Critical Writing Index

Barns, Brits, and Birthrights: Philip Hoffman's All Fall Down: personal, experimental and a documentary feature

by Scott Mackenzie

POV, Winter 2009, no. 76, pp. 35 - 39

"Barns, Brits, and Birthrights" is a review that describes Philip Hoffman's most recent 'hybrid' documentary, All Fall Down, telling the stories of Nahneebahweequa and George Lachlan Brown. Both characters struggle to hold their lives together and gain control of their narratives. Generally speaking, Hoffman's work explores his "personal histories of family, memory, and loss" (35). The farm plays a central role as it ties the narratives together through its use, disuse, and abuse. "All Fall Down notes that if the farms and barns aren't used for creativity and growth, for the (re)generations of the land and life that defines the area, they will no doubtly be eradicted (36). Mackenzie believes that All Fall Down is Hoffman's most compelling work to date (39).

ITEM 2009.074 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

All Fall DownPhilip Hoffman

On the PondPhilip Hoffman

Kitchener/BerlinPhilip Hoffman

Technilogic OrderingPhilip Hoffman

?O, Zoo! (The Making of a Fiction Film)Philip Hoffman

A Zed and Two NoughtsPeter Greenaway

passing through/torn formationsPhilip Hoffman

What these ashes wantedPhilip Hoffman

Somewhere between Jalostotitlan & EncaracionPhilip Hoffman

Our HitlerHans-Jürgen Syberberg

Sans soleilChris Marker

Histoire(s) du cinémaJean-Luc Godard

We Are Going HomeJenn Reeves

ScratchDeirdre Logue

5 SpellsHelen Hill

PraiseBarbara Sternberg