A Treat for Film Students

Rating: 6/10 (25 November 1999)

There is nothing worse than watching a movie with film students. They not only complain about technical aspects, but they usually think of the way they would have shot the same script. For four years working at the Havana Film and Television School, I went through this, and I suppose I caught some of their "disease." The consequences of this "film alphabetization" came to the forum while watching "The Blair Witch Project." I remembered the students' approval of something good, as well as their loud reactions, their laughter and booing. At the same time I was questioning the film during the whole projection. This does not mean I did not find it an interesting film experience (I saw it in a theater, and I was the only customer). Quite the contrary: it is an original cinematic concept, an intelligent reflection on fear, and a good definition of horror as nothing but a state of mind, related to ignorance and darkness. However in too many occasions more than I can remember right now-- the situations were barely credible on technical and dramatic grounds: for example, would you believe someone lost in the woods (Heather) would keep on taping images while discovering that another person (Mike) has thrown their only connection to civilization --a map-- to the river? Well, Heather shouts at Mike like hell but she never stops gazing through the visor of her video camera! She is one of the most obnoxious characters ever to appear on a film (see during the first part, how she does not let her interviewees finish their sentences), not only for her bully ways but also for her obsessive recording of a "documentary." She is not a filmmaker; she is just a student working on a project, because of which her life is in danger. Before the resolution, there is a brief moment when Heather and Mike are alone in the darkness, inside the tent, when it seems improbable that the recorder would be registering sounds. And on top of that, we are not told that this is the edited and Dolby version of the found footage, a fact that predisposes the "film alphabetized" viewer to distance himself/herself from the film, and smile at the naïve opening title. But it is a remarkable film nonetheless, although the overrating affects the objective appreciation of the filmmakers' good work.