(M) ABC Africa (Documentary)
Grade: C-

On one hand I have to praise these film-makers for doing something with this documentary I've never seen, on the other hand I have to critcize them for not doing what other documentarians do.

Praise: Where most documentaries will film hours of footage and slice together 1-2 minute segments to convey an idea or influence you, this documentary just leaves the camera running. By doing this you get to see many things other documentaries would edit out, but it gives you a truer sense of what is going on around the film-makers and really allowing you to experience minute-by-minute what they are experiencing. The downfall to this is you can become increasingly bored. One interesting thing is at midnight electricity is cut off in the village. The documentarians get caught away from their hotel during this black-out and they leave the whole experience of getting back to the hotel in the film... so it's just black screen with voices talking and the sound of their travels.

Criticism: Though allowing the viewer to live through moments of the film without stylish editing to narrow in on a specific feature/theme and letting you experience "everything"... it presents a film with no real theme. It's just a group of people filming in africa and there doesn't seem to be a consciece message. Though you can see the mis-fortunes of others... because you're watching it at home on TV the experience isn't the same as being there and without a direction or purpose to the film you can get bored with the film.

Side note: I also watched a couple other movies but am leaving them for Dorkus to review.