http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdlWPLYH7MM
This documentary gives us an insight into 23 year old AJ's life at home. AJ lives in a council flat with his partner and seven children (biological father to to of them), and one yet to be born. The film was extremely effective in terms of provoking an emotional reaction. I genuinely empathised with AJ and his situation. I found some of the imagery particularly shocking, especially the shot of the toddler that was chewing on an empty cigarette pack. Not just the imagery but the stories that AJ told. The fact that his son was on drugs at age 15 and his uneasy upbringing both affected me. To think that nothing would have been scripted and supposedly no shots were planned made all of this a lot more hard-hitting.
This film changed the way I think about documentary as a whole. The shots and cinematography were not well constructed or very nice looking at all, but I think it works perfectly. The focus is entirely on AJ and his family and how real this situation is, and it's filmed almost in a 'home movie' kind of scenario. It makes no attempt to glamourise anything about itself and I think this is what makes it such a powerful film.
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