Has no one else seen this? I heard how good Spike Lee’s documentary on Katrina was, and so quickly bought it when released on dvd, then as quickly shelved it, as it was hard to drum up excitement about a film that was almost certainly good for me but would be painful to watch. Foolish. This is a great, great film–easily the best documentary I’ve seen since (and probably better yet than) the excellent Mondovino. It is heartwrenching but often startlingly funny; its powerful sociopolitical thrust complemented by a remarkable sense of rhythm, image, sound, editing. It’s just amazing filmmaking, and I’m enjoying the hell out of it, even as it is in equal parts enraging and enlightening.
I’ll write more later–but I wanted to see if others simply hadn’t posted . . . .
I think you could make the case that Spike Lee is our most important filmmaker–in every sense of “important.” I cannot believe a work this damn good came out so quickly after the event.