Monday, October 26, 2009
Dear Zachary
Both Dear Zachary and The Bridge left me emotionally drained in different ways. While The Bridge left me completely depressed, after watching Dear Zachary I felt a whole spectrum of emotions. Although outrage was a prominent emotion that I felt, it wasn’t the only one. In my opinion, Kuenne creates this feeling of outrage in the viewer so that he/she can experience what he and all of Andrew’s loved ones felt during this whole ordeal. Perhaps if you feel strongly enough, he hopes that you will join the cause that Andrew’s parents are fighting for. He does an incredible job of doing so. The techniques that he used in the film do a great job of inducing these feelings in the viewer. I think that the manipulations in the movie are justified. This film is being told from the side of those who knew and loved Andrew very much. The emotions and facts presented are those that Andrew’s family and friends believed as truth. It is just as much a grieving process for them as it is a story about Andrew and then Zachary’s short lives. Knowing that this film was finished after Zachary’s death, I wonder if Kuenne would have made the same film since originally it was simply supposed to be for Zachary to learn about his father. If this film were not going to be released to the public, would it have had the same tone as it does now?
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You raise a good question, Chris -- I'm sure the tone of the film would have been somewhat different (though much of it would remain the same). I'm not sure that he wasn't planning to release the film if it was for Zachary (in life), though.
ReplyDeleteThat is also a good point Charles that I did not think about. He was making this movie for Zachary so that the boy could know about his father, but at the same time he is a documentary filmmaker. I would really like to know if he would have released the film to the public if things had not turned out how they did.
ReplyDeleteI just have to respond with the question on whether bias should be a significant focus of a documentary. Personally, when I see a documentary on a murder for instance, I expect to see a balanced perspective for a case such as this, where fault exists on both sides. Dear Zachary reminded me of one of those "dateline predator" shows, where everything is shown completely over-the-top and facts are EXPECTED to be excluded; almost, any facts that justify the action of the accused are completely uncalled for. As someone else stated, I also feel that to think otherwise (maybe the accused wasn't only at fault?) is completely unethical and looked upon negatively.
ReplyDeleteIn that sense, is it OK or not for Dear Zachary to leave out details? I simply feel it has to, or else the rest of the effects and editing just simply do not make any sense.
Since the film was made by the victim's best friend, can he be blamed for making it an emotionally charged film and leaving facts out? I'm sure this was a hard subject to confront when most people would need time to mourn, Kuenne went out to create this film. To portray both sides of the story would have been very difficult since the other side was a woman who had done horrible things that hurt Andrew's family and friends.
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