American Tales at DOC NYC 2022
Documentaries have the power to resonate with an audience. It is a form to give spaces a microcosm of what is happening in our world. While it is common to view documentaries as an understanding of issues, they should also be used as a character-driven narrative that we are accustomed to seeing in fiction films. With that said, we should utilize the form as a way to dissect decisions that affect people's lives. I saw some films at DOC NYC that speak to recent and ongoing events in America.
A still from Bad Axe. Courtesy of IFC Films
DOC NYC is an end-of-year celebration of the form, and many of my favorite docs in its lineup have been films I've seen elsewhere. However, a movie I have yet to see entering the fest that became a highlight is David Siev's Bad Axe. It's a canvas of the director's family restaurant, Rachel's (after his mom), keeping their business afloat in the eponymous small, Republican town in Michigan amidst the pandemic and ongoing racial climate. Like many non-Native New Yorkers, Siev moved back to their family residences to take a break from living in a dense, concentrated city and reflect on being with his family. As we witness the loving Chun and Rachel share the sacrifices they made while immigrating from Cambodia and Mexico, respectively, to pursue the American dream, we also question David's role as a filmmaker, which reveals the ethics of presenting family. David (the film's primary cinematographer) is seen predominantly through photographs and stationary wide shots.
This decision gives an intimate trust within the family, whereas other crew members present exhibit a hierarchal power dynamic. It also implicates Siev's role in avoiding restaurant work as his sisters told him to start working together and be a family. His filmmaking activities are debated when he shoots an intense encounter. In the interaction, a white, non-mask-wearing patron, who pretends to be mentally disabled, violates Rachel's policies. To an extent, the camera's presence becomes a tool where that customer knows how to "play the victim," David accidentally paints himself and his family in a negative light. Yet, no matter what David does in the film, he serves a commonality of the human connection to other American cities. He lets his family members heal from ongoing generational trauma and allows them to share their life. Who knows how many events in the film would happen when the cameras were off? In conclusion, Bad Axe is an ode to family, home, and the pursuit of happiness.
A still from 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture. Courtesy of Sharon “Rocky” Roggio
Words have power. They influence one's ideology in what makes a society. That is demonstrated in Sharon "Rocky" Roggio's 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture (this year's Audience Award winner and one of a few films that world premiered at the fest). It dissects how homosexuality appears in the bible through the director and a collective of openly/out LGBTQ+ Christians, historians, and theologists' perspectives. They dispel stereotypical depictions of Christianity by examining the original meanings of Romanian society captured in the bible and unveiling what is normalized to be a Christian, such as the demotion of women and rape abuse. In this discovery, they realize that a (mis)translation of the word homosexual appears in the bible in the eponymous year, which changes the course of orientation relations.
Furthermore, it shows how the most crucial daily-used book creates division within many sectors of the world, including Christian and Queer communities. The passages make people's minds up, and their interpretations lead people to say that religion and orientation are separate and can't co-exist. In contrast, others dispute this thought, such as the Gay Christian Networks, and share the positive thinking of phrases such as love thy neighbor.
Throughout the commentary, Roggio attempts to get her father, an author and practicing conservative Christian, to understand that her queerness is not a sin, as her coming out caused separation in her family. Her dad's condemnation of her captured the local press, creating a tear in their relationship. As Roggio slowly builds a more positive relationship with her dad, she lets him share his background, which explains his thoughts while he is writing a book on how homosexuality is a sin. She validates his arguments and shows how we can connect despite our differences. Her use of commentary creates a comprehensive view of Christianity and queerness and why it's important to know history if we can form bonds with others. Ultimately, it's a film that shows how words alternate over time and how, unfortunately, easy it is to look at things externally and on the surface of the first rather than taking the time to unfold their layers and see something on the inside.
A still from My So-Called High School Rank. Courtesy of HBO Documentary Films
Lastly, The American Lives program at the fest provides a more explicit, eclectic cohort of films that may not get its mass appeal from the different, such stories in the other sections. Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg's My So-Called High School Rank is one of its films that got on my radar and demonstrated an America through the overlooked multicultural and regional youth. It follows high school students' lives facing mental health issues and high expectations by performing in the musical Ranked (one of if not the most licensed non-professional theatrical production of all time). Ranked's creators David Taylor Gomes (music and lyrics) and Kyle Holmes (book) complement the students' tribulations by making commentary throughout the film. The play emphasized the same concerns as the featured students and was once seen as crazy until the college admissions scandal. These expectations come from privilege and other barriers such as immigration, class, and race. The traveling road map between suburban California, rural West Virginia, and the Bronx all have a human connection of pursuing an education and dream while acknowledging the lineage of informative experiences from older generations and various inequities.
Though it has a beautiful plot of how Ranked got its light of day and the students accomplishing their achievements, it has some muddled editing when transitioning from the school body and their parents to the showrunners. Due to COVID, Ranked cannot give proper updates and accidentally gave the writers an interruptive display of their lives and spotlighted the protagonists at heart, the students. As with every doc that takes place circa March 2020, it has to mention the 2020 events above. While these events have meaningfully shaped each person's life, their delivery should be on the character's development. This film, like others, showed news reports on COVID and George Floyd's murder. I wish they could exhibit people's activities at that time and slowly reveal how the events shape their lives instead of the other way around, as the students are the film's heart.
While understanding how the commercialization of its production affects its comprehensibility to a mainstream audience, its presence felt more like a community screening than a marquee festival program as faculties, students, and their parents from the featured schools were passionately present. I noticed people cheering, crying, and being reflected on the screen. It is a blessing to look at something more than what is on the surface, as films are a means of mass communication. This film shows why making things for impact and strength is essential and how others are more alike than different, as many in America have had to overcome labels to get to where they want to be.