Megan Mylan & Jon Shenk, 2003
8.0
the film goes along with Peter and Santino, two Sudanese refugees, as they live their first year in the United States as part of a government refugee program. although the main participants are fun, charming, and witty, the film remains a somewhat nice, conventional, if sometimes touching, documentary. it is fun to get immersed in (up to a certain extent) and live the north american experience through someone else's culture. the filmmakers stay out of the way of the subjects but i was never sure if they weren't immersed enough in their subjects' culture to show us everything they were going through. i felt cheated out of a lot of things Peter and Santino were probably experiencing. at best, the film is moving and has a quiet beauty running through the first half (mostly because of the quiet innocence of the two subjects). i'm glad i got to meet Peter and Santino and go along on some of their quest to educate themselves and work for some money, but ultimately, i didn't come out with a whole lot more than what i went in with.
btw, jon shenk is the one who directed the excellent The Beginning documentary about the making of Star Wars Episode I (which is on the film's dvd - please look it up if you haven't seen it already. it's the best making-of i've seen, period).
Posted by Anonymous | 11:26 PM
