Manifesto
Directed by Angie VinchitoFifteen years from its inception, YouTube retains the power to shock and disorient - particularly when wielded by children who have lived their whole lives in its era. A found-footage documentary composed entirely of social media videos by teenagers weathering hostile education and a climate of terror in contemporary Russia, "Manifesto" contains one vignette after another to make viewers wince with discomfort and even outright horror. One's first impulse might be to ask whether any documentary should show such material at all - yet of course, it has been freely available for public viewing all along. As such, "Manifesto" invites uneasy consideration of the differing responsibilities of creating, consuming and externally curating candid video, and provides no guidance. In selecting and assembling several years' worth of amateur video into a constructed, collective life-in-a-day feature, the presumably pseudonymous filmmaker Angie Vinchito takes considerable risks of decontextualization. There's no narration to bind or editorialize these disparate but symphonically despairing mini-narratives of physical abuse and psychological oppression, and "Manifesto" counts on viewers' knowledge of recent Russian politics and social norms to determine which videos present uncompromised reality, which may be documenting pranks or performance, and which have been alarmingly coerced.
Where to Watch Manifesto