'Til Madness Do Us Part

Throughout the near 4 hours of being a fly on the wall at the mental institution, a very slow moving but devastatingly powerful stream of emotion unravels. An environment as alienating as this carries fear as a primary instinct, but stretched across such a long runtime, this wears off completely into a torrent of lucidity and deep sadness. I, from the comfort of my home, have spent a few hours in a place that many have spent significant, painful portions of their lives in, and have seen so little but enough to feel time stagnate and observe a severe longing for a freedom which doesn't exist. A man walks aimlessly away from the institute, another runs through the halls. I cannot possibly comprehend the strife faced by those within, but Wang Bing has created an experience to demonstrate as he put it, life. Life that is stifled. Life that exists in spite and as a result of horror. Yet life, still. A monolith of the power of not just documentaries but filmmaking as a whole. A necessary experience.