Coming to theatres today, Friday, May 20: THE OTHER SIDE
Roberto Minervini’s hybrid portrait of Louisiana outsiders had its world premiere at Cannes last year. Other festival appearances have included Toronto, Karlovy Vary, Biografilm, Bergen, Athens, Rio, Palm Springs, True/False, Goteborg, Docs Against Gravity, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Art of the Real.
Like his previous work, the Italian director offers an outside perspective on Americans living on the margins of conventional society, filtered through a hybrid approach that casts his protagonists as versions of themselves. In this case, Minervini turns his attention to the backwoods of Louisiana, initially focusing on the relationship between addicts Mark, a drug-dealer, and Lisa, his girlfriend, though peppered with other local denizens who spend their time on camera railing against President Obama. After the couple move off-frame, the film shifts gear to profile a paranoid militia convinced that the federal government will soon declare martial law and take away their guns. It’s a aesthetically stunning yet intellectually disquieting look at the extremes of American society, but one which informs the divisive, frustrated, and hate-fueled invective that has risen to the fore in recent years, particularly in this election cycle.
what (not) to doc 