Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1088108
24 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 3 MARCH 2019 OPINION Raphael Vassallo Seven seconds in Sliema… I imagine it must be obvious by now that I've been watch- ing a lot of movies recently, and that this occasionally gets reflected in my articles. That's the thing with moving pictures, you know: even a short moment, captured on film, can adequately sum up an entire mood or complex frame of mind. And when you surround yourself with such images all the time (and have deadlines looming ever closer) it becomes hard not to start viewing everything in terms of a living, breathing movie… in which you yourself take the place of the roving, all-seeing camera eye. It can be a useful approach, too, if you're trying to set a scene, or get a point across quickly with words. But it does have certain drawbacks. One is that your 'all-seeing camera' doesn't always neces- sarily reflect the truth – the whole truth, and nothing but the truth – of everything it sees. Another is that… um… it's not really 'all-seeing', is it? What about all the stuff outside the visible frame? Yet another is that… you're the cameraman now. You choose what details to focus on, and what lines of dialogue to make audible. And, like any film-maker… you have your own bias. You have your own personal reasons for wanting the reader to 'see only this', or 'hear mostly that', or 'not pay too much attention to the other'… All of which is great: if you are, in fact, a director mak- ing a movie on a movie set. But when writing about real events or issues, which have real effects on real people… it can be a little... misleading. Naturally, I can only think of a movie clip to illustrate this point. Not from any Oscar- nominated feature film: just a seven-second I-phone grab of an incident that took place in Bisazza Street, Sliema, a few days ago. The clip shows a young man, background, violently kicking a glass shop door. There is a quick (and impres- sively accurate) zoom onto him. On the second kick, the door opens and he rushes in and punches an unseen female inside – hard - who screams loudly off-camera on impact. The action is almost one complete movement, all viewed distantly in the back- ground: in the foreground are a few random pedestrians walking up the street, and we hear 'oohing' and 'aah-ing' at both the kicks, and (louder) at the sound of punch/scream. Then the clip ends. Seven seconds in total: eleven, if you also include the annoy- ing 'You can skip this ad in: 4,3,2…' [Note to Youtube advertisers: of course I'm going to skip the bloody ad. And while I'm at it, I'm going to boycott all your products forever, too.] Like any good, controver- sial movie, this one stands out more for the immediate aftermath of its circulation (even though, as a film in its own right, it's actually pretty well-shot). Immediately it went viral; questions were asked about whether the man was going to be arrested, etc. In a word, it became a social media 'thing'. Later (yesterday) we learnt that the Rapid Intervention Unit had indeed been dis- patched to the scene of the crime – confirming that a report must have been made – but found that "the shop-own- er refused to press charges on what was minimal damage, while the victim refused to cooperate with the police to identify the aggressor." In the meantime (i.e., before that last detail came out yes- terday) the Women's Rights Foundation and several organisations – the Associa- tion for Equality, Dar Merhba Bik Foundation, Fondazzjoni Sebh, Malta Confederation of Women Organisations, Malta Association of Women in Business, Men Against Violence, and the St Jeanne Antide Foundation – issued a joint statement: "We are very disappointed to hear that no police action has been duly taken against the visible and identifiable aggressor that intentionally went in a rage to attack his partner at her place of work. […] It is an offence that need not rely on the complaint of the injured party. When brought to the attention, authorities have the obliga- tion to exercise due diligence, investigate and take the necessary criminal action. No complaint from the injured party is required in such cases." Later that same day, the po- lice issued a terse press state- ment, revealing the above