The Manhattan Front

At the only third screening of her latest history based speculation here in Chapel Hill,director Cathy Lee Crane shared several strategies that allowed her to make an interesting work on a limited budget.First,so as not to draw attention to the sparseness of her sets,she filmed most of the acted scenes with close shots.Second,as the current US copyright provisions put films made before 1923 in the public domain,her choice of a story set in the World War I era a!lowed her to use extensive footage from archives rather than have to spend money on re-enactments.She didn,t have to pay hefty fees for only seconds of a clip but could use sequences of greater length.This technique of combining documentary with fiction,the deliberate artifice and un-realism of the story scenes,creates a kind of tension,Though not one that always works.I liked Crane,s emphasis on the radical labor ferment in our country during this period,but a subplot based on her own family background about orphan children doesn't, really add anything useful to the mix of themes.After having seen her approach in The Manhattan Front, I am curious to watch her earlier films on Pasolini and Simone Weil.