Tonight I went to the premier of Bidder 70. It's a documentary about Tim DeChristopher (find out more about him here), a man who in 2008 sabotaged an auction of wilderness areas to be destroyed for oil drilling. AND this all took place right here in Salt Lake City. He is a hero to the environmental activism group. Because of his actions, Obama stopped the auctions for these drilling sites. It took 3 years and 9 reschedules of his court date, and finally in the end, he was sentenced to 2 years in prison. Out side the court building where it was all going down, there was a rally. A non-violent rally. The funny thing was, they had prepared the cops who were supervising the event for violence. Also a bus driver drove by the scene and let the kids observe. The parents of these children were pissed, they said things like "what if it had turned violent?" And I just sit here and laugh and say "it's a freaking NON-VIOLENT protest!" People who were there says it was so uplifting. You can find out more about his group Peaceful Uprising and buy Bidder 70 here.After the film they had a discussion. The one really big question that stands out to me was if we should use violence as a protest. When the man was asking got asked what he thought, he said that he thinks we should. All around me I could hear people saying no and shaking their heads. I have to agree. We are non-violent activists and that is just wrong. There's a quote that goes "fighting for peace is like F*ing for virginity." (not the perfect reference since this is about the environment, but still) if we fought with violence, the government would win. They would have so much more to convict us of. We can't fight fire with fire. We are so much stronger with what we are doing. This act that Tim did, has brought so many more people to the cause.
Now on to the film part. The film looked like a documentary. There were some good shots and some cool things they did with editing, but mostly it just looked and sounded like a normal documentary. I do think it would have added to the emotion if the cinematography was nicer, but you only have so much with a documentary. There were some parts in the middle where it got a little confusing, but other then that they did a good job.
To Tim:
This movie was pretty good. It got me thinking a lot about the environment. More than before anyway. It was a very informative movie.
ReplyDeleteI actually find myself not noticing the cinematography in documentaries very much at all. I spend too much energy thinking about the subject matter. And I just think of documentaries as working with the best shot they could get at the time, and they have just have a general behind the scenes feel so I just accept that they don't need as good of shots. I should pay more attention to the camera work.
Yes, most people don't notice it and see it as just a documentary. But as filmmakers we should always be aware and learning from what we watch. Some documentaries do have a different feel. I seem to notice generally two different kinds of documentary styles. One, more hand heald in the action, and two, more steady and reflecting. Keep it in mind!
DeleteYeah, now that you mention it, this had a way different feel than Super Size Me and other documentaries.
ReplyDeleteYes and its different from "this film is not yet rated" too, since you've seen that. Maybe i should do a post on the different types of documentaries.
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