Christmas With Dad

Christmas with Dad - Conor McCormack

Christmas with Dad is a documentary about the life of AJ who is awaiting his eighth child, the story is mainly about the trials and tribulations of AJ who is haunted by his childhood as well as his non biological children who often reject AJ as a father.

I believe the main aim of the film was to give AJ a way of telling the audience about his life and problems he has to overcome even just in his day to day business specifically in the scene where AJ is putting his children to bed. I also believe that the focus of this film was to give a 'voice to the voiceless' by giving AJ who would usually be ignored in society  a voice in order to tell the audience about his life.

I liked this film as it vividly told AJ's story from an equal standpoint as AJ, coming from a council estate and seemingly living on the breadline, could easily be shunned and not given the time of day to tell his story. I believe the film was successful in dealing with its subject matter as it gave a medium for AJ to directly tell his story to an audience, and showed that it can be hard for a father living in an area plagued with problems.

The element of the film which stood out for me was the many shots of the household which exhibits the poverty stricken family specifically with the Christmas day shots which shows how much AJ has to shell out each year just for a simple day.

The film form relates to the content in some aspects specifically during the segments where AJ is talking about his family he is surrounded by his children and when he is talking about his upbringing and personal problems only he is visible in the shot.

A technique that I found interesting about this documentary was its 'raw' style which was implemented by the use of hand-held cameras. I believe the sound used was very appropriate for the film as the silence allows AJ to tell his story easily.

Overall I found this documentary very insightful about life on the council estate and how hard it can be for AJ and families alike who live through a wealth of problems.

Steel Homes

Steel Homes - Eva Weber

Steel Homes is a short documentary about a storage facility, on paper it seems to lack sustenance in the narrative but the story delivers in both depth and quality as it delves into the 'hoarding' nature of the characters and I believe the directors aim was perhaps to tap into the viewers hoarding nature, I believe this as I felt myself often connecting other peoples kept items to mine which will likely not have another use to me.

I enjoyed the film once it got into its full swing but found it quite slow in building its main objective, the element I enjoyed about the slow start was that,for me, it persuaded me into thinking these people actually lived in these 'steel homes' before it was made obvious that these were just storage facilities. I believed the film was successful in dealing with its subject matter as towards the end of the film I read a deep message of how people can hoard items which will have no further meaning in their life but yet they clasp onto these items as they cannot let go of their past.

The element that stood out to me was the characters stories and how they described these items which they kept in this storage facility. Specifically the items which the subjects had a fond memory of but which held no use in their current lives and how they described how they could not let go of these items due to their past significance.

I believe the film form often directly relates to the content in this film as the director has used camera which only shows the audience a brief glimpse into the storage rooms although as the narration from the characters becomes apparent the audience gains a full view of each item.

A technique which I found interesting was how the director never used the standard interview style by using a medium shot of the character talking into the character, instead each character chose their item and would just tell the story behind it which made the documentary seem much more personal and unforced.
The sound used was very appropriate for this film as the sound didn't overpower the stories and let each story come through in their own right.

Overall I found this documentary a very insightful story about people and how they can hoard onto items which once held a significance in their or a loved ones life.