It’s a Documentary
I feel I have to respond to some of the Feb. 18 letters about the movie “Roger & Me.”
Only a fool (or a member of the motion picture academy’s documentary board) defines documentary as objective nonfiction.
From “Nanook of the North” to “The Thin Blue Line,” documentary has inhabited a region between fiction and journalism. Documentary is a form designed for filmic essays, and it encourages partiality and bias. I don’t know anybody who walked into “Roger & Me” expecting an impartial overview of the situation in Flint, Mich. I expected to see one man’s view of that situation, and that is what I saw.
Letter writer Tony Thomas chastises Warner Bros. for having a profit motive in releasing this film. Warner deserves every penny it makes from “Roger & Me,” and I can only hope it will be encouraged to back many more projects that will have an equally irritating effect on Thomas and his ilk.
JOSHUA OLSON
Hermosa Beach
Only good movies
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