Music documentaries often suffer from the same problem. Twenty different people saying the same thing. “He’s just on another level, man” or “There’s no one quite like him,” or insert platitudinous superlative here. It doesn’t matter how right they are, the same thing said over and over again (interspersed with performance clips) doesn’t make a story.
Flamekeeper makes some attempt at narrative. We learn that Michael Cleveland went to the Kentucky School for the Blind, that he had a rough first week when his roommate (falsely) told him he was never going home again, that his grandparents took him to a lot of festivals and jams, that at some point he became an alcoholic and at a later point gave up alcohol, and that he has a friend who is also blind and a talented guitar player and mechanic, but for lack of opportunity has not had the success Michael has had.
This is a fair amount of information, but to me a good documentary needs to do more than provide us with the disjointed bullet points. I would like to know more, for instance, about his experiences at the Kentucky School for the Blind. Why did his parents decide to send him there? What other options were there? How often did he have music classes, and what other classes did he have to take? How long did he stay there?
Or later, his alcoholism, which is introduced suddenly and out of context. How did it develop? Presumably it implies a certain level of depression which is never addressed and fits poorly with the “happy innocent” picture everyone paints of him.
This is a problematic aspect of the film (and many other representations of people with disabilities). The tendency to turn someone into more of an inspiration, a miracle than a flesh and blood human being. Time and again, the people interviewed say how much Michael motivates them to be better people, and how incredible it is that he can do everything he can (the subtext being…despite being blind). This sets by default low expectations for people who are blind and also sets them in a kind of “other” category.
That being said, I think Flamekeeper is a worthwhile documentary to watch. It provides more of Michael Cleveland’s story than is otherwise available and he is certainly a musician worth getting to know. Plus, the music documentary’s perennial ace in the hole, there is plenty of good performance footage. I say it is a so-so documentary not because it is boring or uninteresting to watch, but because it could be so much better.
recycled paper clips 