Running Stumbled

Documentary makers have a name to maintain when it comes to fearlessness. Our image of a war or disaster is partly determined by the courage, folly or even death-defying feats performed by documentary makers. In his own way, Maringouin also documents war, even though his battleground is the home front and in the arena of personal relations. But his fearlessness is no less for this. The film maker looks up his father, whom he has not seen since his childhood – ever since the moment when his father tried to kill him while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. After all these years, his father – an artist who hasn’t picked up a brush in ages – still turns out to be a junkie. He lives together with an equally addicted and suicidal woman. The arrival of the son and film maker brings even more confusion to this already chaotic life. Seldom can the presence of a film maker have had such an major influence on life in front of the camera while shooting a film. The father lives in the part of Louisiana that (after shooting) was hit by hurricane Katrina. Following the storm, his son went back to see how things were. Maringouin is no a fly on the wall, observing in silence. Not that he says much, but his presence says enough and his striking, occasionally experimental editing provides a powerful visual narrative. (GjZ)