Search

Chain Camera

2001, Movie, NR, 90 mins

Chain Camera: Review

CHAIN CAMERA
starstarstarstar
There's a great idea behind Kirby Dick's winning documentary about student life at California's John Marshall High School. At the start of the 1999-2000 school year, Dick handed 10 students 10 video cameras, and asked them to film their lives. After a week, those 10 students passed their cameras to 10 other students, and so on, until graduation. The idea was to form the cinematic equivalent of a chain letter, with the cameras wending their way through the student population and into their lives with minimal interference from the filmmakers. Then, out of a pool of hundreds of "video diaries," Dick selected 15 students and edited their week's worth of footage down to short (one to five minutes) segments. The intriguing premise doesn't really work: Dick's post-production involvement was so heavy that it doesn't really matter who gave what camera to whom. The minute the tape is taken out of the camera and edited, the chain is effectively broken. But left alone with their friends — or better yet, with just the camera — these kids open up in a way they probably never would in front of a cameraman. And the simple fact that each student selected the person to whom he or she handed off the camera resulted in a fascinating cross-section of teenagers, from a 17-year-old runaway who aspires to be a stripper to a special education student who was voted homecoming prince to a nerdy academic triathlon finalist. Unlike, say, Frederick Wiseman's HIGH SCHOOL (1969), Dick's film isn't so much about the institution itself, or a study of how the students interact with the faculty (although a surprisingly fiery valedictory speech at the end suggests that all's not well on that front). The focus is the kids themselves: Their hopes, fears, sexuality and ethnicity are all frankly, however briefly, explored. What's surprising is how bright and engaging these kids are, and for once you're left wanting more. Perhaps there is hope for the future. leave a comment --Ken Fox
Advertisement

Shop

Chain Camera
Buy Chain Camera from Amazon.com
From Zeitgeist Films (DVD)
Average Customer Review: nostarnostarnostarnostarstar
Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy New: $17.99

more Chain Camera products

Advertisement

Related Websites

You might be also interested in the following websites:

Most Popular TV Shows

  1. NCIS
  2. Dancing with the Stars
  3. The Game
  4. Biggest Loser
  5. American Idol
more popular tv shows

Most Popular Celebrities

  1. Tiger Woods
  2. Pamela Bach
  3. Heidi Klum
  4. Jake Gyllenhaal
  5. Reese Witherspoon
more popular celebrities

Most Popular Movies

  1. The Twilight Saga: New Moon
  2. The Blind Side
  3. 2012
  4. Old Dogs
  5. A Christmas Carol
more popular movies

Top Videos

  1. Desperate Housewives
  2. Nip/Tuck
  3. The View
  4. NCIS
  5. TODAY
more top videos