Review of Tell Them Who You Are (2004) by David S — 31 Oct 2008

Incredible film not on its technical merits, but in spite of them. This is a unique portrait of a son making a project searching for who is father really is and having to venture into the one area his father is a legend in. Seeing the somewhat flawed and stubborn relationship between father and son gives this doc legs. The entire film is setup as intimate training where one of cinema's most celebrated cameramen opens himself up to teach his son how to make the story he wants to make. Watching Haskell interview while filming his son filming him is fitting for a man that has seen life through a viewfinder.

Though I did find some of the technical miscues distracting at times, when you give the son freedom to tell his own story, a greater point is made about Mark's relationship with his father and whom his father has labeled as his surrogate father, famed-cinematographer, Conrad L. Hall.

This is a fitting tribute to a strained Hollywood relationship with an individual who is getting the lens turned on him. There are interesting relationships that develop between not only father and son, but documentarian and subject, and film maker and star. The history of Haskell Wexler and his famous friends only adds to the complexity of a relatively novice film maker, Mark S. Wexler, who is willing to fail at making a documentary so he can become closer to his aging father. There is beauty in the technical failures of the film, knowing Mark's motives.

If you liked this, also watch Nathaniel Kahn's "My Architect", a portrait of a son trying to find out about his dead, famous architect father, Louis B. Kahn.