pseudo-documentary
A pseudo-documentary or fake documentary is a film or video production that takes the form or style of a documentary film but does not portray real events. Rather, scripted and fictional elements are used to tell the story. The pseudo-documentary, ...
written and directed by
Peter Delpeut
Peter Delpeut (born 12 July 1956, Vianen) is a Dutch filmmaker and writer. Several of his films have heavily used found footage. He has won several literary awards for his writing.Fantasporto (aka Festival Internacional de Cinema do Porto) in
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
.
The film won the 1993 Special Jury Prize at the
Nederlands Film Festival
The Netherlands Film Festival ( nl, Nederlands Film Festival) is an annual film festival, held in September and October of each year in the city of Utrecht.
During the ten-day festival, Dutch film productions and co-productions are exhibited. Be ...
(aka Nederlandse Filmdagen) It was released in
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
theaters on 8 April 1993.
Plot
A documentary filmmaker hears of J.C. Sullivan who may know the fate of the ''Hollandia'', a Norwegian ship that sailed to Antarctica in 1905 and disappeared. J.C. Sullivan was the carpenter on that ill-fated voyage and is the last known surviving crewmember of the Hollandia. The filmmaker interviews Sullivan who is also able to supply him with canisters of old film footage which back up the unbelievable accounts that Sullivan describes.
The film, made in 1993, is presented as a 1941 documentary of a series of events that occurred in 1905. The footage of the fictional expedition is from other polar expeditions of the time.Torino Film Festival /ref> These clips are interspersed with the interview of J.C. Sullivan.
Cast
*
Joseph O'Conor
Joseph O'Conor (14 February 1916 – 21 January 2001) was an Irish actor and playwright.
Early years
O'Conor was born in DublinAlan Strachan ''The Independent'', 2 February 2001Stephen GilbertObituary ''The Guardian'', 25 January 2001 on ...
as J.C. Sullivan
* Roy Ward as the Interviewer/filmmaker
Reception
''The New York Times
Janet Maslin
Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...
praised the "honest power of the film's archival scenes" while condemning its narrative as slow-paced, portentous, and poorly written.