Time (Garrett Bradley, 2020)

Time by Garrett Bradley is one of those films that you begin to watch and quickly realize you’re in for something truly different, original. Shot over two decades and incorporating both archival home video and more recent documentary footage, the film follows Sibil Fox Richardson as she fights for the release of her husband Rob. This deeply personal story, dealing with issues surrounding the incarceration of (a) black father(s) in Louisiana, presented in crisp black and white and featuring an abnormal amount of musical underscoring, carries itself with grace in the vérité tradition.

I found myself, in the last twenty minutes, deeply affected by the dénouement, even though I had at times found myself distracted earlier in the film - my attention, in these endless at-home pandemic times, is a bit limited, I must admit. Overall, it presents loveable, full characters (Sibil, her children, their grandmother, and Rob himself), never reducing them to archetypes. Time ultimately does what good documentaries need to: tell a truly compelling story, honestly. And we’re all the better for having listened.