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The Lives Of Mount Druitt Youth (DVD)
Year: 2010
Rating: M
Director: Saad Adam
Cast: Evan Adam, Simon Bodie
Release Date: August 10, 2010
Distributor: Question Mark
The Film: 2.5
FILMINK rates DVDs and Blu-rays out of 5Lacking context and solid production values, this documentary is lifted by the thought provoking subject matter.
The positive and the negative in the democratisation of filmmaking afforded by cheap digital cameras, computer editing bays, and the internet is that there's a plethora of product distributed (by the filmmakers or otherwise) and no gatekeepers to sort through the good, the bad and the ugly. Debut filmmaker Saad Adam falls into the latter camp. Saad was inspired to make The Lives Of Mount Druitt Youth to counter the negative press surrounding Sydney's notorious titular western suburb. The problem is that despite his best intentions, it's doubtful whether Saad had even seen the work of The Maysles' or heard of Errol Morris before embarking on the project.
Following an extended montage of the people that he's about to feature, Saad then interviews dozens of Mount Druitt locals about everything from violence and crime to drugs and alcohol. There's no context (does everyone know about Mount Druitt's reputation?), production qualities are problematic, and the use of "inspirational" quotes from Adam himself to chapter the film is equivalent to this review saying, "FILMINK thinks the whole thing is so undergraduate." This is a vanity project, but you have to admire Saad's cojones. Ultimately it's his subjects that make the film watchable, with these real Australians providing a fascinating alternative to what we see on the news.