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Directed by Seamus Murphy, "A Dog Called Money"
juxtaposes scenes of Harvey observing and listening to local
people make music or sounds during her travels - such as men
chanting at a religious ceremony in Afghanistan - with shots of
her replicating those sounds in a recording studio in London.
The documentary features traffic jams, a busy market and calls
to prayer in Afghanistan while scenes from the United States
include the congregation of a church weeping, a young boy
telling of family members who have been shot in his neighborhood
and cheerleaders performing in the street.
"What initially drew me to Seamus's work and to track him down
as a possible collaborator was his ability to get out of the way
of the image, and let the image deliver its weight, uninhibited
with a message or judgement," Harvey said.
"His work allows us as viewers to enter, contemplate and then
extract meaning for ourselves," she added.
Murphy said Afghanistan and Kosovo seemed obvious places for him
and Harvey to travel to since he was familiar with them from his
earlier work and Washington appeared to complement those places
as the center of Western power that had played a role in
deciding the fate of those countries.
"And then I thought, well OK, Washington - we think of the
Capitol, we think of the White House, we think of democracy but
what about the other side of D.C. ... the poverty? A large
percentage of the population is African-American - what are
their lives like?"
"So we went to (the neighborhood of) Anacostia and we found a
very different story to what you see on Capitol Hill - we saw
things there and people living in situations that were far worse
than Afghanistan and Kosovo," he added.
Murphy also said he wanted to make people think about the cliche
that Afghans are starving and miserable all the time.
"My experience of Afghanistan, apart from terrible situations at
times, is of a very buoyant people, a very hospitable people and
people that have a lot of fun with each other so that's
important, I think, to show that side," he said.
The documentary - one of around 400 films showing at this year's
Berlinale - also shows people watching through one-way glazing
as Harvey performs in a specially constructed recording studio.
(Additional reporting and writing by Michelle Martin; Editing by
Dale Hudson)
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