Despite the recent onslaught of medical warnings against it, people are lighting up cigarettes across UB: outside of Capen or the Student Union, alone or with a friend. Smoking cigarettes has always, and continues to be, a major part of some people's lives all across the world. Will it ever stop?
Smoke, a documentary by Paul Hage, screened at the local Buffalo Niagara Film Festival on Wednesday. The film takes place in downtown Buffalo on Chippewa Street, along with several other cities across the country.
Reflecting back to when cigarettes were first becoming popular and smoking was not seen as a harmful addiction, the documentary progresses by gathering individual perspectives on the issue, garnering disturbing truths from these confessions.
Hage, a member of the sound department on the film Black Dawn, does an excellent job of illustrating how addictive cigarette smoking is. Hage tries to show the many ways to seek help, from a 1-800 hotline that offers guidance and positive alternatives to smoking to doctors speaking at seminars on its negative effects.
Throughout Smoke, a handful of people admit that the habit stemmed from a lack of will power and, eventually, boredom.
A theatrical dancer was filmed in the documentary, stating after five minutes that she could not breathe. 'How come she can't quit when it is affecting what she wants to do with the rest of her life, and who she wants to become?' the documentary asked.
The conclusion: it's not easy. What is it going to take for society, both young and old, to realize that we only live once and that life is already too short for smoking to take away twenty years?
Hage's observation and examination of this overall question works to construct an informative, potentially life-changing short film that smokers and non-smokers should experience.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
