-life
stories of four accidents caused by this popular communication method, each one
told by the people involved. Valetta Bradford the mother of Xzavier relates the
first story called The X Man, about a
sporty and active eight years old who was hit by a vehicle 3 years ago while
crossing the street with his sister and left paralysed. The driver of the car
was speeding in a school zone and texting ‘I’m on my way’
 |
| Xzavier Bradford. |
The second story A
Letter from Martin is told by Chandler Gerber who was sending a text to his
wife which said ‘I love you’ when he crashed into an Amish horse and buggy
killing a 17 year old boy, a 5 year old girl and a 3 year old boy. The father
sent a letter to Gerber forgiving him for killing his children. What Gerber
really wants is to be able to turn the clock back.
 |
| Chandler Gerber. |
Debbie was an active and outgoing woman who had a good job
that involved travelling the world, before taking her dog for a walk one
morning when she was hit by a car being driven by a teenage girl. The dog took
the full force of the blow and was killed while Debbie is now completely
dependant on her family. Her sight is not good; she has no memory because her
brain was damaged along with her neck and many other parts of her body. In Our Sister Debbie we find out the
hospital bills amounted to over 1million dollars which the young girls
Liability insurance
only paid out 50,000 dollars. Although Debbie life has been damaged forever the
girl got 30 days in prison and some community service.
 |
| Debbie (left) |
In the final part of the documentary, Reaching for the Stars, we find out that Reggie Shaw could not
remember the massage he was texting when he caused a crash in 2006 that killed
two scientists and ruined another driver’s life by loosing him his livelihood.
Shaw crossed the centre line and clipped a car that span out of control and was
hit side on by a truck. We see some very graphic pictures of the vehicles
involved and find out that the accident affected not only the victim’s families
but also Reggie Shaw he has never got over this terrible catastrophe. He has
spent the last 7 years devoting his life to speaking publically about the
dangers of texting and driving.
 |
| The accident that Reggie Shaw caused. |
Its an honest endeavour by Herzog to make a film with the
sole aim of warning drivers not to text whilst driving and informs us that
there are over 100,000 accidents each year involving drivers who are texting
and that the numbers are climbing.
The New York Times article concludes by telling us that ‘The National Safety Council estimated that
roughly 200,000 crashes in 2011 involved texting; and an AT&T Wireless
survey found that 75 percent of teenagers say texting while driving is “common”
among their friends. Whether or not Mr. Herzog’s film can actually reduce those
figures, the project sets a high standard for how corporations can educate the
public’. I have placed a link to You Tube so that you can
watch this documentary, but I warn you its very moving and may in fact bring a
tear to your eye. [1]
No comments:
Post a Comment