Transpondster

Clip from the incredible documentary, I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, The Mad, & The Ugly, now playing in NYC at the IFC Center in the West Village. If you’re in the city, you should catch this profile of New Orleans, as represented by Ms Carolyn Parker and her daughter, who are determined to stay in the Lower 9th Ward and rebuild their home.

The movie is directed by Jonathan Demme, and to his everlasting credit, he keeps the focus exclusively on his subjects, never on himself. There is very little voiceover and the only time you see the filmmakers is when they are sitting down to eat with the Parkers and can’t get out of the way of the cameras. It’s worth noting that, immediately preceding this clip in the movie, is the opening scene, where the filmmakers are actually making a different movie. But then Carolyn Parker literally walks out her front door and the movie has to change to be about her. Maybe all that was planned, but it really appears to just be a really lucky coincidence.

Great movie about remarkable people. And about the people who help them, who ignore them, who listen, and who let them down. All kinds of people are found in this film. Demme is making two more portrait-based films about people in New Orleans now.