Short film - Cropped ***
Feature film - A Common Purpose ***
I think the theme for tonight's screening was 'controversial' brought on by the subject matter of both films and the fact that they were screened together. Neither one made a resounding impact on me but I think that was more to do with the fact that I was extremely tired from having worked in the Inside Film office all day and less to do with the actual films themselves.
Cropped is a dark comedy based on the director's experience with a mate who's wife used to quell her drought-caused boredom by solving jigsaw puzzles. The film doesn't centre around this event but like every story, sparks a whole other narrative which builds progressively to the climax which has the whole audience in rapture. Like Nullarbor, the film does well to serve the audience and it's insecurities, exploring themes around the recent 2009 drought and the effect it has on the people closest to it. Added to the mix is the idea that people from the outback are slightly kookoo to begin with which is why they can stand such extreme conditions. This all forms the basis for the film's primary narrative which centers around the discovery of a man's head in the family's backyard. The film gives its best to make the situation comical but I felt at times the story got a bit muddled with the constant crisscrossing back and forth between different time periods and settings. It would have almost been just as great to have been situated around the one time period when the head is discovered and had all the subsequent events roll out from there in real time. Does that make sense? What I mean essentially is that the film could have told the story within a space of half an hour of the diegesis rather than a few days. Other than that, the actors did a great job and it was lovely to meet them and the director at the screening.
A Common Purpose is a feature documentary which examines the apartheid era of south Africa in the 1980s, focusing in particular on the case of the Uppington 26, 26 men and women charged with the death of one man. 'You've got to be kidding me' I hear you say and rightly so. This story is insane. The very idea that so many people can be responsible for the death of one man I ludicrous but then again, so is the situation in South Africa. I find it very difficult to comment on documentaries which were created not so much as a political campaign but rather a documentation of a political campaign. For this reason, the film felt more like an ABC four corners production then an artistic work but I doubt that was the point of it. The story is shocking and told in a way that eases the audience into the terrible situation in SA. I unfortunately did not get to watch the ending as I had to prepare for the IF awards handouts. As a result, I'm not able to fully comment on the film overall but for me, the biggest question I felt compelled to ask was 'who do you believe?' I know the film was not trying to achieve this reaction as obviously the filmmakers wanted us to believe the defendants but coming from a film critic background of the documentary genre and with a knowledge of that community, there were times where I found myself playing devil's advocate.
Both films were great refreshing additions to the program and I feel that is important for the purpose of film festivals. Showing the same story over and over is just plain boring for one and two, doesn't incite people to do things differently. One of the big pat-on-the-backs SFF deserves is it great curating ability.
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