As close to truth as any documentary can hope to be, Robert Greene continues to be one of the few contemporary documentary filmmakers who understands the true nature of documentary filmmaking, one that aims for objectivity while simultaneously acknowledging subjectivity will always exist with any artistic endeavor. Expertly crafted, ingenious, and thematically dense, Bisbee'17 is an hallucinatory experience, a film thats one-of-a-kind formalism blends various elements of documentary into a cohesive, poignant whole. Detailing tragic events from 100 years ago, in which the small mining town of Bisbee was torn apart by a forced deportation, Bisbee captures how such an event continues to linger even a century later, having an effect on the various individuals of the community as well as the collective consciousness. The present informs the past, in what almost feels like a therapeutic experience for the entire town, one in which performance, reality, and recreation lines blur, as these non-actors reenact the deportation, becoming their characters on a psychological level to some degree, as they themselves struggle with the inhumane act of forced deportation. The respect and genuine curiosity which Greene provides to individuals which he clearly disagrees with philosophically should be noticed and practiced by more documentary filmmakers, it is sadly not-to-common. As someone who would identify more as an individualist anarchist or mutualist in today's political discourse, one of the more understated aspects of Bisbee'17 is how it depicts a community of people torn apart by two warring ideologies, and the individuals stuck in between.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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