Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
We’ve got two reviews from this guy today. One was for THE RING, and the other is for this film I’ve never heard of before, THE AGRONOMIST. How does Jonathan Demme get away with making a film I’ve never heard of?
Hi Harry,
Enclosed is my review of Jonathan Demme's new documentary, The Agronomist. I don't think many people know he's been working on this film for the past nine years.
Note: This review references a "work-in-progress" cut of the film.
Extreme admiration, not pleasure, would be the optimal noun required to describe my The Agronomist viewing experience. Since 1993 Jonathan Demme (Oscar winning The Silence of the Lambs helmer) has been surreptitiously working on a (largely) VHS documentary portrait of his friend, Haitian radio journalist and human rights activist Jean Dominique. Doc's illumination is twofold: (1) Shining light on the perfidy inextricably woven in Haiti's tragic historic fabric. (2) Shining light on Dominique — a magnetic, crucial, forceful man - in all his noble glory.
Agronomy is a branch of agriculture dealing with field-crop production and soil management, A.K.A. the line of work Dominique was originally destined to enter. He was supposed to be one of Haiti's upper-crust elite; alas such self-serving work was not in the cards. Here is a man whose entire life ended up being predicated on the notion of helping others, of exposing corruption, of - via his revolutionarily independent Haitian radio station - working to do whatever possible to clean up Haiti's terrible, violent stasis. "He was an agronomist without land," one character remarks in the film, an apt metaphor to extend throughout Dominique's life as his radio station had to be frequently aborted during specifically dangerous, tumultuous Haitian times (one chilling anecdote Dominique recites tells of the time his station was fired upon so voraciously his listeners could actually hear the gunshots).
Suffice to say, none of this difficult material is entertaining (once again nor should it be, forgive me if it sounds like I'm damning with faint praise). Make no mistake though, this documentary is here to enlighten, and without sounding pretentious, perhaps actually make a fucking difference. An eye-opening experience through and through.
Granted, this work-in-progress is not without its flaws. Even at 90 minutes it drags a bit in the middle. The filmmakers told me one of the never-ending difficulties is finding the balance between explaining enough Haitian history for the context of Dominique's story to make sense. They've done a mostly good job, but perhaps a little nipping here, and tucking there would be of help. Also: There's a few editing flourishes I detested. Jokey freeze-frames and triple takes and zooming title cards play amateurish and inappropriate, undermining the gravity of the story being told.
The last twenty minutes of this film are hugely sad and supremely powerful (the woman next to me couldn't stop crying). I don't wanna spoil the emotional wallop the footage packs, but I guarantee it's a doozy.
This is an important film and it needs to be seen as soon as possible. Demme and company should stop tinkering around (they've been working on The Agronomist for the past nine years) and get this distributed before the truly abysmal Haitian situation gets any worse.
-Jared Sapolin
Thanks, man, and consider my eyes peeled.
"Moriarty" out.
