A Schoolgirl's Odyssey: An NY Times Documentry by Adam Ellick

Commenting on a latest Frontline documentary, Stephan Walt, asserted following lines: “One should watch most documentaries with a skeptical eye, because skilled filmmakers can easily slant the story by omitting any footage that doesn't fit the impression they are trying to leave and by shaping the story in ways that reinforce a particular conclusion.” I also had similar thoughts when I watched NY Times correspondent Adam Ellick’s recent short documentary about Post offensive Swat titled as “ A Schoolgirl’s Odyssey”. The video report has been critically acclaimed in Pakistani blogosphere as Kalsoom at Changing Up Pakistan wrote a post on it. In the comments section of the post, the movie is labeled as a “great piece of journalism”. On contrary, I believe it can’t be called “a great piece journalism” because Ellick is not presenting it without any intention to “reinforce a particular conclusion”

The Journey of Malala, the twelve year old girl from Mingora,Swat , from her home to her life as an IDP living at different places and back to her home after three months, is perplexing. I fell in love with her courageous attitude when she narrates that she has changed her dream from becoming a doctor to becoming a politician because she wants to fight the crisis in her country. Few moments later, I was bewildered when she said that “she is shameful” of Pakistani Army because Army used her school as a “Bunker” while fighting a war. Following that, Malala, further goes on to confusing the viewer by iterating that “Taliban destroyed us” while pointing towards a hole created in the wall because of the bullets fired through it, after reading the statement “welcome to Pakistan” written on the wall, supposedly, by the Army. After watching this I can say with certainty that there is an attempt to convey a particular message about Pakistan army by the filmmaker. The girl who was optimistic and wanted to be a politician with an aim in mind to bring reforms to this country full of problems cannot be ignorant of the fact that she has to sacrifice something to get her Swat and her School back from the miscreants. It is only because of the Army and the fact that they used her house as a military post that she is back to her school again and her school will be functional soon. Ellick manipulated the thoughts of the girl to make a point against Pakistan Army.

My point is further supported by another manipulation in the movie when Urdu text of a letter supposedly from Pakistan Army left for Ziauddin, Malala’s father, was read inaccurately in English “We have lost many dear and precious lives because of the negligence of Swati people”, says Ziauddin while reading the letter. On the other hand, those who can read Urdu from the shown letter content itself can tell that he is not speaking what is written there in the letter. I can’t translate the whole letter here, but the letter does not uses any such words that it is because of the people of Swat that the Army has lost these many lives.

In short, Mr. Ellick is trying to leave a specific impression by this documentary which is contradictory to many facts on the ground.