Man on Wire

          First off, this film was super dramatic in about every sense of the word.  Everything from the structure of the film to the interviewees was very dramatic and passionate.  That said, I believe that for the subject matter it worked really well.  For anyone who doesn’t know, this is a film about Philippe Petit and his feat of tightrope walking between the World Trade Center towers.

            From the very beginning the viewer knows that they are in for a ride.  The first few minutes of the film could easily be out of some Hollywood heist movie.   There was the preparation, the build up and even the dramatic tension.  The whole film is in basically the same style.  Everything is pretty fast paced and high energy.  There some pretty wonderful things about this beginning.  The filmmakers use the combination of reenactments as well as interviews to create a feeling of mystery and tension from the very beginning of the film.  I feel that it is pretty easy, in documentary especially, to have a less than exciting beginning.  By doing things like withholding information and jumping straight into the action, the filmmakers immediately suture the viewer into this film.  The very first lines of the film are Philippe Petit dramatically describing a nightmare that he had had.  In this description we see a box being nailed shut.  In the next couple minutes we also see a bow and arrow, packages and disguises.  All of these are shown without any explanation.  These images are divided up by cuts to interviews of people talking about how intense everything was.  After this, the film cuts to the building of the World Trade Centers.  This then leads to Philippe talking about how he first got the idea to wire walk between the WTC towers.  As we go through the film we realize that the beginning of the film is actually showing parts from the ending.  To continue with this theme of heists and mystery the filmmakers introduce each new “team member” with a dramatic shot of the person in a spotlight revolving until they are facing the camera.  These shots reminded me of mug shots in a sense.

            This film is a case study for why you need to find great people to interview.  All of the people that they interviewed were very descriptive and visual in their interviews.  They were also very energetic.   We saw these people when they were tense, when they cried and when they laughed.  It made these characters become much more rounded as well as entertaining.  Even if they weren’t terribly crazy these people told their stories well.  They were describing events that happened over 30 years before like they had happened the day before.  They were really gems of interviews.

Sound was also very important in this film.  Music was very important.  The filmmakers used it to set the tone in important parts of the film.  They also did a wonderful job to use silence strategically.  Silence used well in this film allowed the viewer to think about and comprehend things.  The filmmakers would through silence in at important parts to give them emphasis.  The film was so fast paced and driven that when the filmmakers slowed it down the viewer had no choice but to pay attention.  The most notable part was at the climax of the film.  Everything was leading to this point and when it happened the filmmakers, through silence, basically said, “Stop, pay attention and soak in the moment.”  It was actually quite beautiful the way that the filmmakers portrayed this moment.

OT: Our Town

          When I first saw this film on the list I really wasn’t that interested.  All I could think of when I saw the title was the play, “Our Town.”  When I looked into it though I was surprised by what exactly this film was about.  I guess that I was partially right but there was a lot more to this documentary than just that.  When I found out that it was about a bunch of high school kids in Compton, CA trying to put on a play for the first time in 20 years I decided that I really wanted to see it.  I thought that it was a pretty good documentary.  I would call it a “feel good documentary.”  When I started watching the film it didn’t take too long for me to know how the film would end.  The way that everything was shot and how everything was set up I knew that everything was going to turn out in the end.  Even though I wasn’t surprised, I was pleased.  Documentaries tend to dwell in a kind of negative realm.  A lot of documentaries take it on themselves to go to the “dark” and expose things.  While this is a good and noble cause it is also good every once in a while to have a documentary that has a happy ending. 

            That said, the filmmakers didn’t shy away from showing the conflicts that existed in this environment.  It was actually quite full of conflict.  There were conflicts between the teacher and the students as well as between different students.  There was also an overarching conflict between the world against these students.  Coming from Compton there is a stigma and prejudgment constantly about these kids.  If you ask just about anyone about Compton they will probably say something about how there are a bunch of gangs and crime there.   While that may be true, this documentary showed a different kind of people who also live there.  As they try to put on this play they have to battle all of the problems of their environment: broken families, drugs, teen pregnancy as well as simply being ignored by the school and the general public.  One kind of symbol of this comes in a conflict between the teacher (Catherine Borek) and her students.  She wanted to change the play to make it more relatable to the students which is good and honorable but many of the students disagreed with what the final product became.  In one interview a student lamented that the play had been ruined because of the changes.  So it almost becomes a no-win situation.  The students don’t like the play the way it is but they don’t like it once it is changed.  The filmmakers don’t really show how the conflict is resolved but it somehow does.  Another conflict comes as the opening day of the play is drawing close and the students are still struggling mightily with their lines.  Arguments and anger ensue to the point that students start leaving.  This goes on for a bit until somehow this too gets resolved.  One hole that I did see in this film is that all of the problems seemed to get figured out but the filmmakers didn’t really show this happened.   I guess that the more important thing for them was that things worked out not exactly how it happened.

            This was a good film to show how people can sell others short because of their situations or their environments but these people can surprise you.  These students grew up in a place and environment that couldn’t care less about drama and plays but they were able to successfully put on a good play.  This also shows that people are people no matter where or who they are.  I thought that this was a good film all in all.

Helvetica

          I saw the title “Helvetica” and I was really skeptical about how good a documentary could be that was just about typeface and graphic design.  I was actually quite pleasantly surprised.  By have an upbeat artful style the filmmakers were able to make this film not only interesting but kind of eye opening for me.   I can honestly say that I really haven’t paid much if any attention to fonts in the world.  There have been some instances where I have seen things that were really bad or some things that looked really cool but other than that I haven’t really thought about things in the detail that this film causes the viewer to.

            In fiction filmmaking there is a constant discussion of “world creation.”  The purpose of the filmmaker(s) is to create a “world” for the characters to reside in and for the viewer to become a part of.  This film definitely does this for me.  This film creates a world within the world that we live in.  It takes the world that everyone just accepts and goes deeper into it.  The filmmakers look into some of the more obscure/interesting occupations in the world.  The people that they interview are all some sort of graphic or font designer.  I had never really thought about where fonts came from.  I figured that they had to come from somewhere but I guess that I didn’t realize that people spent their lives designing fonts.  All of the people that they interviewed were very passionate about what they were doing and their beliefs.  I hadn’t really thought that the use of one font or another could be so controversial or multifaceted until this documentary.  There were some very strong feelings on both sides of using the Helvetica font.  There were many people interviewed that basically couldn’t praise Helvetica enough.  One man said that he has tried to figure out a way to improve the font and he can’t.  It is “perfect” he says.  On the other side, some of the interviewees hated Helvetica with a passion.  One font designer likened using Helvetica to eating junk food.  Another designer said half-jokingly that she believes that Helvetica is the reason for the Vietnam and Iraqi wars.  This intensity was completely new to me.

            This film did open my eyes into what goes into graphic designing and also font creation.  There is actually quite a lot of thought that goes into the use and creation of fonts.  These interviewees laid out many ways that fonts are used and pointed out why some would be used in one situation over another.  The film kept coming back to the fact that Helvetica is everywhere.  There were many montages of different uses of Helvetica worldwide.  They showed it on signs, logos, magazines, stamps and even the government organizations.  It was quite fascinating to see how ubiquitous the font was and then to hear from “experts” as to why that was.

            This film goes to show that if you can do it well then you can make a documentary about just about anything.  Documentaries don’t have to be intense expose activist films.  They can simply be to explore and to inform.  After I watched this film I didn’t feel like my whole life was changed but I do feel a little better informed about the world and now I can appreciate different aspects of life more.  I also have got to wondering about the history and back stories about other common elements of society.  If fonts have such a substantial history I am sure there are many other little things about the world that we could be well served to investigate.