Docs Ireland — A–Z of films

Through her collages of stories and images, Rainsford explores the cultural shift precipitated by the disaster, and the different ways of looking at the world which enable people to keep on living in uncertain times.

One doesn't need to be religious to find something ineffable not just in the music itself but in the way it is expressed.

The film immerses us in the life of the city.

Whilst it has the potential to be an interesting character study, it never gets that deep.

Atomic Hope is intriguing as a portrait of a movement, but falls well short as an interrogation of a scientific proposition.

Though we spend a good part of the film inside offices or private homes, there is also a lot of footage from the streets, where passions run high.

It’s tribute to the collaborative feel of this film that the documentary continually takes its lead from what Harris is saying rather than pushing him this way and that.

Do you like watching car chases? These men do them for a living.

Aslin and Lennon convey this very effectively, without being too blunt.

The structure of the documentary itself is formulaic but well executed.

Although its central perspective is rather simplistic, there’s so much packed in around the edges that quite different narratives emerge there, making for a complex and satisfying whole.

Guzmán doesn’t need to hunt for symbolism as the protesters are often supplying their own.

There’s an organic quality to it, like something knitted together intentionally yet with varicoloured wool so that the eventual outcome could not be fully anticipated.

This is a place of cleansing, not just of the body but so much more as this non-intrusive but immersive film gradually reveals.

A difficult watch but compelling nonetheless, and an important contribution to the record.

Details leap out from the photographs, not just the faces of those she captured, but the twist of cigarette smoke, metal ashtrays recalling the tang of wet ash, plasters on scrubbed knees.