Film About a Father Who

Film About a Father Who, directed by the acclaimed filmmaker Lynne Sachs and released in 2020, is a surreal and deeply personal documentary that paints a picture of the complex, multifaceted, and occasionally disconcerting nature of human beings, as deciphered through the relationship between a father and his children. The father at the center of the narrative is Ira Sachs Sr., a real estate developer and vivacious bon vivant. The primary voices we hear from throughout the film are his offspring: his daughter, filmmaker Lynne Sachs, and his sons, filmmaker Ira Sachs Jr. and Adam Sachs, interspersed with insights from Julia Buchwald-Sachs.

Film About a Father Who is a 30-years-in-the-making work, compiled from various film and video formats ranging from 8 and 16mm films to digital footage, offering both aesthetic and temporal dislocation. The film is not structured chronologically; instead, it bounces back and forth through time, unfolding itself like a memory quilt crafted with scraps of moments from the past, present, and everything in-between. This withholding of strict time-stamps allows the film to unfold more like sedimentary layers of a family's history.

The documentary starts out skirting around a simple biographical portrait of Sachs Sr.'s life as a successful businessman and charming hedonist. Almost immediately, it starts veering away from the expected path, hinting at the complex web of relationships that Sachs Sr. fostered during his life. The title subtly suggests the multi-faceted nature of the story, as it inherently implies mature topics of family, compassion, and the human capacity to accept, forgive and move on amidst inconsistencies and incongruities.

At its core, this documentary is about the inexplicable human tendency to hold conflicting feelings towards family members and the lengths one might go to rationalize or make sense of these emotions. Sachs stresses that, while one might assume that people are singular, consistent entities, the reality of the situation is often far from that. Sachs Sr. is a cheery, if at times unanchored personality, while also maintaining the role of a father and business entrepreneur.

Yet, Sachs Sr. is much more complex than he initially appears. As Lynne and her siblings explore the depths of their father's enigmatic life, the countless secrets, and the tug of conflicting emotions, the real depth of the documentary begins to reveal itself. Sachs uses the metaphor of her father's long, unkempt hair as a symbol of his refusal to adhere to societal norms and expectations, demonstrating his complexity through this tangible, physical manifestation.

Every revelation dished out through the duration of this documentary shapes how the audience perceives the protagonist. Sachs Sr., who started as a charismatic bon vivant, slowly morphs into a peculiarly fascinating yet undeniably human personality. Sachs skillfully manages to avoid painting her father as a villain or victim – rather, he is an enigma, a man full of paradoxes and contrast, always commanding attention and interest.

Film About a Father Who is a fascinating exploration of the complexities of a family narrative, and it is also a significant achievement in film-making for Lynne Sachs. By balancing empathy and truth, she brings us to the realization that human personalities are not monolithic - they are built upon layers and layers of experiences, shaped by time, places, and people.

The documentary is an reckoning with the limits of understanding others, especially family members. Sachs takes the bewildering and hurtful aspects of her family's past, and instead of trying to smooth them into an easy narrative, she presents the jumble of overlapping truths with integrity, giving voice to the varied, and at times contradictory, perspectives of her family members without judgment. It's an homage to complex realities that constitute the human condition and its inherent contradictions.

In the end, the audience is left with an intimate and intricate piece of cinema, where the concept of simplicity is flipped on its head to take us on a raw, heartfelt journey of understanding the chaos that family life can often be. Film About a Father Who is significantly beautiful in its chaos, dissecting human relationships, motivations, and emotions, leaving the audience with a profound reflection on their understanding of family complexities. It is not just about the Sachs family but resonates with universal experiences and reminiscences.