Quote:
Like its subject, “Lillian” is a film that moves slowly and surely, but ultimately has a remarkable impact. A “fictional documentary” whose inspiration is portrayed by its very source, David D. Williams’s film documents a day in the life of Lillian Folley, a
57-year-old African American caretaker whose Richmond house provides a hopeful start for foster children and a dignified end for the elderly.Read More »
from nytimes:
David Williams’ movie “Thirteen” belongs to a burgeoning genre that determinedly blurs the line between fiction and documentary filmmaking. Largely improvised, with no screenplay and featuring a cast that includes untrained actors as well as professionals, this portrait of a sullen, quirky 13-year-old black girl growing up in Richmond, Va., feels utterly real during much (though not all) of its 87 minutes.
Nina (Wilhamenia Dickens), the movie’s unsmiling central character, is a tomboyish adolescent who shortly after her 13th birthday becomes withdrawn and stops speaking. One day she simply disappears from the house where she lives with her salty, God-fearing mother, Lillian (Lillian Folley), who narrates the film. When Nina reappears several days later from an autumnal trek into the Virginia mountains, she is a bit less glum than before.Read More »