This short film documents the great snowfall in New York in late 2010 (as opposed to every other massive snowfall which brings the city to its news for a day). The camera documents falling snow and a few specific people or groups struggling out in it. I came to this short because it was listed as one of Times' creative films of the year. On top of this Roger Ebert said it should win an Oscar and I learnt of this reading a piece that seemed almost breathless over the film. I guess that I am out of step with such professional critics because I found a professionally edited series of high-quality video clips with some music laid over the top, not unlike a huge amount of the content put onto YouTube or Vimeo.
There is a certain cineliterate aspect to it as the approach and title does indeed reference Man with a Movie Camera from 1929 (where the camera documents life in the city), but the time, place and context of that approach is very different now so I'm not sure why the praise for a film very much in the shadow of that one in all regards but yet with the advantage of 80+ years of learning and technology. So for me I just didn't get it – I wish I did see the film that "proper" blogs and critics are gushing over but it looked like a compilation at the end of a news broadcast to me. The intercutting between three stories didn't work too well and I had little in it of interest. I'm sure I must be missing something but to the casual viewer it really doesn't look like much that would set it apart from a lot of the content uploaded that is just as good as this, apart from showing that Stuart is good with a camera and editing and does a professional job – so perhaps when watching as a potential producer or employer this film will tell you a lot, but if you're just passing you'll probably want to just keep moving.
There is a certain cineliterate aspect to it as the approach and title does indeed reference Man with a Movie Camera from 1929 (where the camera documents life in the city), but the time, place and context of that approach is very different now so I'm not sure why the praise for a film very much in the shadow of that one in all regards but yet with the advantage of 80+ years of learning and technology. So for me I just didn't get it – I wish I did see the film that "proper" blogs and critics are gushing over but it looked like a compilation at the end of a news broadcast to me. The intercutting between three stories didn't work too well and I had little in it of interest. I'm sure I must be missing something but to the casual viewer it really doesn't look like much that would set it apart from a lot of the content uploaded that is just as good as this, apart from showing that Stuart is good with a camera and editing and does a professional job – so perhaps when watching as a potential producer or employer this film will tell you a lot, but if you're just passing you'll probably want to just keep moving.
