New & Notable: Born Sweet
Directed by: Cynthia Wade
Born Sweet is an intimate portrait. The filmmakers here are able to get simple truths from their subject about the nature of life and hope. The surprising aspect is that these truths come from a 15 year old boy living in a remote Cambodian village. Vinh, the film’s subject, has contracted arsenic poisoning from a contaminated well. He will be terribly sick his entire life and fend off death every day he wakes. This is his fate. However, Vinh is not resigned to accept this. He is willing to find hope in unlikely experiences and discovers, if only for a brief moment, that there is power in believing there is a future where he can dream and perhaps even love.
The filmmaking here is both deft and bulky. The director, Oscar winner Cynthia Wade, understands the inherent drama in this boy’s experience. She relishes in quiet moments where the symbolism coming from the sights and sounds in Vihn’s life are plentiful and meaningful. The first five minutes of this film are powerful, and some of the most compelling documentary filmmaking I have seen in a short film in a while. However, the film is sluggish as the filmmaker relishes these moments too much and for too long. The pacing, though deliberate, simply bores. It was also surprising that the information explaining how the boy came in contact with the poison was presented as a series of titles. Wade clearly had access to individuals who could have answered the basic journalistic questions that needed to be asked. Presenting the information in interview format would have helped to break up the monotony the film sinks into.
Sometimes a Good Notion 