18. Hale County This Morning, This Evening; movie review

HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING
Cert TBA
76 mins
BBFC advice: TBA

My working life has always centred upon pitching messages to an audience.
Either as a reporter, newspaper and news website executive or as a PR consultant, my job has been to understand the target and reel them in.
Therefore, I am often perplexed by movies because I cannot fathom at whom they are aimed.
This was particularly true of RaMell Ross's Hale County This Morning, This Evening.
If the intention is to reflect the black community of a deprived American county to itself, it works. They would understand the nuances of local life and its language and no don;t smile and laugh along with i.
However, I supect those from further afield and much different backgrounds, like me, require explanation and context.
This is a portrait of contemporary life of black families in Alabama.
It alights upon church, the basketball court, family gatherings and literally life and death.
It is a very personal documentary and during its five years in production its maker has been trusted so deeply by its subjects that it feels as if the camera barely exists.
Its blurb suggests that it "questions issues of representation and stereotype prevalent in images of black America".
The thing is, even in white England where I have only been connected to black America via the news and film, I wasn't suprised by Hale County This Morning, This Evening.
Because people do normal stuff.
Sure, the movie is more poignant because Hale County has suffered economic decline with many manufacturing plants having closed and people having moved out to follow the work.
But why does the camera linger so long over what seem to be day-to-day activities?
For example, I get it that basketball plays an important part in the lives of young black men but don't need to see them practising throwing balls through hoops to prove it.
People are never interviewed so we are offered no insight into their psyche - we simply have to make up our own minds from a 70-minute film.
Ross is a photographer so the images of Hale County This Morning, This Evening are distinctive and individual.
But without a narrative they didn't tell enough of a tale for them to be illuminating.

Reasons to watch: A rare portrait of normal African Americans in Alabama
Reasons to avoid: Lingers far too long without explanation

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None 
Overall rating: 6/10

Did you know? In the United States crime is ranked on a scale of 1 to 100 and Hale County violent crime is 62.2 while the US average is 31.1. 

Violent crime comprises of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.

The final word. RaMell Ross: "The film registers deeply differently within each community. So for the black community, my community, the way in which the film is seen is one in which there’s such a familiar sensitivity with the way in which one looks at family members and each other that they haven’t seen perhaps often on the big screen, and specifically in documentary film."

Share this post