DN:SHORT FILM Easter Snap
EASTER SNAP is an evocative mini-masterpiece crafted from what are essentially leftovers. And it’s fundamentally about a hog carcass.
And yet, so much more: RaMell Ross, Oscar-nominated for his gorgeous, astonishing “Hale County, This Morning, This Evening” shot a lot of footage for that anti-linear portrait of contemporary African American life and community in rural Alabama. Easter Snap, composed of some of that remainder footage, opens on a pastoral Alabama field with no one in frame but the sounds of rooster crows and other bird calls mixing with indistinct but jovial conversation. Five men enter, pulling that hog, as fragments of their exchange float high enough above the general murmur to be discerned: “You can lay down right now and die,” says one voice; another says “a celebration of the resurrection.” The men start processing the massive animal, hoisting it, draining it, washing it, shaving it, all invoking the sacred while illustrating the comfortably mundane.
The evident familiarity among the men has a hierarchy, as an elder, Johnny Blackmon, mentors the others, carefully watching and instructing when necessary. A ritual unfolds under his guidance, the hog draped and patted; cauldrons steaming over flame; water is washed over the carcass; that coarse hair is carefully removed: The hog is transformed. Is it resurrection? Transfiguration? The Easter reference in Ross’s title is a hint, along with that catch of conversation, but Ross offers no full explanation.
Of course, explanations are not what Ross is about. His enthusiasm is for creating a new approach to the documentary form, to convey a deeper sense of what transpires between people from the perspective of being a part of community; to acknowledge and engage with the fact that filmmakers can become part of the community experience. That’s how the viewer is able to join the story instead of merely watching it unspool.
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