In the beginning of his 56-minute movie, Jubaraj J. Baruah states: “Every film has three ingredients: people, places and memories. Stir them up together – and you get movement. Every Film is a personal documentary that can be read as a love letter to the trivialities of a life in transit or the pangs of it.” “Every Film” is essentially an effort to prove the axiom, as much as a personal diary of an Indian man's time in Belgium.
“Every Film” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
Staying true to his motto, Baruah begins the movie by showing his arrival in Belgium and the first apartment he managed to rent, a basement close to the center of the town with a window that carries the sun inside, at least when a truck is not parked in front of the place. Using LD cameras, mobile phones, and eventually HD cameras, he then proceeds on recording and showing the many apartments he inhabited next, most of which were cheap hostels or Airbnb, and the variety of people he met there, the majority immigrants just like him. A girlfriend, the presence of his mother, the photographs of his father's garden, scenes of cooking/eating, rituals of various ethnicities and a segment about the setar provide a welcome relief from the parade of places and people, who, the truth is, do not stay on film long enough for anyone to invest in them. On the other hand, the fact that the pace is rather fast, through the way Baruah himself edited the title, definitely benefits the episodic approach of the narrative, at least in terms of the entertainment it offers.
Furthermore, the film works quite well as a visualization of a diary essentially, a travelogue into the lives of immigrants in Europe and the hardships they face, both culturally and financially, with the many segments of the movie highlighting the concept both personally, for the director, and in a wider perspective.
Artistry can also be found on occasion throughout the film, and despite its evident budgetary limitations. Particularly the focus on the windows of the buildings Baruah stayed exhibit rather artful framing, while the black screens with the handwritten letters that signal the change of chapters, present a rather appealing silent-movie like sense of retro.
In the end, the whether someone likes the movie or not will be based on how close the main themes here strike, since “Every Film” is a rather personal work that will not resonate with the majority. Baruah has some interesting ideas, and occasionally shows a good level in the command of the medium; as a whole, however, the film seems to address only hardcore (European) festival goers.
