The Charcoal People (2001)
RECIPE FOR WELL-MEANING DOCUMENTARY FILM:
Find a group of Brazilian migrant workers. Film one of them cutting down trees and making charcoal. Insert voice-over where he talks about his family, how life is hard, work, how life is hard, money and how life is hard. Take extra care not to forget the part about life being hard. Intersperse close-ups of subject during voice-over. When voice-over is finished, cut to static long shots of subjects while mournful music plays in the background. Repeat as many times as needed until either 75 minutes have passed or viewer has fallen asleep. Serve plain and ungarnished with no attempt to make material interesting or memorable. Present to liberal-leaning film critics who are willing to overlook the homework-assignment tedium, the mind-numbing repetitiveness and the barely functional filmmaking technique and will praise film as "powerful" and "poignant".
Grade: D
RECIPE FOR WELL-MEANING DOCUMENTARY FILM:
Find a group of Brazilian migrant workers. Film one of them cutting down trees and making charcoal. Insert voice-over where he talks about his family, how life is hard, work, how life is hard, money and how life is hard. Take extra care not to forget the part about life being hard. Intersperse close-ups of subject during voice-over. When voice-over is finished, cut to static long shots of subjects while mournful music plays in the background. Repeat as many times as needed until either 75 minutes have passed or viewer has fallen asleep. Serve plain and ungarnished with no attempt to make material interesting or memorable. Present to liberal-leaning film critics who are willing to overlook the homework-assignment tedium, the mind-numbing repetitiveness and the barely functional filmmaking technique and will praise film as "powerful" and "poignant".
Grade: D
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