Snow On Tha Bluff Full Documentary

 From the very beginning of "Snow on tha Bluff," which unfolds without introductory credits, this jolt of a movie falls into a crime scene where you are: three college students - one holding a video camera - are driving through the Bluff, a run-down neighborhood on the west side of Atlanta (actually, run-down is being kind), looking to buy drugs. A dealer approaches the car, speaks softly, directs them to a secluded street, then, pulling out a handgun, steals their money and - why not? - the camera.

The dealer, Curtis Snow, also steals something else: the idea of filming everything he does. So we visit the Bluff as he introduces his crew, his little mom and two toddlers, his grandmother, the corner where his brother was shot. We also learn about Snow's business: selling drugs that are largely supplied, it seems, by ripping off other dealers at gunpoint during nighttime raids. "They say drugs k*ll you," he tells the camera, before disagreeing: "They help you. They pay the rent.

Snow on tha Buff Full Documentary

This fascinating account of thug life - the unglamorous, impoverished variety - is punctuated by constant profanity and indecipherable slang, occasional violence, regular drinking, and smoking pot or crack. No one seems to have a steady job, and nothing shakes the feeling of wasted souls in an abandoned sector of society.

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Snow On Tha Bluff  Full Documentary Trailer

Often, feature filmmakers using the tools of a documentary - handheld cameras, jerky cuts, ambient lighting, fragmented narrative - say they do so to get closer to reality. The creators of "Snow on tha Bluff" turn that reasoning on its head. Because the footage is so raw, they say, Atlanta police have sought it as evidence in some criminal investigations. The director, Damon Russell, initially coy about what was real and what was scripted, now stresses that "Snow on the Bluff" is not a recording of real events, that it's just another lo-fi independent film, like "The Blair Witch Project." Nothing to see here, officer.

It's his story, and he sticks to it. Don't get me wrong, though: real or not, there's plenty to see.