I've never watched a lot of documentaries before, unless you count special features on a DVD or 'The Pixar Story'. I never really thought too much about documentaries as an art form- in fact, the word itself is sort of synonymous with 'boring' in my mind. However, I've always tried to have an open mind in this class, and watched the videos today in that way. Most of them were okay, better than I thought they were, but they just weren't my cup of tea. It reminds me more of a news report than a story - which, I am quite aware that news reports tell stories, I don't know, that's just the first analogy that came to mind. A lot of the shots they used reminded me of shots you would see in b-roll for a news report.
But then we saw 'When Life Departs'.
And I cried. I will freely admit it, I cried. Not a lot, because I'm pretty good at keeping my composure, but my eyes definitely got wet and threatened to overflow and I had to wipe them off when the lights were turned back on. The animation, while simple in design, was so clean and fluid, especially when the children were talking. The boy talking about his dead baby brother was heartbreaking. I think that's when I officially lost it, when the boy talked about his prayer that God would let him see his brother just one more time, and that his brother might be able to come down so that he could hold him again.
Gah.
It was sad.
Indeed. =/
ReplyDeleteI don't usually cry either, but I cried at the baby brother parts, too. Leeper seemed to think it was a great film for helping kids deal with loss, but I wonder if it wouldn't just make them more sad. Perhaps all the different viewpoints on death would confuse them so much that they wouldn't want to think about death for the time being, so they wouldn't think about it, and then they couldn't be depressed. Dunno.
ReplyDeleteOhhhh When Life Departs was one of my favorite films from last year...its really good.
ReplyDeleteHaha perspectives...great drawing!!