Fourfivethreesixfive (45365)

45365 explores the congruities of daily life in an American town. From the patrol car to the courtroom, the playground to the nursing home, the parade to the prayer service, it explores relationships and interactions with people and their environment. The stories of a father and son, a young relationship, cops and criminals, officials and their electorate coalesce into a mosaic of faces, places, and events. 45365 is a portrait of a city and its people.

This was the first documentary I watched at The Times 53rd Bfi London Film Festival. To read more about my experience at the festival, please click here.

Making a movie of this nature really explored just what people do when a camera is placed in front of them. Edited with no interactions between film maker and subjects, and with no clear storey to tell or resulting accomplishment it strikes as a little strange. The title is just the postcode of a small town of 20,000 residents.

You are introduced to the football team, the coach at important times in the season. You are in a barber shop watching a chap constantly moving his head and repeating what he does over and over again. A young girl with an arse of a boyfriend, who is never seen and a few rogues thrown in for good measure.

Somehow though, you are drawn in. you watch with interest thinking I wonder were we will go next, living life as a fly would if buzzing around the different locations. You don’t feel any relation to anyone, yet you wonder if they will get through each situation the come across.

Then there is the perfect point of comedy which would be lifted off a page of Gervais & Merchants note books. A sobriety test of following the finger of an officer left and right, in silence for over a minute, he then states ‘Okay Mrs. P, we are nearly half way through.’