A New England Document

A New England Document (Applewhaite, 2020) tells the story of Elizabeth and Lawrence’s anthropological expeditions to the Kalahari Desert, told through the narration of Elizabeth and visual aids of personal photographs and their daughter’s writings. 

The film has been produced beautifully. The contrasts of Elizabeth’s own photos with pictures of her now, and then flicking to short video clips focus your attention on the screen, whilst allowing you to see glimpses into their personal life and private footage of the expeditions. 

I really wanted to like this documentary – but I really struggled. The narration, paired with the constantly changing photographs, made me feel like a children’s story was being read to me, where I had to keep turning the page to see the new pictures, leaving me slightly tired and bored. Furthermore, both the narration of Che Applewhaite and Elizabeth are very monotone, which left me unable to fully engage with what they were saying. There were several points in the documentary where I started to zone out, feeling as though I was being told of similar information. Additionally, despite the music being meant for background purposes, it left me feeling like I wanted to mute the documentary as it had an irritating repetitiveness about it, sometimes making me wince when it became high-pitch, after having to turn the volume up for the narration. 

I am sorry to say, anyone with a Sheff Doc/Fest pass, and perhaps a limited viewing time, I would give this short film a miss as personally, I do not think you would be missing much. 

Written by Gabriella Ingamells