NYFF 2020: Time
Garrett Bradley's documentary Time is an exceptional piece of personal and emotive cinema. Spanning over two decades of personal and homemade footage that follows Fox Rich and her family stricken with the prison of time – having to wait, survive and campaign for the release of her husband serving forty years in prison.
While the likes of Richard Linklater's Boyhood and a few other notable examples in the cinematic realm have been curated through decades of performance, Time is something different and exceptional altogether. Granted, watching a group of performers age naturally through time and every ten years or so are brought together is something spectacular. Through the lens of a narrative feature, other films do not hold real emotional weight and life. Time, on the other hand, does not lie or manipulate performance on life – it is the closest to the real thing as a documentarian could arguably get.
Split into two intimate mediums of documentation. One being homemade footage from Fox herself and, the other, a combination of footage shot and curated by director Garrett Bradley, the sheer amount of intimacy brought to proceedings due to the nature of said footage is phenomenal. Not only is the immersion and intoxication fortified, but the footage also elevates the narrative ten-fold.
This elevation of narrative is pressed forward via its monochrome presentation and the utterly spellbinding growth. Seeing Fox be utterly devastated and on the brink of destruction economically and internally, for the documentary to then cut two decades ahead and hear a passionate and empowering speech from Fox, is genuinely moving. The growth and projection of faith and hope are presented here in a stunning fashion, but it is not only Fox that the audience sees grow. Quite literally, we see her sons raised to be the men she has built them to be. How the whole family has taken it upon themselves as not only a responsibility but a dedication to fight for a community and be apart of politics showcases the true depths of the selfishness of their cause.
Time is not just about waiting to see the return of a husband or father. It is the time not spent fighting for what you believe in or spending time with those that matter. Elevated by the story of a minority in America and the multifaceted tale of that representation through this lens only reinforces and cements Time as a truly stunning piece of cinema.