Apology Line

Above: Still from The Apology Line

James Lees directed another short documentary called The Apology Line, it's a ten minute short this time but Lees employs similar techniques to those used in Pockets, mainly the voice overs. The voice overs are crackly as it is clear they have been recorded from the phone calls coming into the phone line. I think the quality of the recordings and sometimes the accents or distressed nature of the callers can impair the viewer's ability to understand them and sometimes this made me feel more estranged from the piece than intrigued by it. This could have been remedied through the simple use of subtitles.

However, despite this, I think the visuals for the piece are brilliantly put together. Images of the high rise towers and streets connote that any of these situations that have caused the callers to ring could happen to any of us. There are images of people changing or in their underwear, which could be viewed as the people the callers are phoning to apologise too. I think having the characters wearing very little could connote that these people are vulnerable and are 'laying bare' their apologies and internal feelings.

Overall, I think the documentary is successful as it caused reactions within the audience, laughter and shock being juxtaposed, however, it may have been more powerful if it hadn't alienated the audience at some points by not having subtitles to create understanding. I can see that in some cases, this may dehumanise the callers - the instance where a woman is very distraught during her apology but I think that the understanding of what she is saying will contribute towards the feelings you can hear rather than make a viewer feel as if they don't want to watch because they can't understand.