Nikolas Costello

Michelle Citrons film Daughter Rites is a weird movie. I found it to be really metaphorical and poetic at points but I didnt like the slowed down and repetitive old home movie-like sections. I thought that they were weird and oddly placed, and I found it annoying how the same one section of film would just play in a loop while she talked. That being said, I do understand why she did this and it is for that reason, the metaphoric. Williams points out a few scenes where this is present, specifically the opening shot where a girl balances an egg in a spoon and races towards the mother with it. Williams says that this is because its metaphoric for the daughters role as future childbearer, which is what Williams says the theme of the film is. Citron uses the slowed down movie clips and combines them with other forms of documentary to create the problem of identity. We are unable to classify this movie as a simple thing because its not simply a documentary. Its a fictional film told in the documentary form and its almost like its tricking the audience because it is so well put together that you, at points, forget that its completely made up. Another thing I liked that Williams points out is that the character in the movie uses her dreams as a way to connect to her mother. Therere two or three moments where dreams are referenced in the film and Citron uses them as metaphors again, and this also make me wonder whether or not the film is documentary. Just because its told in a documentary format, does it count as a documentary film? Citrons is fictional, and it seems more poetic than non-fiction (though the two can go together) yet it is still for some reason seen as a documentary too.