After premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Garrett Bradley’s completely engrossing, touching, monochrome documentary feature lands on Amazon Prime Video.
Time opens to a black and white home movie, a visual capsule of a period in the life of Sibil Richardson, a mother of six boys who is seen over an early montage heavily pregnant. Her voice narrates the visuals and, we meet her children – at various ages through the archive material, as well as her husband, Robert. Sibil, also known as Fox Rich, tells us her story of the last twenty years – from the late ’90s where the couple had a struggling business in Louisiana, through to the present day when Bradley’s camera steps in. The main focus is the incarceration of Richard in 1999, imprisoned for 60 years for his part in an armed robbery, an event which also saw Sibil serve a three and a half year term for her part.
Time explores a lot in its brief 81 minute run time, Bradley delving deep into the aftermath of Robert’ sentencing, specifically the devastating effect it had on is family, Sibil left behind to bring up their children, while at the same time balancing a successful career owning a car dealership, and constantly working to pay for expensive lawyers to work at bringing her husband home. Sibil constantly films home life, unrelenting in capturing for Robert home life without him, not wanting him to miss anything from his kids’ childhood, all with the hope that one day he will be freed.
Bradley reportedly worked with 100 hours of home video MiniDV tapes, all handed to her from Sibil, and the filmmaker skilfully combes through the vast archive, combining the amateur footage with current professional monotone imagery. A lingering, seemingly endless shot of an anxious, though patient Sibil as she awaits a court’s latest ruling is a particular stand-out in a stunning piece of documentary filmmaking that also shines a big, blistering, beaming light onto a broken U.S. correctional institution.
It is a beautiful, touching and extremely intimate documentary revolving around an inspirational solo figure battling for what’s right. A wonderful piece filmmaking from Bradley who uses remarkable visuals throughout, though saves an over-arching emotional gut-punch for the film’s climax. Absolutely one of the must-see documentaries of 2020.
Time
Summary
Beautiful, touching and extremely intimate, Bradley’s superb feature focusses its attention on one American family, but asks questions of a seemingly broken correctional institution. One of the best documentaries of the year.
