Review:
This film begins as a quest for self-discovery but it ends up dealing with something much bigger: the role of women in modern society. In our time with Jen we get to meet single mothers in post-apartheid South Africa, a divorcee in post-communist Russia, a rights activist in India, and a victim of Female Genital Mutilation from Somalia. This is, of course, only the beginning of a long and varied list that always seems to come back to the filmmaker’s family and friends, the causes of her greatest joys and anxieties. Far from being trite and cliché, Flying, offers new and diverse perspectives on the lives that women live in a way that seeks to observe and understand, not judge and criticize.
In order to create for the viewer the effect of conversation with a single DV Camera, Fox utilizes a technique that she calls “passing the camera.” As she engages her new acquaintances, friends, family, and lovers in thoughtful conversation, Fox films herself and her companions, and then without fail passes that responsibility to someone else in the room. She never uses a tripod and even includes the tilted images (an effect of the camera being handed off) in her editing. Initially, this makes the film feel like a home movie, but as the story proceeds, its extremely intimate nature comes to seem nothing but natural. It is crystal clear that absolutely nothing is staged, from the filmmaker’s two miscarriages to the end of the three-year relationship with her married lover. The problems of Jennifer Fox are not my problems, not by a long shot. Nonetheless, I found myself engrossed in her story, and the funny thing is that I still can’t figure out why.
Could it be that I am fascinated by how much this very unassuming film has, perhaps inadvertently, accomplished? Just by being herself, Jennifer Fox succeeds where Hollywood has fallen short for years: she presents a film about women in which the plot lines aren’t contrived, the characters are realistic, and the ending has nothing to do with finding or losing the man of your dreams.
Review by Emily Comisar
Extra Sources for further research: www.flyingconfessions.com (very well done and definitely worth checking out even if you haven’t seen the film).
Informative: 4 – although much of the footage contained personal stories, it was all new to me
Entertainment: 3/4 – Cleverly constructed to follow an interesting storyline. The cliffhangers between 1-hour episodes are also well used.
Technical: 5 – Fox knows what she’s doing, and her “passing the camera” technique is something I’ve never seen before.
Overall: 4 – I’m not completely blown out of the water, but I’m definitely interested and intrigued.
