Five short documentaries: About Employment, Wait For Me, Keeping Balance, Yours&Mine, In Decision, and Mister Sunshine. All excellent short-form documentaries I have had the opportunity to watch this week. This post is going to detail why they are excellent.
About Employment is documentary about a disabled person’s struggle trying to find a job. The documentary is interview. The primary interview takes place in front of computer where the documentaries b-roll is being edited with the interviewee present. This serves as the source of the film’ structure. Here, the interviewee describes the process of preparing for an interview— getting dressed, making coffee, crossing the street, and attending the interview — the while the interviewer describes what is happening on screen. B-roll is intercut with the interview during these sequences.
This unique format of structure allows a personal look into how the interviewee views the fact that a documentary is being made about her, and more personal, raw opinions reveal themselves. One example is her anger at essentially being viewed as “a monkey in cage.” Additionally, this structure does not take away from the story. There is clear narrative arc for the film. This structure combined with the message of the film create a very powerful end product.
Wait For Me explores a mother’s emotional anguish after her son disappears. This film is interview based and uses b-roll intercut with the interview. This film does an excellent job presenting the struggle of family and the difficulty of letting someone go. The lighting, interview setup and overall tone of the movie makes it emotionally heavy on the viewer.
Yours and Mine is documentary driven by visuals, and all of those visuals are excellent. The focus racks, closeups, and excellent conversation all add to the little girl’s day. However, it does not add enough to make this documentary memorable for me. It seems more like an observation than an active story. This one is good, but not memorable.
In Decision, like Pockets from the last post are excellent conceptual pieces. They do not go on for two long and provide a broad perspective on the topic. The use of black and white removes any sort difference in background or time of the viewers. In other words, indecision in is a common problem that all humans face. It is a part of life. The film excellently illustrates this point.
“Joyous” and “Nostalgic” are the two words I would use to describe Mister Sunshine. The story portrayed in this documentary is excellent as the viewer sees and old man reminisce on his troublesome youth. This film excellently illustrates its themes.
Overall all the films this selection were good. None stuck out to me as low quality. All them strive for different goals, and for the most part they meet those goals.
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