Cheap Shots

It's an exciting time for documentaries these days. Better, cheaper cameras, like the DVX100, and sound equipment allows documentarians to film to their hearts content and with most major news sources failing to tell it like it is, documentaries are becoming more and more vital to society. With this, I was very excited to head to the IFC Center to check out Jennifer Vendetti's film Billy the Kid, a verite documentary about a teenager in Maine, who she met when she there for work. What really interested me about the film, is that based on the plot, it's a film anyone could make - no special access needed, no money, not even a large tome commitment (I believe she shot the movie in a week or so).

A few minutes into the movie, I knew what I would be seeing was not a remarkable piece of humanity but just another cheap attempt at cashing in on America's seeming fascination with the all American "nerd."

The scenes are formulaic and even worse feel set-up. There is nothing more mind-numbing than having to sit through what is suppossed to be a touching discussion between a son and his mother that feels like it's happening because of the video camera. Also, a progression of moments that are suppossed to deal with young love at a pizza parlor reek of a fascination with being on camera, instead of the fascination of young love.

And what's worse, the camera is not only distracting to those on it, but for those watching the movie, the camera distracts in the worst way possible - it never stays still and appears to be run by someone that has never picked one up before. Often in documentary, the importance of a subject or the level of interest it brings with it, can prove to overcome sloppy camera work - but here, the subject is fairly average and the scenes don't even seem genuine.

Of course there are a lot of films like this, the flip side to technology's accessibility I suppose. What makes this case so disheartening is that not only has the film gotten a lot of praise (Best Documentary at SXSW) it's also being shown in a fairly big art house theater in New York City, The IFC Center. By no means do films have to be perfect and precise, but they should be something created with care, something that the director thinks about - and with that they should also assume their audience to be smart, to be people that won't be won over by false sentiment and need and want a movie that shows them something new through form or content.

But alas, SXSW, home of the mumblecore movement, gains prestige everyday - and with Billy the Kid, I'm sure that young filmmakers everywhere are rushing to film the quirky person in their town so they can be as sloppy as they like.

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