“The Devil is Busy” by Geeta Gandbhir and Christalyn Hampton
Just a couple years after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Tracii Wesley is the dedicated head of security at a women’s health care clinic in Atlanta. In the midst of protests and political turmoil, Tracii takes the audience through a day in the life working at the clinic. As she noticeably repeats that she has a long day ahead of her, one of the protester’s signs reminds us that “The Devil is Busy.” A rather empathetic and warm individual, Tracii shows filmmakers Geeta Gandbhir and Christalyn Hampton the ins and outs of attempting to provide necessary health care in a time and place where the government seems determined to prevent it. As protesters outside the clinic spew lies and propaganda, spinning the words of the Bible against the mission of the clinic, Tracii continually professes her own faith in the Christian Bible, using its messages as reasoning to help those in need.
Through further interviews with clinic employees, Gandbhir and Hampton respectfully portray the great accomplishments and unending needs of the Southern women’s health care clinic. They also bravely use religion to justify the work done by the clinic. In an emotional prayer at the end of the film, Tracii asks God to be with her patients because “the devil is busy” utilizing racism and sexism to take rights away from women, taking one last stab at the hateful protesters both standing outside the clinic and sitting in seats of governmental power.
“Perfectly a Strangeness” by Alison McAlpine
“Perfectly a Strangeness” opens on one of the simplest and yet most visionary ideas portrayed through documentary filmmaking in years: donkeys exploring an astronomical observatory that studies the wonders and depths of the vast universe. In the short, three donkeys — Palomo, Ruperto and Palaye (notably credited as the stars at the end) — wander through an unnamed desert in front of an incandescent sunset. The film follows the donkeys through their natural routine, paying extra attention to the sounds of their hooves as they trek through the hills of the desert. After about five minutes, both the donkeys and the audience are introduced to an observatory, including all of its mechanics, sounds and beauty. As the donkeys explore this new terrain, the animals’ noises, along with the unnatural mechanical racket of the observatory, form a sort of melody within the unlikelihood of the interaction.
While rather atypical for a documentary short, “Perfectly a Strangeness” presents a work of art that occurs only at the intersection of the earthly and the otherworldly. There is no climactic plot twist; the donkeys simply linger in the desert and the observatory. The modest donkey knows not of the wonders that the astronomy building observes, and yet the building itself is a wonder to the donkey. The mutual respect between the two synthesizes into a beautiful musicality, a cinematic approach rarely explored nor welcomed in the modern documentary.
“Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud” by Brent and Craig Renaud
American wartime journalist Brent Renaud passed away in 2022 from the bullet of a Russian soldier in Ukraine. It was the first reported journalist death in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. In “Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud,” Brent’s brother Craig attempts to honor his life through presentations of the many global conflicts Brent covered and gave voice to, ending with a collection of eulogies given at his funeral by a few of the subjects the journalist covered throughout his career.
While the film seeks to honor the work of a courageous American journalist, the footage taken from his works feels rather exploitative and opportunistic. Craig takes Brent’s footage of human beings experiencing perhaps the most traumatic events known to mankind and positions them as badges of honor that his brother had collected throughout his career. At one point, the short displays footage Brent captured of Haitian citizens screaming in agony over starvation, exhaustion and total despondence. Rather than using such videography to spread awareness and encourage engagement for the dire circumstances of Haiti, Craig presents clips like these as objects of pride. Overall, the editing and footage selection is entirely out of touch and disrespectful to the humans that had to experience such devastation.
In the last portion of the film, Craig montages eulogies from Brent’s funeral with facts about journalistic persecution to covers of patriotic songs such as “America the Beautiful” and the national anthem. Although the ending tries to honor Brent and his work with the American military, the film’s editing positions journalistic persecution as a solely American problem, victimizing the American military in an entirely unnecessary fashion. The film misses an opportunity to convey the terror and tragedy of journalistic persecution worldwide. While Craig’s sentiment for his brother is apparent, the film fails to respect Brent Renaud’s life as it distastefully exploits human trauma and discounts the similar dangers faced by non-American journalists.
“All the Empty Rooms” by Joshua Seftel
After being typecast as the lovable newscaster who can bring light to any situation and consequentially being forced to cover the tragedies of school shootings throughout his career, Steve Hartman has made it his life’s mission to memorialize the childhood bedrooms of all the children killed in school shootings throughout the United States “All the Empty Rooms” follows Hartman and his friend Lou Bopp, a photographer, as they travel to three different households across the country as a part of this project.
The film carries a gentle tone, conveying the darkness and devastation of the topic without introducing any melodramatics that could invalidate the subject matter. The most tender moments of the film are in silence; the camera follows Bopp taking photos of the bedrooms. He points out the personality that can be found in the simplest remnants, such as hair bands tied around a door knob or old toys thrown under the bed. The project personalizes the terror of school shootings, emphasizing the youthful joy and hope lost from each individual child. While Hartman acknowledges that he is by no means offering a solution, he attempts to raise anger and devastation over the seemingly never-ending saga of utter tragedy followed by overwhelming apathy.
“Children No More: Were and are Gone” by Hilla Medalia
In Tel Aviv, the center of Zionism and devout Israeli patriotism, activists gather weekly to hold a vigil for the Palestinian children killed at the hands of the Israeli government. “Children No More: Were and are Gone” follows these activists through demonstrations at parks and even alongside the marches of Israeli hostage families, presenting peace as an alternative to the garish atrocities being committed just across their border.
At times, the film portrays an interesting and often understated political dynamic among Israeli citizens: the respect between the Palestinian activists and the families of Israeli hostages. The leaders of the movement told filmmaker Hilla Medalia that the Israeli hostages’ family members understood terrible acts were being committed in Palestine without any progress in getting their loved ones back, therefore revealing both the error in presenting war as a solution and the common ground between two diametrically opposed political positions. While this common ground served as an interesting social dynamic within the short, the film moves on just a few minutes later to slow motion shots of Palestinian activists, missing out on the chance to explore an underrepresented group interplay fabricated by the Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Though the film attempts to illustrate an overarching view of Palestinian activists within Israel, it lacked perspective, failing to dive deeper into the complexities of aforementioned social dynamics within Israel and how they affect Palestinians. Medalia’s focus on emotion rather than facts leaves the short desolate of opinion, information and audience impact. Most of the film rests on slow-motion shots of activists marching and close-ups of their faces, falling into the stereotypical traps of documentary filmmaking that deprive the final product of political and social weight.
Daily Arts Contributor Audrey Kovtun can be reached at koaudrey@umich.edu.
