news
90-Second Cinema: Vintage: Families of Value
Vintage: Families of Value, an excerpt

On Thomas Allen Harris’s official website (http://www.chimpanzeeproductions.com/films.html), his debut feature film Vintage: Families of Value is described as a “fantasy documentary.”  The phrase itself is confusing; how can a documentary, by definition the genre of realism, be accurately described as a fantasy?  The film answers that question by mixing verite footage, recreated scenes, and audio visual collages to explore three African-American families with gay and lesbian siblings.

This month’s 90 Second Cinema clip sits in on an intimate discussion between three sisters, Adrian, Anita, and Anni.  While the sisters never explicitly talk about their own childhood experiences, Adrian adamantly proclaims that their father sexually abused other members of his family.  This argument, in which they discuss what was essentially the death of their childhood, is followed by a barely visible sequence of Anni running through an elaborate cemetery.  The fantasy elements seem almost childlike, a callback to the youth they lost.

“Adrian lives her pain on the outside; she wears it,” Anni says later, as we watch contrasting footage of Adrian both adding and removing clothing. “But just because I don’t wear it doesn’t mean I don’t have it.”  The one-on-one interview is also a contrast to the escalating argument we just witnessed between the sisters.

~ Mary Iannone

No Comments | Share: Facebook Favicon LinkedIn Favicon StumbleUpon Favicon TwitThis Favicon

share your thoughts

Name:

Email: