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Reviews
Sons of Perdition (2010)
Stays with you
A thoughtful, deep film about young men who were dealt tough cards. The way they deal with this and make sense of a world they know so little about is moving and fascinating. A stark reminder of the power abuses that exist today.
Sync or Swim (2008)
Funny and insteresting
I started off a little sceptical but this film drew me in and I couldn't help but root these men on as they attempted to work together to produce something worth watching. The different men focusses on provided at range of different personalitites and life situation.
Early on, one of the men describes synchronised swimming as being like being in a rock band and by the end of the film I could see what he meant. They work together, in close physical quarters, often arguing along the way, to achieve their creative vision.
The structure of the documentary, gearing up towards a big competition, is tried and tested, but it really works and the result is revealed a little differently to what you often see.
Incidentally, there is a fantastic line from one of the swimmers that I won't spoil in response to a stupid comment from an interviewer about how synchronised swimming is "for homosexuals".
I would love to know if the team is still going.
Unrest (2017)
A beautiful and moving call to action
This is a wonderful, important, astonishing film. For all its emotional punch, it is ultimately a call to action and a demand for justice, particularly for the many people, particularly women, who are denied healthcare and stigmatized when they are not believed.
It made me think of times in my life where I had experiences like Jen's, but had never felt able to articulate them for fear of not being believed and being dismissed as making a fuss about nothing. I had such a similar experience to Jen's when reporting lots of different,debilitating symptoms and the doctor just writes down one symptom that I didn't even mention. A close relative of mine had a similar thing happen to them.
It turns out there is a wider context of women in healthcare not being believed: in their life-changing, long-term illnesses like Jen's, and in their less devastating conditions, too. I know of so many women who have not been believed when they reported their symptoms.
Such as someone who had such severe, constant sickness during pregnancy that she couldn't be upright or keep anything down. She was dismissed with "oh, morning sickness is normal, don't worry about it". It was only a coincidental encounter in a hospital waiting room that meant she and her husband learned that she was experiencing a known condition and that there was some treatment (but no cure) that she could access.
The film is also beautifully and unusually put together. Jen had to innovate ways of filmmaking in order to make the film whilst she and many of the film's subjects live with their restrictions. What she came up with works brilliantly. It is wonderful to see people who have such interesting, moving insights and experiences but who do not normally have a voice, gaining a voice in this film.
This is true both for those who are ill and for the loved ones who care for them. These relationships provided some of the most warm and funny moments of the film. The simple moment when a bedbound girl's parents softly sing her happy birthday and then quietly open her birthday presents because she is too ill to do so is so sweet, funny, loving and heart breaking. Jen and Omar's marriage is such an unusual, moving portrayal of a romance and a relationship.