Portrait of photographer Enrique Metinides, who began taking picture of car crashes and tragedies from the age of 9 and has continued ever since. Running along at the same time is a look at use of blood and violence to sell papers.
Dark troubling film, with some stunningly composed photographs, THE MAN WHO SAW TOO MUCH is very much of our time. While focused on the market for graphic pictures in Mexico, the film says volumes about our society and our own news media's attitude of "if it bleeds it leads", except we don't show the gore. Are we headed this way? I would think we are since there doesn't appear to be anything like a road accident to grab attention.
Ultimately though the film is about Enrique Metinides and his work. Metinides seems to be a sweet man. It is because he is so nice and obsessive (his ambulance collection) that we can take the trip with him. He can see that there isn't darkness behind his eyes. How he has managed to remain sane after seeing all he has is truly amazing.
Equally amazing his his photography. Somehow, even from an early age he had an eye he could take a photograph that worked not just as a bit of reporting but as a work of art. I mean how many people could sell a copy of an image of a young girl with her hand in a meat grinder and have it hang in someone's kitchen or even one of a woman cut in half? There is a haunting beauty somewhere beyond the work of Joel Peter Witkin. I am enraptured.
This is one of the best films playing at DOC NYC. It maybe one of my favorite films of the year. Not for the horror, but for the beauty. Additionally I love that this film raises so many questions about what we see, what is reported to us and how we feel about death and life. (I can't wait to see it again)
Highly recommended.
The films single DOC NYC screening is November 12th at 945PM. For tickets and more information go here.
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