compulsory viewing

Throughout, the satire is incredibly close to the bone, and all the better for it. It should alarm anyone that all the archive footage this fictional documentary uses is in fact real, including scenes of black slaves penned with cattle and vicious police brutality meted out to black rioters. That this alternative history seems so alien and yet is so recognisable eloquently makes the film’s many points about contemporary America.

The makers are clearly aware of how the documentary genre can disable our critical faculties, with experts wheeled out to make prosaic statements sound grave and important, irrespective of how ludicrous they are. This is certainly an important corrective to the Michael Moore School of documentary-making where truth becomes malleable and subject to some fairly wacky political views.

For the first time ever, I actually sat through the whole DVD commentary in which the director explains a lot of the history behind his alternative version and his reasons for shaping his counter-factual as he did. This constitutes almost a film in itself, and is well worth a look.

In all, a highly intelligent and often darkly amusing take on American society, politics and history. Seeing one interviewee after another blithely accept slavery and show off-hand disregard for the idea of abolition should make us think carefully about the ideas that are our own golden calves.