This weekend, the documentary The Unforeseen will begin trickling into theaters. On the surface, it’s about urban sprawl in Austin, Texas. It traces the history of the booming growth of that city, and the tensions that arose between developers and environmentalists trying to protect a natural spring-fed watering hole called Barton Springs. As a piece of strong social advocacy, I’d recommend it. But it’s a whole lot more than that.
Watching The Unforeseen immediately reminded me of Nerakhoon (The Betrayal), director Ellen Kuras‘ film that just debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s the story of a Laotian family’s emigration to the United States. I’d call it a poetic documentary as well. In fact, when I saw it, it reminded me of Malick, because Kuras (who is a long-time cinematographer for the likes of Spike Lee and Michel Gondry) is so skilled at lighting and framing a scene. Is this a growing trend? ( I hear last year’s Ghosts of Cité Soleil was similarly beautiful.) I hope so. But it doesn’t come easily.
“So many people told me that it was too beautiful,” Kuras told me at Sundance. “I was hurt. I mean, what if the image is beautiful or striking, then it’s less real? That’s crazy.”
Kuras sent shivers up my spine when she told me about how she used sound effects as a metaphor. In one scene, the lead character, Thavisouk Phrasavat (who is also the co-director of the film), describes how a bomb essentially reduced a woman to powder. We then hear the sound of wind. “That’s the metaphor of our lives,” Kuras said about the sound effect. “The wind is all we become. We’re a whisper and then we’re gone.”
That’s poetry.
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What are your favorite poetic docs?