The Viewing Booth (2019, dir. Ra’anan Alexandrowicz)

The Viewing Booth is a documentary which illuminates the relationship between how people view truths when they confront their personal beliefs. Through this moving experiment, Ra’anan Alexandrowicz exposes the core human psyche that runs the personal belief system. He does this by inviting a group of American students to individually view a collection of online videos. The contents of which detail the daily lives of the inhabitants of the occupied territories and the behaviour of the Israeli army. Through these interviews with other American students, Alexandrowicz discovers an outlier amongst them, a student by the name of Maia. Upon watching these videos she questioned the truth behind them. 

The documentary is built to be free of distractions, Alexandrowicz uses only the basic principles of filmmaking so that all of the attention is on Maia and her reflections on the videos in front of her.

Alexandrowicz’s film is a fascinatingly moving piece which is reminiscent of the structure of a play with a clear second act divide. Whilst this is a unique way to format a documentary, the content felt a little repetitive with its use of replaying her reactions. This film makes you question which camera lens you see the world through. A version of goggle-box you won’t have seen before.

Written by Hope Rowden