Road to the Oscars, 2024. This is nominated in 1 category, and it's best documentary.
This is one of the toughest watches I have had to do in a while. As is said in the doc, it's not nice to watch, but it's not supposed to be. Having this documented and shown is so important and having people like these, risking their actual lives to show you what happens in a war zone, is only commendable. This is not a documentary for the faint of heart, showing actual haunting imagery that will affect you to your core. Having all the death and names shown are what hits you, and to know this war is still going is beyond insane.
We follow a press team in the Ukraine city of Mariupol, from the war breaking out to them escaping.
Firstly, this documentary team needs all the respect in the world I can give. Seeing them standing in the middle of a war zone, trying to get a signal to send the footage is absolute commandable and therefore really deserves your time! These people risked everything when they didn't have too, and saw so many things that will no doubt affect them for the rest of their lives. Upmost respect for you! It's so important to show this and shooting everything, even when it's so hard to watch. Death of grown-ups and kids, destruction of everything, this movie gets it all, and it's gut-wrenching to watch. Seeing the team break one time also really got to me, reminding me this is no longer theater blood and actors, but actual lives lost and people behind cameras risking their own sanity to deliver an incredible piece of documentation.
This is one of the hardest watches I have done in a while, not shying away to show death, blood, operations, corpses of grown-ups and kids even near infants aren't safe here, calling out their names and ages just to prove the travesties happening before your eyes. I felt so bad while watching this, feeling so much emotion and compassion, you just wished this wasn't happening to the people, but it is and seeing people lose their loved once, break down, and then see a film crew break down really affects you too. Again I think this is so important to watch and show, but this is not for faint of hearts, you are going to see some terrible stuff here.
There were aspects of the documentary I didn't like, and it's more in terms of the emotional manipulation the movie does. This is of course not new to filmmaking, but this felt too real and already so affective, that I don't need music to enhance what I'm thinking. The footage speaks for itself, let it. The philosophical voice-over didn't do much for me either. Trying to put a face on the man behind the camera is once again not needed here and used more sparingly could have been hauntingly affective, like only explaining what's going on and naming people and their age. Using constant footage of kids are also a bit too pathos for me. Showing what's at stake is perfectly fine, but doing it whenever you can, can feel a bit manipulative. I also didn't like the interviewer questions, they were either too dumb or too provocative for me to gain full sympathy for the creator.
This is incredible footage trying to show everything that goes on, from hospitals, to civilian reactions, to military actions, the doc shows everything that happens in a war zone. All the sadness, frustration, death, and even drawing out the worst of humanity not only from the Russian side but also from clearly desperate Ukrainian people. The way footage is captured is incredible, and this is such an important documentary today.
I really needed to watch this, to be reminded what's going on in a conflict that has gone on for way too long. To see the tragedy happening actually not that far from once self, and to show the humanity in the absolute chaos that is war. This is one of the toughest watches I have ever done, but I am so glad I did it.
Oscar predictions: While I haven't really seen any of the other contenders or researched them too much, I can only image this winning! This is such a daring documentary, and seeing people risk everything to do a documentary needs some sort of higher honer than a nomination. The other contenders might be as daring, but if this won I would not get mad.
This is one of the toughest watches I have had to do in a while. As is said in the doc, it's not nice to watch, but it's not supposed to be. Having this documented and shown is so important and having people like these, risking their actual lives to show you what happens in a war zone, is only commendable. This is not a documentary for the faint of heart, showing actual haunting imagery that will affect you to your core. Having all the death and names shown are what hits you, and to know this war is still going is beyond insane.
We follow a press team in the Ukraine city of Mariupol, from the war breaking out to them escaping.
Firstly, this documentary team needs all the respect in the world I can give. Seeing them standing in the middle of a war zone, trying to get a signal to send the footage is absolute commandable and therefore really deserves your time! These people risked everything when they didn't have too, and saw so many things that will no doubt affect them for the rest of their lives. Upmost respect for you! It's so important to show this and shooting everything, even when it's so hard to watch. Death of grown-ups and kids, destruction of everything, this movie gets it all, and it's gut-wrenching to watch. Seeing the team break one time also really got to me, reminding me this is no longer theater blood and actors, but actual lives lost and people behind cameras risking their own sanity to deliver an incredible piece of documentation.
This is one of the hardest watches I have done in a while, not shying away to show death, blood, operations, corpses of grown-ups and kids even near infants aren't safe here, calling out their names and ages just to prove the travesties happening before your eyes. I felt so bad while watching this, feeling so much emotion and compassion, you just wished this wasn't happening to the people, but it is and seeing people lose their loved once, break down, and then see a film crew break down really affects you too. Again I think this is so important to watch and show, but this is not for faint of hearts, you are going to see some terrible stuff here.
There were aspects of the documentary I didn't like, and it's more in terms of the emotional manipulation the movie does. This is of course not new to filmmaking, but this felt too real and already so affective, that I don't need music to enhance what I'm thinking. The footage speaks for itself, let it. The philosophical voice-over didn't do much for me either. Trying to put a face on the man behind the camera is once again not needed here and used more sparingly could have been hauntingly affective, like only explaining what's going on and naming people and their age. Using constant footage of kids are also a bit too pathos for me. Showing what's at stake is perfectly fine, but doing it whenever you can, can feel a bit manipulative. I also didn't like the interviewer questions, they were either too dumb or too provocative for me to gain full sympathy for the creator.
This is incredible footage trying to show everything that goes on, from hospitals, to civilian reactions, to military actions, the doc shows everything that happens in a war zone. All the sadness, frustration, death, and even drawing out the worst of humanity not only from the Russian side but also from clearly desperate Ukrainian people. The way footage is captured is incredible, and this is such an important documentary today.
I really needed to watch this, to be reminded what's going on in a conflict that has gone on for way too long. To see the tragedy happening actually not that far from once self, and to show the humanity in the absolute chaos that is war. This is one of the toughest watches I have ever done, but I am so glad I did it.
Oscar predictions: While I haven't really seen any of the other contenders or researched them too much, I can only image this winning! This is such a daring documentary, and seeing people risk everything to do a documentary needs some sort of higher honer than a nomination. The other contenders might be as daring, but if this won I would not get mad.