Hale County This Morning, This Evening

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, filmmaker RaMell Ross’s intimate portrait of African American community life in Hale County, AL, is a mixed bag—a beautifully lensed hybrid of cinema verité and experimental film. Ostensibly, the narrative (such as it is) focuses on two young men: Quincy, who lives with his wife Boosie (who has twins on the way) and their young daughter Kyrie, and Daniel, a student at Selma University who is trying to make the basketball squad. Viewers see sequences of kids playing video games, church members singing, basketball practice, dancing, bowling, outside cooking, and more that capture the flavor of life in Hale County, but some of the scenes are inexplicably long (Kyrie toddles back and forth on the living room floor in one, and another is set in a loud locker room where individual comments are hard to make out—both sequences go on for minutes). And the periodic appearance of cryptic text questions on the screen ("What happens when all the cotton is picked?" "Where does time reside?") lead to more head-scratching than serious reflection. Ultimately, one comes away with a strong sense that Ross has a cinematographer’s eye—this is a luminous film—but has difficulty conveying a director’s vision. Still, given Hale County‘s beauty and the Oscar attention, this should be considered a strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a booklet featuring an essay by legal scholar Patricia J. Williams. Bottom line: a small extras package for this Oscar-nominated documentary.] (R. Pitman)