Reel/Unreel Response - Nex

Francis Alÿs’s film, “Reel/Unreel”, is a close look at the cityscape of Kabul, Afghanistan through the eyes of this experimental style of documentary. The camera follows two young boys rolling reels of film, nodding to a game that the children play with hoops. There's a large variety of shots even though it is following one subject. Of course, it starts with a wide establishing shot of the area in which this takes place but the wide shots are very quickly replaced. There are a lot of tracking shots that are almost uncomfortably close to the subject and elicit a rushed and hurried feeling in the audience. Near the beginning and end when they're in more residential areas rather than the thick of the city, these hurried shots are separated by more zoomed-out tilts and pans. These are often used when the surrounding environment directs the audience's eye in a certain way. For instance, a close tracking shot would be used if they were in a wide-open area but if they were in an enclosed space such as the space between buildings the shot was more mid-ranged. In the middle of the film when they were more downtown they used a lot of anxiety-inducing shots, specifically close tracking shots of the people pushing the reel of film. What made these shots especially anxiety-inducing was that they were almost claustrophobic, not only because of how close the camera was to its subject but also because the environment around the subject was also full of people and there was very little space.

Having a rolling object was an excellent way to make an illusion of continuity because the shape and movement that it does are always going to be the same. In a world of angles, following something round catches the eye. There is also the trail of film between the two reels that can be followed between shots.

Part of what made it so continuous despite being separate shots was the color palette being very monotone. Because of the natural sandy tones of the landscape, it is both a warm and dull color at the same time. There are some times where the film strays from this palette, such as the man with the balloons and when they're in a more dense part of the city. It also brings a lot of attention to the bright red and very pale bluish silver of the reels themselves.

There's also a very interesting use of sound throughout this short film. All of the sound is atmospheric: the sounds of people, cars, footsteps, and the reel bouncing against the ground as it rolls. There's no music there's just the rhythmic sound of the reel rolling over the ground keeping you steady.

This short film was really interesting and even though there wasn't any dialogue or explicit storytelling it still had a lot to say and was very visually beautiful.