This film is a clear example of faith, healing, and mourning in practice. Interpreted through the cinematic language and style of the film, which is non-sync and non linear, Mychal was a man who could see through many contradictions. As a gay man and religious supporter, he was predominate religious figure in the 80's, for loving and accepting AIDS victims in a time when most are plagued with shame and had been forsaken. He supported gays when the church had abandoned them. He was a man who was not afraid to go against logic. Contrary to conventional story telling, Glenn Holsten also defies logic in her editing and arrangement of the film. Assuming there was nothing wrong with the print I saw, her arrangement of edits is dysfunctional. The audio track seems intact, where as the video jumps around, and suggests a certain level of subjectivity and displacement. Where most people might change the channel or turn the movie off, the importance and beauty of what is being said outweighs your vision and keeps your attention.
There are many films that are considered documentaries of death, such as tributes to famous rockers, or historical films on concentration camps, or even studies on religious after life practices. "Recording death or documenting the act of dying can be a sensitive one. A filmmaker walks a thin line between a cathartic experience and exploitation." Renov explains. If films like Saint of 9/11 bring resolution or comfort to people who share a similar loss, or affection, the act of mourning will bring about positive change. " The camera incites, records, and preserves these sustained efforts to speak the most unspeakable of losses." It is with memories of loss, love, and sorrow that a person can feel very vulnerable. There is a fine line filmmakers walk when giving a face to a biography of death. Capturing body language in the vulnerable state of silence, the camera now becomes an objective viewer, like the liberated soul of Hinduism. Speaking about a personal interview with a former SS member, "Something like the holocaust changes a person in a way that it's impossible to retreat back into the free and uninhibited ego." Renov addresses predominantly films that respond to private or familial sorrows, but told in a way that implicates others. In his best summery of his thoughts on death and the documentary, Renov states, "In regards to the world of mourning, cinema and video possesses a remarkable potential for creating new therapeutic communities, joined by bereavement, loss, and the need for healing." There are new potentials with moving image and sync sound, before unknown with literature. The medium can better serve a direct path into the lives of others. We do not imagine, but watch and listen to the resolution of death manifest in another, which is the only way after all one can experience death in life.
There are many films that are considered documentaries of death, such as tributes to famous rockers, or historical films on concentration camps, or even studies on religious after life practices. "Recording death or documenting the act of dying can be a sensitive one. A filmmaker walks a thin line between a cathartic experience and exploitation." Renov explains. If films like Saint of 9/11 bring resolution or comfort to people who share a similar loss, or affection, the act of mourning will bring about positive change. " The camera incites, records, and preserves these sustained efforts to speak the most unspeakable of losses." It is with memories of loss, love, and sorrow that a person can feel very vulnerable. There is a fine line filmmakers walk when giving a face to a biography of death. Capturing body language in the vulnerable state of silence, the camera now becomes an objective viewer, like the liberated soul of Hinduism. Speaking about a personal interview with a former SS member, "Something like the holocaust changes a person in a way that it's impossible to retreat back into the free and uninhibited ego." Renov addresses predominantly films that respond to private or familial sorrows, but told in a way that implicates others. In his best summery of his thoughts on death and the documentary, Renov states, "In regards to the world of mourning, cinema and video possesses a remarkable potential for creating new therapeutic communities, joined by bereavement, loss, and the need for healing." There are new potentials with moving image and sync sound, before unknown with literature. The medium can better serve a direct path into the lives of others. We do not imagine, but watch and listen to the resolution of death manifest in another, which is the only way after all one can experience death in life.