Time

I almost lost hope in this documentary, but that hope was rectified with the final 15 beautiful minutes. However even though the documentary finished strong, as a whole it really failed to grip me!

The overall backbone of the film, was for me the journey that the family experienced whilst growing up without a father. This journey for me was incomplete. As a viewer I wanted to know how the mother created her own narrative and was reborn from the ashes, completely rising up from the total desperation of before she was incarcerated. How the children were effected by this when they were small children to when they were adults. Not just raw footage of a baby and then current video of a graduation. The director showed us the beginning and the end, unfortunately I found no middle ground.

A lot to absorb in this fascinating documentary about a black man sentenced to sixty years for armed robbery and the fight by his wife to get him released after a more reasonable period of incarceration, although twenty years is still pretty hefty all things considered. It's a story centred on the injustice system but at its heart is Fox Rich whose dedication, love and drive to get her husband freed shows a commitment few others could aspire to under these challenging circumstances. Innovatively filmed and presented, the saddest part is that we become increasingly immune to such injustice as it's so often encountered, especially within African American men.

Greetings again from the darkness. "Our prison system is nothing more than slavery, and I'm an abolitionist." So states Fox Rich, a successful business woman, and the mother of six boys. Director Garrett Bradley brings us the story of this woman who devoted 20 years to the mission of getting her husband's prison sentence reduced. It was 1997, and the desperate Shreveport couple were arrested for armed bank robbery. Fox took the plea bargain, while husband Rob did not.

Fox served less than 3 years for her involvement in the robbery, while a Louisiana judge sentenced Rob to 60 years (the maximum sentence was 99), with no allowance for parole. Fox was pregnant with twins when Rob was sentenced. She named the twins Freedom and Justus. Director Bradley expertly weaves clips from the home videos Fox recorded for Rob with 'in the moment' discussions and observations of her attempts to get someone in the system to hear the case.

What we witness over the course of the film is a proud, strong, fierce woman who, as a single mother, raises 6 kids while she works - at her job and to get Rob released. Twice per month visits is all that she's allowed with Rob, which leads one of the sons to comment that hiding behind the strong family image is a lot of pain. Fox discusses how her mother taught her to believe in the American Dream, but desperate people do desperate things ... although we never get an explanation of just why Fox and Rob were so desperate to rob a bank. Fox's mother states, "Right don't come to you doing wrong", and then she turns around and compared incarceration to slavery.

There are some mixed messages delivered here, which is understandable given how complicated life can get. Perhaps the most vivid message is the impact incarceration has on a family. Fox is an extraordinary woman devoted to raising her sons as strong and smart young men. But she also decries that her boys have never had a father and don't even know the role one plays. While Fox displays the ultimate in polite phone decorum despite her frustrations with an uncaring, inefficient system, we do see her sincerity as she stands in front of her church congregation asking for forgiveness of her poor choices.

The film was highly acclaimed and talked about at Sundance 2020, and that's likely because it strikes hard at family emotions and societal issues. A prime example is the phone call between Fox and Rob just prior to his re-sentencing hearing. From a filmmaking perspective, the black and white images are terrific, and as previously stated, the home movies and "live" filming are expertly blended. On the downside, the sound mix is horrible at the beginning, and the music (beautiful piano playing) often overpowers the dialogue throughout. It's a film meant to create discussion amongst viewers, and it's sure to do so.

I actually saw this because of its Oscar nomination for best Documentary Feature but I don't really like it. It's both messy and empty. It feels like it's missing a lot of informations and explanations. And it's chaotic when it comes to character identities. As for the story itself, it seems powerful but if you think well about it, it doesn't fully make sense.

As "Time" (2020 release; 81 min.) opens, Sybil Fox Richardson is talking directly into her smart phone camera: "Today is July 23. My husband is in jail" and she shows off her highly pregnant belly. Born in 1971, she met her husband at age 16, and they eventually start a hip hop clothing store in Shreveport, LA. Then in the late 1990s things go wrong, very wrong, and her husband is sentenced to 60 years in jail... At this point we are less than 10 min. Into the film...

Couple of comments: this is the latest from director Garrett Bradley, who has done a variety of prior short documentary and TV work before. Here she takes a closer look at the travails of a women who is is trying to get her husband released from jail (which she terms "nothing less than slavery"), while raising six boys. The film itself is presented as a mixture smart phone footage and regular camera work, but all of it being brought in B&W footage only. The film also jumps back and forth in time over the last 2 decades. In the end it brings an intimate look at one woman's battle for justice reform. "I will be the voice for the voiceless!", she thunders at one of her public lectures. The movie gets better as it plays out, among other reasons because you really buy into the social plight of this woman and her family. In addition to the remarkable photography, the movie also sports an amazing score, much of it solo piano.

The movie had a very short and limited theater run last Fall, and sadly I had missed it then. I recently caught it on Amazon Prime. In fact, i watched this the very evening of the 2021 Oscars ceremony, where it was nominated for Best Documentary Oscar. Alas, it didn't win (that Oscar went to "My Octopus Teacher"). Regardless, if you have any interest in social justice issues or simply want to see a deeply human story playing out over 2 decades, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.