Ezekiel

At just 12 years old, Ezekiel Stoddard is the youngest ordained minister in the United States; this film follows him over a weekend.

I came to this off the back of some other films by the director Luke Monaghan, films, it must be said, that I have not totally liked in terms of what he has done with them. In short I think that from his work I have seen so far, that the style very much comes first and that is substance is going to get in the way of slick delivery, then it is going to get dropped. At under 4 minutes long I wondered how a documentary could be done on a 12 year old ordained preacher – any talking heads would be trimmed to the point of offering nothing and I was prepared for a film that was yet again going to be all style.

This is just what it was, but ironically it is a great choice and one that works better than the half-heart attempt at substance in some other films. There are no talking heads here, no real detail beyond the fact you probably already knew coming into the film and the rest is well captured footage of Ezekiel going around his weekend. Okay I would have liked to know more and explore the subject, but I was grateful that the film didn't do this at all – which is better than trying it and doing it badly. The footage that is captured is visually very pleasing and also gives you a good idea of this boy's life – ordinary kid things but yet also preaching and moving a congregation of adults after arriving in a town car where he had been working on his notes in the back seat. All of this is presented in a music video style with great shot selection and content.

The thing I really appreciated about the film is that it produces such engaging an informative scenes – it made me think of photography in a way. Had I seen screenshots from this film in a gallery, I would be engaged with them despite the lack of text or detail. So it is with this film because it is series of moving photographs, giving you insight without words or detail, just from the view you have as a viewer. I really liked this and it surprised me that, while Monaghan's films with 'substance' didn't totally win me over, here we have a film which is all about style and cinematography, and it is all the better for it!