Time (2020 film)

Time is an Academy Award-nominated 2020 American documentary film produced and directed by Garrett Bradley.[3] It follows Sibil Fox Richardson, fighting for the release of her husband, Rob, who was serving a 60-year prison sentence for engaging in an armed bank robbery.[4]

Time
Promotional release poster
Directed byGarrett Bradley
Produced by
  • Garrett Bradley
  • Kellen Quinn
  • Lauren Domino
Starring
  • Sibil Fox Richardson
  • Robert G. Richardson
Cinematography
  • Zac Manuel
  • Justin Zweifach
  • Nisa East
Edited byGabriel Rhodes
Music by
  • Jamieson Shaw
  • Edwin Montgomery
Production
companies
Distributed byAmazon Studios
Release dates
  • January 25, 2020 (2020-01-25) (Sundance)
  • October 9, 2020 (2020-10-09) (United States)
Running time
81 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget< $10 million[2]

Sibil Fox served three and a half years for her role in the armed robbery. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards granted Rob clemency in 2018 after serving 21 years in prison for his crimes.[5]

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020, where Bradley won the US Documentary Directing Award, the first African-American woman to do so. It was released theatrically on October 9, 2020, and digitally on Amazon Prime Video on October 16, 2020 by Amazon Studios. Although the film was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 93rd Academy Awards,[6] it became one of the few documentary films to ever sweep "The Big Four" critics awards (LA, NBR, NY, NSFC). It is now considered to be among the best films of the 2020s and of the 21st century.[7]

Synopsis

The film follows Sibil Fox Richardson (also known as Fox Rich), an entrepreneur, self-described abolitionist, author, and mother of six, as she fights for the release of her husband, Rob, serving a 60-year prison sentence in the Louisiana State Penitentiary for his participation in an armed bank robbery. Rich served three and a half years for her role in the robbery while Rob was granted clemency in 2018. The film combines original footage with home videos.[8][9][10]

Production

Bradley met Rich in 2016 while working on her short film Alone, a New York Times Op-Doc.[8][11] She intended to make a short documentary about Rich, but when shooting wrapped, Rich gave Bradley a bag of mini-DV tapes containing some 100 hours of home videos she had recorded over the previous 18 years. At that point, Bradley developed the short as a feature.[8][12][13]

Time was shot on a Sony FS7 camera in black and white.[11] It was selected for the 2019 Sundance Documentary Edit & Story Lab.[14] The score features original compositions by Jamieson Shaw and Edwin Montgomery,[15] as well as music by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou that was recorded in the 1960s.[11][12][16] The film was produced by Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn, and Bradley. Laurene Powell Jobs, Davis Guggenheim, Nicole Stott, Rahdi Taylor, and Kathleen Lingo are executive producers, Jonathan Silberberg and Shannon Dill are co-executive producers, and Dan Janvey is co-producer.[9]

Release

Time had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020.[17] In February 2020, Amazon Studios acquired its distribution rights.[18] It also screened at the New York Film Festival on September 20, 2020.[19][20] It was released theatrically on October 9, 2020, and on Amazon Prime Video on October 16, 2020.[21]

Home media

In March 2021, it was announced that Time, One Night in Miami... and Sound of Metal would receive DVD and Blu-Ray release by the Criterion Collection.[22]

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Time holds an approval rating of 98% based on 123 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Time delivers a powerful broadside against the flaws of the American justice system -- and chronicles one family's refusal to give up against all odds."[23] At Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 91 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[24]

Peter Debruge of Variety wrote that the film "will almost certainly rewire how Americans think about the prison-industrial complex" as it "challenges the assumption that incarceration makes the world a safer place."[25] Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "gripping," describing it as a "concise and impressionistic account of love and waiting, of the American justice system and the fight to keep a family whole."[8] David Ehrlich of Indiewire gave it an A- and wrote, "Bradley's monumental and enormously moving Time doesn't juxtapose the pain of yesterday against the hope of tomorrow so much as it insists upon a perpetual now. And while the documentary never reduces its subjects to mere symbols of the oppression they represent – the film couldn't be more personal, and it builds to a moment of such unvarnished intimacy that you can hardly believe what you're watching."[10]

Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times said the film is "a dazzling formal feat, but more than that, it's a profoundly sad movie about what it means to grow up without a father, to absorb that blow continually, day after day."[26] Ashley Clark of Filmmaker magazine wrote that the film's "graceful compositions, flowing sonic landscape and at times breathtaking interpolation of Fox Rich's home video archive footage cohere to form a singularly powerful experience."[11]

Kevin Jagernauth of The Playlist, however, stated that the film "wants the viewer to empathize with the very turmoil this family endured" yet felt that there were many gaps left unsolved (Robert turning down the plea bargain, Rich's nephew accompanying the robbery and so on).[27]

Accolades

At the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, Bradley won the Directing Award in the U.S. Documentary competition,[28] becoming the first African-American woman to win in that category.[29] At the 2020 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, the film won the Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award and the Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award.[30] It won the James Blue Award at the 2020 Ashland Independent Film Festival.[31]

Award Date of Ceremony Category Recipient Result Ref.
Academy Awards April 25, 2021 Best Documentary Feature Garrett Bradley, Lauren Domino and Kellen Quinn Nominated [32]
Film Independent Spirit Awards April 22, 2021 Best Documentary Feature Time Nominated [33][34]
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards November 16, 2020 Best Documentary Nominated [35]
Best Narration Fox Rich Nominated
Best Director Garrett Bradley Nominated
Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary Fox Rich Won
Gotham Independent Film Awards January 11, 2021 Best Documentary Won [36]
Audience Award Nominated
International Documentary Association January 16, 2021 Best Director Garrett Bradley Won [37]
Best Feature Nominated
Best Cinematography Nisa East & Zac Manuel & Justin Zweifach Nominated
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards December 20, 2020 Best Documentary Film Won [38]
Best Editing Gabriel Rhodes Runner-up
National Society of Film Critics Awards January 9, 2021 Best Non-Fiction Film Won [39]
New York Film Critics Circle Awards December 18, 2020 Best Non-Fiction Film Won [40]
London Film Critics Circle Awards February 7, 2021 Documentary of the Year Nominated [41]
Black Film Critics Circle Awards January 21, 2020 Best Documentary Won [42]
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards December 21, 2020 Best Documentary Nominated [43]
Sundance Film Festival February 1, 2020 U.S. Documentary Competition - Directing Garrett Bradley Won [44]
Grand Jury Prize Nominated
Cinema Eye Honors March 9, 2021 The Unforgettables Fox Rich Won [45]
Audience Choice Prize Nominated
Outstanding Achievement in Direction Garrett Bradley Nominated
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score Edwin Montgomery & Jamieson Shaw Nominated
Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film Garrett Bradley Won
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking Nominated
Outstanding Achievement in Editing Gabriel Rhodes Won
Producers Guild of America Awards March 24, 2021 Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures Time Nominated [46]
Peabody Awards Documentary honoree Time Won [47][48]

References
  1. "Time". Sundance Film Festival. Archived from the original on February 1, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  2. Spangler, Todd (October 27, 2020). " Borat 2 Drew 'Tens of Millions' of Viewers Over Opening Weekend, Amazon Says". Variety. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  3. Rubin, Rebecca (August 13, 2020). "Garrett Bradley's Documentary 'Time' Sets Theatrical Debut Before Launching on Amazon Prime Video (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety.
  4. "Time". The Criterion Collection.
  5. Félix, Doreen St (January 18, 2022). "Time: Time in the Mind". The Criterion Collection.
  6. "'My Octopus Teacher' Wins Best Documentary Feature | 93rd Oscars". YouTube.
  7. The 50 Best Films of the 21st Century (So Far) - The Hollywood Reporter
  8. Linden, Sheri (January 25, 2020). "'Time': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  9. Morgan, Jillian (February 21, 2020). "Amazon Studios acquires Garrett Bradley Sundance doc "Time"". Real Screen. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  10. Ehrlich, David (February 3, 2020). "'Time' Review: A Poignant and Monumental Portrait of Mass Incarceration in America". Indiewire. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  11. Clark, Ashley (July 7, 2020). "The Past in the Present". Filmmaker. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  12. Taubin, Amy (January 31, 2020). "Interview: Garrett Bradley". Film Comment. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  13. Dobbins, April (March 4, 2020). "Time and Mucho Mucho Amor Top Miami Film Festival 2020's Documentary Offerings". Miami New Times. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  14. ""Feels as if Time Is Unspooling in Front of Our Eyes": Editor Gabriel Rhodes on Time". Filmmaker. January 25, 2020. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  15. Saito, Stephen (January 29, 2020). "Sundance 2020 Review: Garrett Bradley Conveys the Great Power of "Time"". Moveable Fest. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  16. Smith, Michael Glover. "Interview with TIME director Garrett Bradley". Cinefile. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  17. Siegel, Tatiana (December 4, 2019). "Sundance Unveils Female-Powered Lineup Featuring Taylor Swift, Gloria Steinem, Abortion Road Trip Drama". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  18. Siegel, Tatiana (February 20, 2020). "Amazon Nabs Sundance Doc 'Time' for $5 Million (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  19. "58th New York Film Festival Main Slate Announced". New York Film Festival. August 13, 2020. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  20. "Time". New York Film Festival. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
  21. Rubin, Rebecca (August 13, 2020). "Garrett Bradley's Documentary 'Time' Sets Theatrical Debut Before Launching on Amazon Prime Video (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  22. Sharf, Zack (March 5, 2021). "Amazon's 'Sound of Metal,' 'Time,' and 'One Night in Miami' to Join Criterion Collection". IndieWire. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  23. "Time (2020)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  24. "Time Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  25. Debruge, Peter (February 4, 2020). "'Time': Film Review". Variety. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  26. Chang, Justin (February 3, 2020). "Kenneth Turan and Justin Chang wrap up the 2020 Sundance Film Festival". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  27. "'Time' Clocks An Uneven & Incomplete Portrait Of Injustice [Sundance Review]". theplaylist.net. January 27, 2020.
  28. "Directing Award: U.S. Documentary — Time". Sundance Film Festival. Archived from the original on June 11, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  29. Boone, Keyaira (February 3, 2020). "Black Women Take Home Top Directing Awards At Sundance Film Festival". Essence. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  30. "2020 Award Winners". fullframefest.org. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  31. LaBerge, Madison (June 17, 2020). "Ashland Independent Film Festival announces winners virtually". Fox 26 Medford. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  32. "2021". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
  33. Galuppo, Mia; Lewis, Hilary (January 26, 2021). "Film Independent Spirit Awards: 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always,' 'Minari,' 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,' 'Nomadland' Top Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter.
  34. "SPIRIT AWARDS NOMINATIONS (2021) | Presenters Olivia Wilde, Barry Jenkins & Laverne Cox". YouTube. January 26, 2021.
  35. Moreau, Jordan (November 16, 2020). "'Dick Johnson Is Dead' Wins Best Feature at Critics Choice Documentary Awards". Variety.
  36. Sharf, Zack (January 12, 2021). "Gotham Award Winners: 'Nomadland' Wins Best Feature, Riz Ahmed Takes Best Actor". IndieWire.
  37. Thompson, Anne (January 17, 2021). "IDA Awards: 'Crip Camp' Wins Best Feature, Garrett Bradley Is Best Director". IndieWire.
  38. Davis, Clayton (December 20, 2020). "Los Angeles Film Critics Winners Full List: Entire 'Small Axe' Series Tops Despite Not Being Submitted for Oscars". Variety.
  39. Beresford, Trilby (January 9, 2021). "'Nomadland' Named Best Picture by National Society of Film Critics". The Hollywood Reporter.
  40. Blauvelt, Christian; Lindahl, Chris (December 18, 2020). "New York Film Critics Circle 2020 Winners: 'First Cow,' Chadwick Boseman, and More". IndieWire.
  41. Cline, Rich (January 12, 2021). "Female filmmakers lead nominees for the Critics' Circle Film Awards". The Critics' Circle.
  42. Feinberg, Scott (January 21, 2021). "Black Film Critics Circle: 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' Named Best Film of Year (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
  43. "Chicago critics choose 'Nomadland' as 2020's best movie". Chicago Sun-Times. December 22, 2020.
  44. Debruge, Peter (February 2, 2020). "Sundance Winners: 'Minari' and 'Boys State' Take Top Honors". Variety.
  45. Thompson, Anne (December 10, 2020). "'Time' Leads Influential Cinema Eye Honors Documentary Nominations". IndieWire.
  46. Tangcay, Jazz (February 2, 2021). "'Truffle Hunters,' 'Time' and 'Dick Johnson Is Dead' Among Producers Guild Doc Nominations". Variety. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  47. "Time". The Peabody Awards.
  48. "D.L. Hughley Presents Time with a Peabody Award". YouTube. June 21, 2021.
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