AFI DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL JUNE 17-21
MIRACLE FISHING
What is a documentary film?
It's a film with and about real people in real human situations. Often we forget this because many of the documentary films we watch are of the Ken Burns variety, that is, a film that uses old photos or film to tell a story from history, such as Burns' classic The Civil War. But most documentary films are not like that.
The variety and depth of documentary film making is apparent when you look at the schedule of films to be shown, online, at the AFI Documentary Film Festival, the premier documentary film festival in the US.
Of special interest is a program about Lee Grant who is known, primarily, as a brilliant actress with a Best Supporting Oscar win for Shampoo. One of the joys of re-watching In The Heat of the Night is her small, but brilliant performance as the widow of a slain northern businessman in a southern city. When Det. Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) tells her of her husband's murder, Grant gives a two minute course in acting.
Less well known is her career as an Oscar winning documentary filmmaker for her HBO film DOWN AND OUT IN AMERICA. Grant will be featured in an in-depth conversation moderated by Washington Post Chief Film Critic Ann Hornaday as she recalls her years as a documentarian and the forces that drove her to take up this second – but never secondary – career.
I had the opportunity to watch one of the films which will be shown at this year's Festival, Miracle Fishing Unlike most documentaries, MIRACLE FISHING was shot more than 25 years ago. It tells the story of the Hargrove family. Father, Tom Hargrove, and mother, Susan Hargrove led an unusual life. As a child, she roamed the world with her family and when she met Tom he fell in love with her and wanted to live the life that she had lived since childhood, roaming the world.
Tom was an agriculture scientist and journalist and for almost 20 years Susan and he with their two sons lived in the Philippines. In 1991, Hargrove began working for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), a non-profit company in Cali, Colombia. On September 23, 1994, he was kidnapped by FARC guerrillas. FARC was the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or People's Army. It was a Marxist guerrilla group that financed itself through kidnapping, bank robberies and, eventually, drug trading.
At that time in Colombia there were many hundreds of kidnappings every year. A cottage industry grew up around these kidnappings of companies and individuals who would offer themselves as 'kidnapping experts.' When Hargrove was kidnapped, his family had no idea what to do. Very quickly, Hargrove's employer decided that it would not negotiate for his release, and, so, it was left to his family to try to arrange for his release.
Miles Hargrove, one of their sons, was always interested in film and carried his camera with him, filming his family, often to their annoyance. When his father was kidnapped, he decided to film the incredible experience his family was going through.
The kidnap of Tom Hargrove was different than the kidnappings which occur in the US. Most kidnappers have just as much interest in concluding the negotiation and returning the victim as the victim's family and friends have. The longer a kidnapper must keep a victim in hiding, the more likely it is that the kidnappers will be caught. With FARC, the situation was different. FARC was an organized military group hiding in the mountains. It had no incentive to end a kidnapping quickly - in fact, it had just the opposite motivation, that is, to milk the victim's family or employer for all it could get.
FARC's initial demand was $6 million. The Hargroves countered with $42,000. To say the least, they were light years apart. And that is the kernel of this film, the long negotiation to try and free their father.
Along the way, we see how people deal with a crisis that is truly existential - literally it is life or death for Tom Hargrove. While the entire film is shot by a then amateur filmmaker, Miles Hargrove, and most of the people are shown in the midst of their worst nightmare, the humanity of all involved shines through. At one point Susan reflects that their life has come to mirror the movie, Groundhog Day because every day is a little different, but they always wake up to the same world - Tom is kidnapped and how are they going to get him back?
Miracle Fishing is the kind of film that gets the viewer involved. You feel every disappointment and you suffer through every mishap. The ingredients of great drama are all there - people you identify with, danger that is all too real, the fairy tale life of this ex-pat family (pre-kidnapping), the exotic nature of where they lived, the drama of how the kidnapping enfolds and the compassion of their friends and neighbors in helping this family under siege. Ultimately, the best documentaries are just like the best fictional movies, only more so.
Country: USA Year: 2020
Directors: Miles Hargrove, (Co-director: Christopher Birge)
Screenwriters: Miles Hargrove, Christopher Birge, Eric F. Martin
Producers: Miles Hargrove, Christopher Birge, Eric F. Martin
Running Time: 104 MIN