âFilm About a Father Whoâ Review: Family Secrets by Omission
In her new documentary, Lynne Sachs assesses her relationship with her father, Ira Sachs Sr., who fathered children with multiple women.
Ira Sachs Sr., as seen in Lynne Sachs’s documentary “Film About a Father Who.”Credit.Cinema Guild
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Lynne Sachs shot the footage that became âFilm About a Father Whoâ from 1984 to 2019, and her ideas about what form the movie might take â along with her impressions of her father â must have changed during that time. (Even movies themselves evolved. âFilm About a Father Whoâ mixes 8- and 16-millimeter film, home videotapes and, from the near present, digital material.)
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Dick Johnson Is Dead â the largely acclaimed Netflix release in which filmmaker Kirsten Johnson (
Cameraperson) finds myriad ways to kill her father on camera â was not the only documentary released last year in which a female filmmaker puts the focus on her old man.
Film About a Father Who, which was the opening-night film at last yearâs Slamdance Film Festival and will be playing virtually at the Belcourt starting Friday, has Lynne Sachs doing a dark, deep dive into the life of her father, Ira Sachs. The younger Sachs mostly does this by patching together home-video clips and other footage she and her fam have shot throughout the decades on various formats.