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katy
I recently returned from a brief trip to the Sundance Film Festival where I saw two important docs in competition.
Laura Poitras’ THE OATH offers astonishing access to professional jihadists in Yemen. Shot by Kirsten Johnson, edited by Jonathan Oppenheim and with Laura (MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY) at the helm, all of us in the audience knew we were about to experience a work of art.
To me it felt like a thriller, perched on the edge of my seat in suspense for the next revelation from Guantánamo or a taxicab in Sana’a. You almost have to rub your eyes, you can’t believe what you’re seeing. THE OATH is going places—and in style to boot.
Two days later we saw Amir Bar-Lev’s devastating retelling of Pat Tillman’s journey through fame, glory and betrayal in THE TILLMAN STORY. I’m only sorry that Amir didn’t get to keep the title he preferred: I’M PAT F*CKING TILLMAN.
Dani Tillman, Pat’s mom, spoke eloquently at the Q & A. My favorite moment at the festival was her response to an audience member’s question about whether she was glad to have participated in the film. She said, (and I’m paraphrasing): “We need to have documentaries to help us connect the dots and see the big picture. The media gives us information in flashes, but documentaries give us time to really reflect on the complexity and depth of a story so that we can draw our own conclusions.”
That kind of summed up my feelings of inspiration about the power of docs in today’s world after seeing these two very different approaches to exposing the real stories behind the news. Both these films will be in theaters later this year—don’t miss them.
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| Posted on January 29, 2010
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