The concurrence of multiple documentary “dramas”
No Data Plan
dir. Miko Revereza, 2019, USA
genre: poetic documentary, essay film, personal documentary
No Data Plan has a conceit that in some ways is simple: the filmmaker takes an Amtrak train tip across the US, from Southern California to New York. Revereza documents the train trip and edits the imagery (from inside the train, looking outside, and at stops along the way) into a composite of snippets, in chronological order yet disjunctive at times.
The film uses the train trip as a foil for a rumination on immigrant life during a period of intensified ICE patrols in the US. Revereza is an undocumented Filipino-American immigrant and his parents, living in the US, are undocumented as well. The train ride is mostly uneventful, dull even, though ultimately it provides a connection to the director’s immigrant status. It will be an hour into the film before one hears Revereza’s voice.
The first few minutes of the film introduce a secondary drama by describing with expository subtitles a story about Revereza’s mother. It comes intermittently, providing an interplay between the more dramatic (yet unseen and unheard) material and the relatively quotidian imagery. Over time, the film weaves in aural interviews from others discussion immigration and life in the Philippines. (It is not immediately clear how many are Revereza’s relatives).
Watching No Data Plan, I was struck with how well the film captures the contrapuntal form that festival documentaries often use. There is a thematic connection between the three strands (visual, aural, and textual) but they serve as three distinct registers for the documentary. And for the way the film thematizes this disconnection itself as a physical remove, it also serves an affective purpose, dedramatizing the more immediately emotional material in order to amplify its effect.