- Welcome to POV .
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
Tonight's film is North by Current ,
a deeply personal and cathartic journey into
director Angelo Madsen Minax's physical and emotional world
after a mysterious death forces him and his family
to confront their history and dysfunction.
Following the tragic unsolved death of his sister's daughter,
Angelo returns home to rural Michigan
prepared to make a film
about a flawed criminal justice system.
But instead finds himself
investigating his family's history
and the effects of
religious fervor, addiction, and trans embodiment.
In the director's own words,
a personal, first-person approach to storytelling
was the only way he could make this film.
RogerEbert.com calls North by Current
'one of the year's best films.'
High praise indeed.
But perhaps even more flattering
for a filmmaker like Angelo Madsen Minax
is that Filmmaker Magazine
called it 'risky and breathtaking.'
Risky in the way the director puts
his grieving family front and center:
exposing his sister's troubled childhood and addiction issues,
family depression, domestic abuse,
and the family's difficulty
in dealing with Angelo's transitioning process.
Breathtaking in his masterful use
of stylistic visual and audio elements
throughout the film.
Minax uses a host of visual mediums,
including old Super 8 and VHS footage of home movies,
staged actions, cinema vérité
mixed with shots
of Michigan's beautiful natural seasons and landscape.
Minax also incorporates voiceover
to personify his deceased niece's spirit,
at times interweaving it with his own narration,
making it appear as though they are having a conversation.
Accompanying what the director calls his visual portrait
is a haunting score to compliment his picture.
Minax's approach was to editorially push the boundaries
of genre and conventionality and integrate a bold style
into his narrative.
The results are indeed risky and breathtaking;
everything a documentary film
should be and exactly what the director ordered.
North by Current starts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.