Award-winning documentary by filmmaker with a disability will screen at Athens Ciné
In the past, revolutions in the art of cinema were often cultural, signifying changes in attitudes and perspectives from emerging generations of writers and producers who made conscious decisions to break from tradition.
Today's revolution in film is a technological one, perhaps no more evident than in a new documentary made by a filmmaker with cerebral palsy.
"I Didn't See You There," directed by Reid Davenport and produced by Keith Wilson, is scheduled to screen at Athens Ciné at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Shot entirely from the perspective of Davenport, a person with a disability, the feature-length film has won awards at festivals in San Francisco and North Carolina. In January, Davenport received a directing award for U.S. Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.
Through the use of a DJI Pocket camera purchased at Best Buy, Davenport attached the handheld gimbal to the arm of his wheelchair and deliberately pointed it away from himself to give the audience a first-person view of his daily life. In a press statement, Davenport explained his choice to narrate the film rather than show his face.
"The motivation for this is two fold: to jar viewers with shots from a camera held by my spastic body or mounted to my wheelchair, and to unequivocally rebuke the norm of disabled people being seen and not heard," said Davenport. "(Pointing the camera way from myself) allowed me to capture the devastation of a stranger’s gaze, the emptiness of being ignored, the physical weight of doors, and the beauty I am privy to as a wheelchair-user and person with spasticity."
Podcast: 5 horror movie picks from Athens multimedia artist Eugene 'BlackNerdNinja' Willis
Grief and poetry: 'Call it in the Air': UGA professor's latest book deals with grief through a poetic lens
Wilson was already working on a documentary about a person with a disability when he met Davenport at a filmmaking co-op in 2019, where both were in the process of making their own individual movies. When Wilson saw what Davenport was doing, he was immediately taken by Davenport's distinctive visual style.
Wilson, who will be in attendance at the Ciné screening, told the Banner-Herald that Davenport's original goal was to just create a 10-minute short.
"(Davenport's footage) was very rough, but it felt very similar to a lot of things audiences will find in 'I Didn't See You There,' these beautiful kind of film paintings moving up the sidewalk," said Wilson. "His voiceover was funny, critical and really vulnerable, and it just checked all the boxes for me in terms of what I wanted to do. I wanted it to be a thing that other people saw and give Reid a platform to be seen."
"I Didn't See You There" is more than just an eye-opening perspective that puts the audience into elevators, crosswalks and other places in San Francisco and New York with Davenport, who also filmed scenes with his family that illustrate more accommodating spaces and interactions. It also shines a much-needed light on the often ableist, gear-obsessed culture of modern digital filmmaking.
The longer Davenport allows the camera to linger on specific angles and terrain, the more deliberately artistic his images become, accompanied by a symphony of wheels against concrete in place of a music score that might direct the viewer's emotions. Davenport's eye for composition and color is a testament to the fact that when it comes to filmmaking, it's the artist, not the equipment, that creates a lasting impact.
To that end, there is nothing accidental in "I Didn't See You There," nor does it present its themes and visuals as worthy of praise because it was "the best Davenport could do." It's a truly revolutionary piece that educates and informs as well as it entertains and inspires.
Ciné is located at 234 W. Hancock Ave. For tickets and show times, visit athenscine.com.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Athens Ciné to screen new documentary by filmmaker with a disability
