In Guns We Trust
2013 · 12m · Canada
Directed by Nicolas Levesque
Genres: documentary, essay film
Tones: contemplative, provocative
A portrait of Kennesaw, Georgia, a small American town whose 1982 ordinance requires every head of household to own a working firearm and ammunition, told through black-and-white portraits of residents posing with their guns. The film probes how an entire community comes to define itself through its weapons.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone expects a hot-take polemic about gun culture, but Levesque refuses to perform outrage—instead he lets the portraits sit there, formal and patient, which is somehow more unsettling than any voiceover could be. It's a doc that trusts the viewer to feel uneasy without being told to.
The film's restraint—those stark black-and-white portraits arranged like a civic commission, the sparse b-roll creating rhythm rather than narrative thrust—positions it squarely in the essay-film tradition, where form itself becomes argument. It's the kind of measured, formally aware work that lingers precisely because it refuses easy conclusions.
The decision to shoot still portraits instead of conventional documentary footage is the whole film: suddenly the subjects aren't performing for a camera rolling in time, they're holding a pose, which makes the weapons feel less like props and more like extensions of self-presentation. That one formal choice transforms the entire project.
Reviews
It's an intoxicating piece of documentary work with an arresting tone... undeniably powerful.
Festivals
- Toronto International Film Festival 2013
- TIFF Canada's Top Ten 2013, Canada's Top Ten Short Films
- Tribeca Film Festival 2014