The content of the TV documentary, Invisible City, directed by Hubert Davis revolves around the lives of two male African American youths living in the troubled Toronto community, Regent Park. The protagonists Kendell and Mikey are bestfriends who are struggling with their identity, education, family issues and all the while transitioning from being a youth to an adult. The story unfolds the lives of our two protagonists from the beginning of their grade 10 high school year right through to their grade 12 year.
To help support their story, Ainsworth Morgan their former elementary school teacher, mentor, friend and father figure explains the importance of guidance and trust in relation to the youth within the Regent Park community. Ainsworth encourages Kendell and Mikey to chase their ambitions, watch the company they keep and influences them to become wiser men. Without Ainsworth, the two boys would have no male figure to turn to for they do not have a father in their life.
The mother of Mikey, Sharon, expresses her concern but endless love for her only son. She works two jobs to help make ends meet and knows the only way to help her son is to move out of Regent Park. Her dreams no longer involve her, but Mikey, a hope for better education, get him off the streets and aim for a successful future. Later in the documentary, Mikey disobeys his midnight curfew with the police, and Sharon decides to turn her son in so that he could learn from this experience and hopefully grow from it.
The mother of Kendell, Sandy, refuses to jump on the same bandwagon with the rest of the community and label her son as a criminal or thug, instead she supports him even after he is arrested on school property with reports that he threw a juice box at a hall monitor. During the court trial, Sandy stood by her son, hoping that Kendell will learn from his mistakes and slowly transform himself into a better man.
The atmosphere of the documentary was very raw and real, there were no special graphics used. To help emphasize and illustrate the story more clearly and have more impact, endless amounts of b-roll was used throughout the film. Majority of the one on one interviews were close-ups to extreme close-ups of the subject, enabling the audience to feel the emotion and concern of the matter. Text was used throughout the entire documentary, for there was no narrator or host, the text helped reveal the story and set the tone and mood.
A bit better on the commentary. Overall you are a prolific writer going way beyond the word count. You are good at describing what you saw. It would be better if you spent more time thinking about the ideas expressed and commenting on them as well as commenting n the direction, camerawork, etc.
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