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When a City Falls
Dec. 7th, 2012 01:04 pmI watched the full DVD length documentary When a City Falls by Gerard Smyth. Courtesy of Rustica who sent me a copy on the understanding that I write a review. But just how the heck do you write a review about about a film like this.
It isn't hard to describe what the film is about - it is a chronicle of the Christchurch earthquakes. It uses the documentary technique of letting the pictures and the voices of the people tell the story without additional narration. The editing and a handful of date captions tell the narrative - the camera captures the rest live. It is a technique I remember first seeing to hugely great effect used by Barbara Koppel's Oscar winning Harlan County USA. And I suppose you could dissect this film on those terms - the beauty and immediacy of the images and the clarity of the narrative, complete with minor quibbles about the sequencing post the second big quake.
But, the thing is, none of that matters. The only way I can really evaluate this film is at an emotional level. After watching the film, I had no way of expressing my visceral response to it. It was all over the place. There is so much going on beyond just the shock - horror aspect. Obvious things like respect for the inevitable strength shown by many to rebuild, but also odd things like nostalgia - I lived in Christchurch for nine years.
Anyway, I'm not going to try to properly describe let alone quantify the emotional effect. All I can note is that there is an impact for me. And in the nature of such things, that impact will be different for each person.
Despite all of the above, the question is - should you buy it? Well yes, if you have any sort of interest in what happened to Christchurch or in the human response to natural disaster, then this is something you should watch. Unless you were actually there, it takes you the step beyond whatever you may have seen or heard elsewhere.
It isn't hard to describe what the film is about - it is a chronicle of the Christchurch earthquakes. It uses the documentary technique of letting the pictures and the voices of the people tell the story without additional narration. The editing and a handful of date captions tell the narrative - the camera captures the rest live. It is a technique I remember first seeing to hugely great effect used by Barbara Koppel's Oscar winning Harlan County USA. And I suppose you could dissect this film on those terms - the beauty and immediacy of the images and the clarity of the narrative, complete with minor quibbles about the sequencing post the second big quake.
But, the thing is, none of that matters. The only way I can really evaluate this film is at an emotional level. After watching the film, I had no way of expressing my visceral response to it. It was all over the place. There is so much going on beyond just the shock - horror aspect. Obvious things like respect for the inevitable strength shown by many to rebuild, but also odd things like nostalgia - I lived in Christchurch for nine years.
Anyway, I'm not going to try to properly describe let alone quantify the emotional effect. All I can note is that there is an impact for me. And in the nature of such things, that impact will be different for each person.
Despite all of the above, the question is - should you buy it? Well yes, if you have any sort of interest in what happened to Christchurch or in the human response to natural disaster, then this is something you should watch. Unless you were actually there, it takes you the step beyond whatever you may have seen or heard elsewhere.