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Reviews
Edith+Eddie (2017)
A truly motivating story but what's missing
This documentary really put the value and importance of the elderly in perspective. Edith and Eddie were separated in their mid. 90's when they had already lived out there life to its fullest and only wanted to be with each other. In the middle of the documentary, Edith and Eddie were completely happy and then came along the authorities. The guardian Jessica was portrayed as this evil monster because she was separating them but after reading more reviews, I understood that in fact she was only doing her job. The real villain was the daughter, Rebecca Wright. Rebecca emptied her mother's bank account of $11,000 and refused to return the funds. Wright denied the allegations and exclaimed that her actions were in the best interest of her mother.
The two main themes were love and loneliness. The filmmaker conveys these ideas through the camera angles, when showing the house and the window from outside it made me feel as though I was looking into the house and the other shot where there is no window. This made me think of loneliness and separation from loved ones. The music is another factor.
The music starts with American gospels and joyful tunes to summarize the peace and serenity Edith and Eddie had before the guardian decided to split them up even if it was for their benefit. The music then sloped down into a bleak hymn sung by Edith.
The colour at the beginning of the documentary was bright and cheerful whereas the second half was dark and gloomy. The filmmaker used these themes very well in my eyes, representing the complete and utter distraught the separation took toll on both partners.
The one thing I disliked about this documentary was that the filmmaker did not give the whole story this relates back to the guardian and her role being the mean villain. They said that Eddie and Edith never spoke again when in fact they spoke every day. They lied about Edith and Eddie's status and contact with each other, which did degrade the trust and honesty within the relationship of the filmmaker and the viewers. I assumed Eddie died from loneliness and isolation due to unfair conditions by the guardian when but was in fact completely natural causes and not the guardians wrong doing.
Overall, the documentary displayed well-constructed themes and ideas through camera angles, colour and lighting, editing and music. Towards the end of the documentary I felt emotionally enveloped and engaged in it. Again, the one thing that let it down was the authenticity of portraying the right villain. The documentary makes me feel in need to be around my family and cherish our time together as it may turn out to be shorter than expected because in reality no one ever knows what will happen next and what the future may hold.
Forest Man (2013)
Growing the Earth
I find this film extremely motivating and helped me understand that as young people we have a responsibility to follow in his example. Jadav Payeng grew his own forest because he knew the result of his home island would not end well. The dialogue, music and editing is quite slow, but is highly affective. It conveys the same level of patience and how long it took to develop a complete forest from scratch. I hope that when you watch this film you are as inspired and as moved as I was.