wittelcw

Just saw this film at SIFF. I didn't think the film showed respect for the people/situations being filmed and appeared more driven by a desire to manipulate/control the audience than anything else. The film takes the viewer to scenes with the potential to provoke meaningful thought and discussion long after the film is over, but instead chooses to make sure the audience is getting it the way the film maker wants it to be got which leads to a very long, drawn-out musical-visual head-banging of the self serving variety. The tortilla-making couple with dreams of travel to Los Angeles was a beautiful contrast in dreams vs. reality and the film maker's respect for this couple was clear. This also came across with the people gathering items discarded in the water. Rather than listening to a one-liner statement about themselves (directed by the camera where to stand), we were able to listen in to a conversation about how they were collecting discarded items and were not thieves -- in their own words. This was not the case with some of the more difficult-to-view segments where the the film became more manipulative/exploitive such as with the dye worker. The scene with the dye-worker, as with many of the scenes, forced the character to stand there for the camera and give a canned statement about their dreams which told us nothing about the character other than that he or she was cooperative with the film maker. It would have taken more time and effort to show some respect for the characters, but I felt the goal was to get some quick footage for his film and then get the hell out of there.