2007 SUNDANCE WORLD DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION FEATURE! I’ll admit it. I am not enough of an indie-pretentious-artsy film connoisseur to enjoy this film. Yes, this may be an akward admission to start a review with, but it really isn’t half as awkward as this gooey-pile of a documentary.
That said, I will try and give the best synopsis I can, though for about the hour I sat in the dark watching this film, I had no idea what the hell it was about. I guess for simplicity’s sake it can be said that the doc shows what it is like to live in Brazil and how many parts of Brazil are different. Vague? Exactly.
Filmmakers Cao Guimaraes and Pablo Lobato directed the documentary and while I feel that their usage of distinctly different segments made for a good example of their talents, it also allowed for a very disconnected feel. Never for a single moment does the filmmaker allow you to have any type of connection to any of the people on screen. They were really just people in front of the camera, which is why the overall purpose of the film escapes me.
As I alluded to in my opener, I’m not the audience for this “film.” In fact, I don’t know who, if any one, is the audience for this film. As far as I was able to comprehend, there was no purpose, no real commentary. I have enjoyed many foreign documentaries in my time but, sadly, this is just not one of them.
