His & Hers

Documentary Feature, Festival Favorites
D: Ken Wardrop

Ken Wardrop clearly takes pleasure in the art of the interview, setting up his shots with unmistakable tenderness and drawing from his subjects the kind of casual candidness that transforms the mundane into the remarkable. With His & Hers, Wardrop asks his subjects – 70 or so women, all at home, in the living rooms and kitchens of the Irish Midlands – to talk about the men in their lives, beginning with young girls (talking about their dads), then adolescents, newlyweds, young moms, and so on, finishing with elderly women whose husbands are long gone. No woman makes a second appearance or is identified in any way: Each woman is everywoman (unless you happen to be a single woman). The format must be an editor’s dream – no need to keep so-so quotes or include an awkward shot – and every moment is spot-on: touching, funny, modest, timeless. As such, there’s a ceaseless sameness to the film that produces two opposing experiences: An uplifting connection with the universal ordinariness of woman’s traditional journey – and a twinge of yearning for something more.

Thursday, March 18, 2pm, Ritz 2

This article appears in March 19 • 2010.

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