06/10/2011 - Short Documentaries

I will be writing about a short documentary called "Christmas with Dad" made by a film maker called Connor McCormac in 2008. To outline the general theme and purpose of the film I would say that it is trying to outline different stereotypes and how they can turn out to be quite inaccurate. This is shown by the way that the dad in this film strives to become a better father and do everything he can for his children whereas on first glass most of the audience would stereotype this man as being lazy or selfish because of social stereotypes and how well he visually fits into that stereotype. The film focuses on the life of this family and the kind of conditions that the family live in, the most common subject is the dads relationships with the rest of the family. I like this documentary because it takes a step back and allows the family to represent themselves and in doing that highlights the fact that certain social stereotypes can be very inaccurate. I also like the fact that it does not appear to have an agenda it is literally just telling the families story and because of this I would say that the film is very succesful in covering its subject matter. The thing that stood out to me most in this film was that at the beginning I had a prediction in my head that I would not enjoy the film and would also dislike the father in the story but by the end not only did I form a liking for the family I also wanted to see more. For example if there was another film showing how they had progressed I would watch it. The structure of the film is very clever because it slowly drip feeds you information as to take you on a small journey of discovery and does not just throw all the information at you in the first five minutes, also the fact that it saved the story of the dads difficult childhood until the end meant you could get to like him before knowing this therefore not being forced to simply symphasise with him from the outset. There was main technique in the film which stood out to me and that was the relaxed state of the filmmaker and the way that they did not get involved or try to force answers from anybody. This caused the film to have a more comfortable feel and a less aggressive or journalistic mood to it.