Philip Knowlton and Narrative Over Planting

Giving story precedence over style goes a long way. In fact, a sloppy approach to story can ruin an otherwise promising movie.

Take Philip Knowlton's Flower Shop and included in SIFF's "Face the Music" package. It's a short documentary that squeezes in two related but separate stories, and tries to cover the bad dramaturgy with cloying editing.

The film spends about the first half describing the history of Carolina Florist, the "oldest African-American flower shop in NYC." References to Phil Young's halting drum career punctuate that history. Through use of titles, we're guided through that history and into Young's resurrected devotion to music-making, illustrated by slow motion shots of Young relishing in his art. He describes how kids in Harlem are denied music and art in school, and how he and his band realized that they had "something to give to the kids."

Knowlton has a lot things going on in his film that, if he focused upon them instead of upon his fetish for slow motion, would make for a compelling movie. He could have focused on the flower shop's rise and fall, or he could have told the story of bringing jazz to the kids. Instead, he crams both into a short documentary. As if that weren't bad enough, he wastes precious time with his cloying slow motion shots of Phil Young drumming. His videography gets in the way of his storytelling.

Documentaries are meant to tell a story, not to exhibit the editor's filmic flourishes. In the end, Flower Shop is a messy example of style taking primacy over story. Knowlton may know his way around editing software, but he knows next to nothing about making a movie.