Theo Robertson
There's two vague types of documentary . Those that let the audience make up their own minds on a subject and those who shout and scream at you that you should be taking the same side as the documentary makers . A good example of the first would be the early work of Nick Broomfield while the second example would of course be Michael Moore . REINDEER falls very firmly in to the first school as we're shown a bunch of reindeer herders in a cold frozen tundra . As Bob says there is no context to what we're being shown apart from the images themselves . There's no dialogue and considering it lasts for a grand total of three minutes the scope is very limited . Why are reindeer herded ? Why does someone want be involved in reindeer herding ? What do reindeer do before and after their only working day on the 25th of December ? Your guess is as good as mine . It's often a problem of short films that they merely exist as a sales pitch as in " Give us money to make a feature film based on our idea " and one gets the same feeling watching this documentary . Mind you people who love animals in general and four legged ones in particular will enjoys this though they'll probably complain it's not long enough
bob the moo
To call Reindeer a documentary is probably not correct because one would normally come to a documentary film expecting to be informed about a person, a situation or an event. With Reindeer Eva Weber doesn't really inform us of anything and in some regards this is a shame because it would at least have interesting to have a bit of text on the screen telling us where we were, what the context was, things like this. Fortunately watching it via the internet means you can read the blurb below the video so you get to understand that sort of detail, although watching it in such a way also has a downside as you are watching a small screen.For this film that is a problem because you get the feeling that this work deserves a bigger screen and as high a resolution as possible because it is all about the images. Although it is only a few minutes long, the cinematography is great and the camera seems to benefit from the very cold crisp air (or if not benefit then it captures that sense). The choice of shots is also very good and everything is filmed with a good eye – so the impressive sight of animals herding is delivered but with a nice through-shot where we mostly see antlers etc. Smaller shots through darkness and snow are also filmed and well presented as images – it doesn't need repeating that I have no technical knowledge or skill, however the little I do know makes me appreciate the challenge of shooting in darkness and/or in snow. As a collection of images and sounds, the short film is worth a look because it does have a certain beauty to it, however this is all it has since it offers nothing in terms of information or commentary, which is a shame.
