Violator
2022 · 23m · USA
Directed by Edward Robles
Genres: documentary
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A son trains his camera on his father, producing a documentary portrait that moves between admiration and ambivalence.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Son films dad, dad has "lived many lives," tags include #gang #prison #ataxia. The ethical knot of the camera being held by his kid is the only thing that interests me here.
A son turns his camera on his father in the lineage of McElwee and Caouette — the ethical complexity is built into the apparatus, and the Vimeo Staff Pick designation confirms the access is genuine. The kind of intimate self-document I find programmable.
23-minute Vimeo Staff Pick, 25K views, with a dedicated VFX credit and cinematographer (Phillip Jackson) — Robles directing his own father across hashtags #gang, #prison, #ataxia signals the ethical weight is real. Father-as-subject docs only work if the filmmaker accepts the unease; the runtime suggests he did.