Coming to theatres today, Tuesday, October 3 through Thursday, October 5:
MULLY
Director:
Scott Haze
Premiere:
Austin 2015
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Africa World, Winnipeg, Bentonville, Virginia
About:
A portrait of a Kenyan businessman turned advocate for street children.
Charles Mulli (also apparently spelled Mully), grew up an orphan, abandoned to the streets by his family. He worked his way out of poverty, eventually amassing a fortune in the transportation industry before turning his energies to rescuing orphans and other disadvantaged children as part of his nonprofit, Mully Children’s Family. Haze’s film allows Mulli to tell his story, using an excessive amount of reenactments to illustrate his overly dramatic recitation, as well as an over the top score. Often hagiographical and overtly religious, the film unfortunately feel less like a documentary and more like a promotional tool, detracting from the more interesting elements of the story of an unusual extended family and on the personal costs of charity – most strongly expressed by the more complex reflections of the subject’s biological children, who seem to have felt sacrificed to the demands of their father’s larger charitable mission.
what (not) to doc 