In a time when true-crime and conspiracy theory documentaries have flooded our video store shelves and cable channels, who would want to watch one that was based on a completely fake event? Fortunately for this film, there’s more to it than just that.
This mockumentary starts off with the graphic assassination of Bill Gates. Yes, we get to see good old Bill take a bullet in the shoulder and then another one right in the noggin. For those of you that don’t like the guy, this’ll get ya off just fine. Then, through 3D graphics, we’re shown a recreation of what happened that fateful day according to the official police report, which includes the positioning of a lone gunman, an African-American activist, atop a building and the killing of that gunman by a rookie police officer.
Not happy with the open and shut case, a group of citizens band together as the Citizens For Truth, an organization that will do anything in its power to bring to light what exactly happened that day. This involves recreating the scene themselves, as it is described in the police report, only to find a number of unlikelihoods, reviewing a piece of chance videotape revealing a “running man” who seems to be a very credible suspect in the shooting that the authorities failed to interrogate, orchestrating rallies and taking on the district attorney himself. As the Citizens For Truth group grows larger, it’s met with great resistance by the LAPD, the press and even it’s own members as inner-disputes often breakout.
More than a true-crime story about the fictional assassination of Bill Gates, “Nothing So Strange” is a story about a class war that could very well happen at any day here in the US as well as a story about corrupt law enforcement, which we all know has existed for a while now. These elements come together as a saving grace for this film, lending to it credibility.
If you just woke up from a major hibernation and saw this film, you’d more than likely actually believe it to be true. The feature comes together nicely to look like a real documentary, but not being a caveman I couldn’t escape knowing that it wasn’t real and that’s what kept me from getting pulled in and truly enjoying it. I think comic mockumentaries are more successful because they goof on their subjects and it’s nothing to be taken seriously. Basically, I like my documentaries real and my mockumentaries funny.
Actually, what I found more interesting than the film itself is the web community based around “Nothing So Strange” as if it were an actual documentary, kinda like how the “Blair Witch” guys did their thing. So click on the official site link up top to get into a world where Bill Gates is Dead…(in Peter Murphy voice)…he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead.
