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Among these inventions: machine guns, movies, and American hegemony.
As Sauper puts it: The machine of dreams also brought humanity into the macabre theater of war.
Its an idea expressed in many ofthis years Sundancedocumentaries: how stories change when different people start telling them.
(That is actually part of Saupers thesis.)
As a result, many of these films avoid the clinical, social-issue approach all too common to documentaries.
Instead, they let their subjects relay their own experiences.
The results are both formally daring and invigorating.
Rob was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
Fox, after serving a far shorter sentence, had to raise her six children largely on her own.
Along the way, she continued to fight for her husbands release.
That may sound like the makings of a standard-issue longitudinal documentary.
Shells fall in the distance as they huddle in their cellar with a camera.
They re-create events they lived through, at one point even enlisting a tank full of soldiers to participate.
The subject of Susanne Regina MeuressSaudi Runawayhas a similarly direct connection to the moving image.
The entire film is based on Munas own footage, and this lived-in, ground-level perspective is electrifying.
Every time Dick Johnson comes back from the dead, its a gift.
For a brief period, death becomes just another element in a movie manageable, manufactured, temporary.
Comforting, yes, but also empowering.
That camera can open wounds as well.
These people are sad and lonely.
Theyre not being abused, theyre being ignored by their own families.
The filmmaker goes in to tell one tale, and discovers a very different one.
(Madsen turned out to be a murderer, and Kricfalusi was accused of sexual misconduct.)
Again: Who gets to tell these stories?
Jerry RothwellsThe Reason I Jumpimmerses viewers in the experiences of nonverbal autistic people through innovative use of cinematic technique.
