12/19/20 - Collective (2020) - 9/10
F*ck. Horrifying. Intense. Exquisite. Arresting. Amazing access and disclosure of the process discovering this vile tragedy and the political skullduggery that allowed it. Intrinsically it is powerful, but it is also superiorly arranged & manifested. A feat of documentary filmmaking.
Human to begin and human to end, showing the true impression the system made - blood, tears, and tombs. Rarely do films combine the heart of those affected with the developed depth of the machinations of such an end's creation. This is journalism, true and profound. At its core and heart, this might be the best journalism doc or film I have ever seen.
Cannot shake the resemblance of what we have been experiencing here to what is conveyed on the screen. Politicalization, corrupt grafting malfeasance, glossing over death and horror to make money, and all the while a populist government takes control to inflict more of the same. Anti-science and anti-messenger, you can’t help but feel sorry for what is to come for the journalists digging deep to expose the cracks, the few officials who seem to care, know and strive to fill those cracks, and the victims who are bound to keep falling through them. At home and abroad, as we see, we are all burning. The collective is on fire; the building, each of those trying to escape, and the lot of us as a society in which we have given power to those who care for themselves and not us. It’s all burning around us and will consume us all unless we can make a change.
