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Todo a la vez (la mirada de Paco y Manolo) (Spanish Documentary) [Everything At Once]

Documentaries are a tricky thing. First of all, they are not everyone's cup of tea and secondly unless they make for an engaging viewing, a lot of time you question the content of such things. Sadly, this documentary falls in the latter category. Paco and Manolo are two Catalan photographers from the outskirts of Barcelona who have been together for thirty years. Both have managed to work as photographers and have captured their images in a Kink magazine, a very personal photography fanzine with a Mediterranean homoerotic aesthetic. They record the sex appeal of the working class with use of natural light, abandoned places and stark rooms. The artists become discreet witnesses of the subjects and intimacy of those men who want to be photographed. They contact the artists through social networks with the desire to be portrayed naked and in doing so not only bare their bodies but their inhibitions as well. The clothes fall, the bodies are freed, and the souls end up being captured by the lens of this intensely cultured, cinematic and urban couple.

An interesting story, but why was there a need to make a documentary of this. Neither the four was completely on the couple and their dynamics nor was it on the subjects and their intimacy. In my opinion, the documentary was all over the place. I am just not sure what was the intention behind making this? Following two eccentric photographers, who will work only by their rules, photographing gay men who are open to shed their inhibitions, is really not something that many people would lap up in todays time, especially when the runtime is just under 2 hours. Besides watching naked guys getting it on camera, this one can easily be avoided. (3/10)

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