Time Indefinite

As documentaries go, I was never a fan when the director of the documentary becomes the focus of documentary itself. I always thought the director should be absent and objective. I saw this documentary once called My Kid Could Paint That the film is about a child who paints abstract paintings. Halfway through the film the director becomes apart of the film and is debating if the little girl painted all these paintings. It seemed like lazy filmmaking. But this is a whole different type of documentary, a personal diary documentary. It is a completely different beast. In these type of documentary the director is the focus and he is documenting his own life. In this situation, I really enjoy the director as the star. I found the fact, the camera is a character really interesting. It is rare to have the camera is a character and star of the movie.

With personal documentaries there is one flaw, most films are sometimes on the verge of being boring and uninteresting and suspenseful and riveting. My favorite part of the movie is when Ross goes to visit his friend and try to help her get over her husband's suicide. No one excepted this. Before, he was experiencing normal everyday things most of us have or will experience.

One aspect, I wish the film would address more is how constantly filming his life is effecting his life. Ross touches on it a little, with the relationship with his family and father in the opening and towards the end when he has a baby with his wife. The fictional film, David Holzman's Diary is a great film, that deals with this very subject.