http://ambival.net/movies/one-day-in-september Just another WordPress weblog Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:30:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 http://ambival.net/movies/one-day-in-september#comment-522 Ambival.net » Movies » Darwin’s Nightmare Wed, 19 Jul 2006 19:39:56 +0000 http://ambival.net/?p=775#comment-522 [...] The movie is almost completely devoid of editorial – even the story of the fish is presented to us exactly as it is presented to the subjects, in an older documentary projected on a screen at a conference. I had to dig through my reviews to find the last time I wrote about my idea of what a documentary should be – it was when I wrote about One Day in September. While I don’t mind most of the Michael Moore/ biased/ reconstruction type glossy documentaries, I don’t think there are enough of the kind that truly strive to simply document the truth and to get as close to that truth, no matter how horrific, as possible. The ultimate cinema verité. Darwin’s Nightmare, with its arresting images of African people, bare feet in rotting fish squirming with maggots, young boys smoking and sniffing a glue-like substance, kids being punched in the face and more, certainly satisfies (for want of a better word). Telethons like Comic Relief should take note – you don’t need sad pop songs and emoting celebrities over your “Call and donate now!” video clips to convince people of the horrors that are out there … just f**king show them. [...] [...] The movie is almost completely devoid of editorial – even the story of the fish is presented to us exactly as it is presented to the subjects, in an older documentary projected on a screen at a conference. I had to dig through my reviews to find the last time I wrote about my idea of what a documentary should be – it was when I wrote about One Day in September. While I don’t mind most of the Michael Moore/ biased/ reconstruction type glossy documentaries, I don’t think there are enough of the kind that truly strive to simply document the truth and to get as close to that truth, no matter how horrific, as possible. The ultimate cinema verité. Darwin’s Nightmare, with its arresting images of African people, bare feet in rotting fish squirming with maggots, young boys smoking and sniffing a glue-like substance, kids being punched in the face and more, certainly satisfies (for want of a better word). Telethons like Comic Relief should take note – you don’t need sad pop songs and emoting celebrities over your “Call and donate now!” video clips to convince people of the horrors that are out there … just f**king show them. [...]

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