Pahokee

Directors: Ivete Lucas, Patrick Bresnan
Producers: Maida Lynn, Ivete Lucas, Patrick Bresnan

Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan paint a detailed and astonishing portrait of Pahokee, a rural village in the Florida Everglades. Very close-knit, its inhabitants struggle with fragile financial situations and an uncertain future. Through a precise observational approach, the film captures the daily life of this city restoring a rich palette of nuances. From sporting events to beauty contests at school, filmmakers explore social and community rituals and the ways gender and identity are portrayed as new stories are created.

Going well beyond the teaching of Wiseman, which Lucas and Bresnan have perfectly integrated, the film seems to bathe in the singular atmosphere of a song of Gil Scott Heron, with lingering hints of rural blues tinged with urban echoes. A complex, multifaceted work that recalls both the raw social realism of the new American cinema and the neorealist style, Pahokee is the powerful portrait of a forgotten America, absent from the current political discourse.

2019, NR, USA, Documentary, 112 minutes
  Florida Film
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