Flint is Family Documentary - Latoya Ruby Frazier (2016)
LaToya Ruby Frazier’s 2016 short documentary on the Flint water crisis opens with passionate narration of a poem paired with related imagery to create a righteous sense of anger, which leads into the personal account that follows to deliver information and humanize the crisis. The documentary aims to give voice to those who suffered from the event, and to address government neglect.
Nofilter, a poem by Shea Cobb, introduces the audience to the film and is not cushioned by background music. Though the words are lyrical, they are spoken aloud rather than sung, which creates a sense of rawness and contributes to the tone of righteous anger. From the beginning of the poem the speaker’s tone is marked by indignation, and her volume continues to rise into outrage as she progresses. The viewer gains more context from the images that are simultaneously being shown. This escalation implores the audience to lend increasing attention and emotional engagement to the plight of those who were affected. At the end of the film’s opening, the height of her outrage drops suddenly into a defeated tone. This abrupt shift conveys dread, loss, and helplessness in the face of an overwhelming adversary in the form of governmental authority.
Following the poem, the documentary shifts to Shea Cobb’s personal account on her life experiences growing up in Flint, and being affected by the water crisis. The persistent absence of music has a different impact in this section of the film. Ambient room noise is audible beneath the speaker’s voice, which brings a sense of realism and intimacy, as though Cobb was present and giving her experiences directly to the viewer. She speaks of her own life and how it was affected by the Flint water crisis, sometimes referencing the image being shown on screen. She breaks down how every single aspect of her life was affected by the city’s water being unsafe, and how the constant threat made a sense of normalcy impossible to achieve because of the difficulties it introduced to simple tasks. Cobb’s mention of children, the dangers being well-known, corrupt government officials, protesting, and referring to the water as poison lead to a sense of betrayal and systemic failure.
The film’s use of grayscale imagery creates contrast as the lack of colored pictures is associated with historic events rather than present-day crises. This creates a feeling of tension in the viewer at the events that feel distant or unreal despite being ongoing. The transitions between images fade to black and then into the next frame, and each image lingers for multiple seconds. This as opposed to more abrupt editing styles allows for the imagery to support the narration rather than distract from it. Panning and zooming effects make the viewer’s eye move to the subject and remain focused on both visuals and verbal account. Each image reinforces Cobb’s narration in order for the viewer to fully take in her words. Showing the people who faced these disparities she spoke of serves to strengthen the established sense of empathy in the viewer. These visual choices bring a sense of humanity to a crisis that Cobb and Frazier believed deserved to be more than solely a report or statistics.
By pairing imagery with spoken narration, the documentary shows graphic design extending beyond static media, using visual and audio elements to shape how information is perceived and understood. It also serves as an example of art being used to amplify the voices of those who might otherwise go unheard during crises.
Frazier, LaToya Ruby. “Flint Is Family,” 2016. https://latoyarubyfrazier.com/work/flint-is-family/
