Hilary Hook

In class today we watched director Molly Dineen’s documentary, ‘Home From The Hill’ (1984), which creates a portrait of Hilary Hook, an elderly English man who for almost the entirety of his life has lived abroad, but specifically the last 20 residing in Kenya, Africa.

We engaged in a discussion surrounding consent, namely informed consent, as well as the ethics of presenting characters with potentially racist views- was it right for director Molly Dineen to give these people a platform?
While there were no ‘outbursts’ of racism throughout the film, comments from Hook as well as his friends in England did seem to represent a mindset of a previous generation. Hook’s friend using, what are now considered slurs, such as “…coloured labour, chocolate chums…” to describe the help Hook had in Kenya, is seen as derogatory. Is it right that Dineen has chosen to include this discussion without any commentary on whether what they are saying is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’? Or is it simply implied by the context of the documentary itself, that Hook is out of touch with the modern world, as are his colleagues, and as such what they say is to be taken with a grain of salt? 

Personally, I don’t think (in this context) that what Dineen is doing, including this footage and having a lack of commentary on what Hook says, is wrong; because I believe there is an underlying context that Hook is out of touch and that those involved are apart of an older, and again out of touch, generation.