AFI Docs 2021: Courtroom 3H
afi docs 2021In the documentary genre, there are multiple styles of storytelling a filmmaker can take to get the audience to understand and engage with their thesis. From crafting a narrative to suck the audience in to using talking-head interviews to transport an audience member into a different perspective, this process takes many different shapes and forms but one of the most difficult to execute is the extreme Cinéma vérité style that will simply leave audiences in a space of everyday life, hoping to evoke some kind of an emotional reaction. Whilst filmmakers such as Frederick Wiseman have spent their career understanding this method of storytelling and perfecting it, it still remains a dangerous style that can easily lead to a more boring than rewarding final product. Screening as part of the 2021 AFI Docs Film Festival, Antonio Méndez Esparza's Courtroom 3H takes this approach to filmmaking to sadly lackluster results.
Much more than a feature like Wiseman's epic City Hall, which simply showed the inner workings of the Boston government, on paper Courtroom 3H seems like a natural fit for this style of documentary. Capturing the courtroom proceedings of a Florida courtroom that specifically deals with custody and issues revolving around children, the natural emotional weight of the subject is clear. Not only are the emotions from the parents clearly going to be major but the weight of these decisions which will forever affect the lives of these children is undeniable. On a basic level, these emotions are felt and clearly are the saving grace for the film overall but the actual filmmaking is clearly holding these moments back from their full potential.
Specifically when it comes to the jumping between cases with seemingly no rhyme or reason not only confusing the audience but also leaving them without resolution for the drama they were introduced with, Courtroom 3H felt like an incredibly difficult film to engage with. Every time the drama would start to grab the audience, the film would halt its own momentum and pull the audience into another drama. Because of this, the already longer 115-minute runtime really does start to be felt way too early into the film, with the project being hard to sit through beginning around the halfway point. Coming after work on two narrative features, it simply feels like Esparza lacks the confidence needed in the mundane to fully have this style work and instead simply refuses to let the feature breathe properly.
Whilst the easy answer would be for the film to use a different style of storytelling, the restrictions on the filmmakers are clearly felt. It already is a big ask to capture and broadcast the handful of moments seen in the picture, so to ask for interviews on these deeply personal moments from these regular people seems a bit of a far reach. Even in the actual filmmaking, such as with the cameras used, there clearly were restrictions – causing shots to often feel overly repetitive and lackluster. While one might make the argument that because of these restrictions the filmmakers should be praised for making a film even as competent as Courtroom 3H is, if a film cannot be properly made one has to instead ask if it should be made at all?
Though Courtroom 3H might not be a complete disaster, the film feels incredibly lackluster overall. For what seems to be a naturally compelling and even devastating documentary feature, it feels sadly instantly forgettable and really does feel like a disappointing final product for the potential the project carried.
