The Viewing Booth
— “The Viewing Booth” was shown at the 2020 True/False Film Fest and, for T/F festival films, I’m giving a general reaction to the viewing experience, followed by the film’s description as it appeared on the festival website.
I am always interested in films that consider the effects of perspective on truth and reality, and in the gray edges that exist in so many things thought of as black and white. A viewing booth becomes an interesting contrivance to drive the point home at a time when so many people are pulled to the left or the right, polarized and set in their own perspectives and truths, where opinions shouted at cameras and across the social network are viewed as “news” instead of opinion or propaganda. It’s good to have films like this to remind us that we all see through different lenses and we all wear our own blinders.
Description from the T/F website: “A student’s face is bathed in blue light as she sits alone, scanning YouTube. She is instructed by a researcher to watch a series of carefully curated videos designed to evoke a political or emotional response about international human rights issues, but the images take on new meaning under the scrutiny of a different perspective. As the researcher attempts to test belief, fact, and fiction, this film reminds us that anything is true from the right angle. A psychological thriller directed by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, whose previous films ‘The Law in These Parts’ (2011) and ‘The Inner Tour’ (2001) each concern the Israeli occupation of Palestine, ‘The Viewing Booth’ explores the production, consumption, and proliferation of media in polarized times.”
I am always interested in films that consider the effects of perspective on truth and reality, and in the gray edges that exist in so many things thought of as black and white. A viewing booth becomes an interesting contrivance to drive the point home at a time when so many people are pulled to the left or the right, polarized and set in their own perspectives and truths, where opinions shouted at cameras and across the social network are viewed as “news” instead of opinion or propaganda. It’s good to have films like this to remind us that we all see through different lenses and we all wear our own blinders.
Description from the T/F website: “A student’s face is bathed in blue light as she sits alone, scanning YouTube. She is instructed by a researcher to watch a series of carefully curated videos designed to evoke a political or emotional response about international human rights issues, but the images take on new meaning under the scrutiny of a different perspective. As the researcher attempts to test belief, fact, and fiction, this film reminds us that anything is true from the right angle. A psychological thriller directed by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, whose previous films ‘The Law in These Parts’ (2011) and ‘The Inner Tour’ (2001) each concern the Israeli occupation of Palestine, ‘The Viewing Booth’ explores the production, consumption, and proliferation of media in polarized times.”
[2019. 70 min. Directed by Ra'anan Alexandrowicz.]
http://ubiquarian.net/2020/02/film-review-viewing-booth-2019-raanan-alexandrowicz/
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