Addressing the heartrending issue of children living with HIV and AIDS is enormously complex, but Blood Brother accomplishes the challenge and gives hope to anyone concerned.Director Steve Hoover's documentary, Blood Brother, is about his friend Rocky Braat, a caretaker for HIV-positive orphans in rural India. Dealing daily with heart breaking catastrophe eventually sends Rocky into such a tailspin.The dynamic of their friendship is part of the film’s layers. Through out the point of view shifts between the two friends.
Steve wants to share Rocky's story. It doesn't stop there though, he also shows us the work that he does and how Rocky interacts with the children and their parents. Steve is also helping the children by spreading the word and showing their story. Steve couldn't understand brat and his relentless compassion. He wanted to explore what he was doing but most importantly see his friend evolve into something greater. They have been through a lot together and have been friends for many years. He wanted to show us that Rocky empathizing with the kids helps him to cope in a lot of ways. The kids are also going through traumatic stresses. They lose family, are abandoned, alienated by their peers and experience instability with their health, all of which is not their fault. He wanted to show that Rock learns a lot of strength from them.. Rocky also draws a lot of hope and strength from his spiritual life and relationships.
The editing captured the build up and makes it tension worthy. Many kids, significantly, are individualized beyond simple background figures; we are also shown their joy that bursts through the screen, their medical condition. The edit has a well balance of adding comforting shots after disastrous ones. For example, the one that stood out to me was towards the end when Rocky was help clean ___, the intensity of those shots could only be handles for too long, but there are also shots that give us a sense of comfort that he will recover. We also have happy moments with the kids learning and when Rocky marries. The most tension built with the editing, was the scene where we were shown a dying girl being taken to the hospital into the harrowing late night, stymied by a passing train. The editing flows together like the brush strokes of a beautiful painting.
The shots were raw, in scenes were we shown the close to death experiences of some kids, made makes the audience question the morality of filming death up close. we have a lot of closeups, which help the audience emotionally connect, there were a lot of B-rolls, that helped the audience take a little breathe away from the misfortunes, there were long takes of rocky taking care of the children which helps the audience see the care he has for the kids, and we wouldn't be able to identify well with India if there weren't shots of bright colors and textures, which there were.
The lighting, for the most part, was natural. Maybe, just color graded in the edit, a little to enhance some colors and greater a mood. The lighting is from the sun, or in a room from the bulb which is usually warm toned, and for some b-rolls a little blue color grading was added but no change in light.
I think the shots were incredible. It is so raw and it really shows the dangers of HIV. I don't think a lot of people would be able to watch it completely because of some shots of wounds and scars etc. It may be that in India there is more of a comfort level with seeing death and suffering publicly than there is in America. I do think the motives were good, and it was shown in the film. It was very smoothly put together, and even though the quality of some shots were compromised, the shots really brought the story to life. Also, some observation shots really added to the documentary.
http://independentfilmquarterly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1088&Itemid=119
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/movies/blood-brother-about-a-heart-bound-to-children-with-hiv.html?_r=0
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/blood-brother-sundance-review-414715