Brother's Keeper

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112885 Posts in 8614 Topics by 4618 Members
Latest Member: garrymoore

[Rudder]

Anybody seen it? It's on IFC right now. Anyway, it's another crime documentary by the masters of fair portrayal, Sinofsky and Berlinger.
Here's a snip from the synopsis:

"Under questioning by police, Delbert appears to have waived his rights and signed a confession, but this film suggests that he may not have been competent to do so."

Sound familiar? This was released in 92, which leads me to believe that S & B are lying out of their asses when they said they went to West Memphis with an open mind.

Anyway, this movie is JUST like pl1 except that instead of playing mettalica in the background, they play shit like "farmer in the dell" on a banjo, I guess to drive home the fact that this is just about simple farm folk who are too dumb to understand killing is wrong and not to confess. Another "victim".

[Christian]

Never seen it.

Here's an old article from the Los Angeles Times where they talk about it...




Thursday, February 11, 1993

Home Edition

Section: Calendar

Page: F-4


The Truth Behind 'Brother's Keeper';
Movies: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky made the film not to prove
guilt or innocence, but 'to reveal emotional truths about the human
condition.'



By: KRISTINE MCKENNA
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES


"People come to our film expecting some kind of true crime story
but that's not what we were attempting to do," said 30-year-old filmmaker
Joe Berlinger of the award-winning documentary "Brother's Keeper." The
strange saga of Delbert Ward, an illiterate 59-year-old dairy farmer in
Upstate New York accused in 1990 of murdering his brother in the bed
they'd shared for 50 years, the film, which opened Wednesday for a
one-week run at the Nuart, does indeed offer a good deal more than your
standard crime story.


In addition to leaving a question mark around the issue of Delbert's
guilt or innocence, "Brother's Keeper," which Berlinger co-directed with
Bruce Sinofsky, opens up several complex areas of debate. Among them: the
differing codes of behavior governing city and country life; the
inaccurate, stereotyped beliefs each realm has about the other; community
loyalty; incest; the socializing effects of media and the manner in which
we acquire language.


"We're not presenting the official version of Delbert's trial," said
Sinofsky, 35, who met Berlinger in 1986 while both were working for
seminal documentary filmmakers the Maysles Brothers. "We're simply
mirroring what we saw going on in that community. We tried to keep our
opinions out of the film and let the participants express their own
feelings."


Added Berlinger who, like Sinofsky, was mesmerized by the story of
Delbert Ward when they stumbled across it in a New York newspaper, "by
the time the film closes, the question of Delbert's guilt or innocence
has become irrelevant because you've become involved with these peoples'
lives."
Daily life in Munnsville (pop. 499) where the story unfolds is oddly
fascinating and should strike the sophisticated audience that supports
documentary films as strangely exotic. But even within this tiny
backwoods town untouched by time, the four unschooled Ward brothers stand
out as certified eccentrics. Ranging in age from 59 to 71, the Wards are
all bachelors who live without indoor plumbing or heat (this is
ostensibly the reason why Delbert and Bill shared a bed). Living on a
100-acre parcel of land that's been in their family for two generations,
they tend their herd of 28 cows by day, watch TV at night, subsist on
approximately $7,000 a year, and live in shocking squalor.
Needless to say, these men have a deep suspicion of city folk, and
when Sinofsky, Berlinger and cameraman Douglas Cooper arrived at their
door convinced Delbert's trial was the perfect subject for their first
film, the Wards took some convincing.
"We went up and just hung out with them for several weekends before we
even started shooting," said Sinofsky, who made the self-financed film
(budgeted at $500,000) with Berlinger on weekends while both maintained
full-time jobs at Maysles Films. "When we first got to Munnsville there
were some high walls we had to get over, and we also arrived with our own
set of negative ideas about what we were going to encounter. We'd heard
all these weird stories about the Wards--the case against Delbert was
based on the idea that his brother's death was a mercy killing, but there
were also unsubstantiated allegations that it was a
gay-sex-turned-violent situation--and we were expecting these
'Deliverance'-north types. However, the minute you meet these men and see
how innocent and childlike they are, it's hard not to feel affection for
them."
"We all have cliched ideas about what country people are like and one
of the central intentions of the film was to break down those
stereotypes," Berlinger added. "I think by the end of the film the viewer
has become more respectful of these people and that the success of the
film rests on the intimacy we were able to establish with them--we felt a
real responsibility to this community.
"I've seen too many documentary filmmakers go in and strip-mine
whatever world it is they're exploring," Berlinger continued. "Films like
'Roger and Me'--that's ambush journalism and there's something
mean-spirited about it. I think we left this community better than we
found it because for the first time these people were given a voice.
Nobody had ever asked their opinions about anything and suddenly they're
speaking publicly about the justice system, homosexuality and community
loyalty."
Indeed, one of the most intriguing subtexts in "Brother's Keeper" is
the concise chronicle it offers of a sequestered community becoming media
savvy--over the course of the film we see the people of Munnsville's
distrust of the big-city interlopers melt into pleasure at the attention
being lavished on them (the high point of the Munnsville media circus was
a visit from Connie Chung).
Equally thought-provoking is the effect being in the public eye has on
the Wards' capacity to communicate, and the impact it may have on them in
the future. "In the beginning of the film it's hard to understand the
Wards when they speak," Berlinger points out, "but as the filming
progressed the syntax and sentence structure of their speech
changed--their ability to communicate improved noticeably."
"They had no grasp of media at all when we first met them," Sinofsky
added. "They'd never been to a movie and didn't understand the concept of
a documentary. They do have a television, though, and whenever we left
after spending a weekend filming them they'd say, 'Are we gonna see this
on TV tonight?' I'm still not sure if they understand what we were doing
there.
"However, although Lyman Ward continues to find the whole business
unnerving, Delbert and Roscoe Ward have really begun to enjoy it,"
Sinofsky continued. "They're like children who've been ignored for years
and are suddenly getting attention for the first time--they seem happy
and overwhelmed by what's happening and have attended several of the
premieres where they sign autographs.
"There is, of course, a loss of innocence they've experienced as a
result of all this and we worry about how they'll respond when life
returns to normal. The Wards were content men who weren't aware they were
outcasts or how the rest of the world was living. Now the media has
drilled into their heads that they're slobs who live the way people lived
100 years ago."
Asked to what degree they'd shaped their footage so as to create a
sympathetic portrait of the Wards, Berlinger said, "cinema verite is
based on the idea that you can capture an objective truth on film, but
all films are subjective. We gathered our footage in a classic cinema
verite way, but we weren't attempting to reveal truth with a capital
'T'--we're trying to reveal emotional truths about the human condition."
After requesting that the verdict of Delbert's three-week trial not be
revealed here, the filmmakers, who plan to be in production on their next
film by this summer, answered one final burning question. Having gotten
to know the Wards better than just about anybody (the brothers expressed
their affection for the filmmakers by naming two turkeys after them),
what did they think happened at the Ward house on the night of June 6,
1990?
"That's the million-dollar question," Sinofsky said with a smile. "All
we'll say is that we thought one thing when we began the film, and that
our opinion had changed 180 degrees by the time the film was finished."




PHOTO: Joe Berlinger, left, and Bruce Sinofsky directed "My
Brother's Keeper," playing at the Nuart.
PHOTOGRAPHER: MARSHA T. GORMAN / Los Angeles Times

[GODDESS6]

i recorded it earlier & am watching it right now, i have watched about a half hour of it so far~ very sad~

[Rudder]

the brothers expressed their affection for the filmmakers by naming two turkeys after them

Lol, I guess the Ward brothers are more insightful than I imagined.

[Rudder]

Oh, hey Goddess, you might want to fast forward when you see the pig in the horse trailer. Very, very brutal.

[BlackAngel]

Must be nice for you people at home to be watching a documentry while  I am working my ass off.   

Jan

[Rudder]

It is, now get back to work!!


(lol, yanking ya)

[GODDESS6]

Must be nice for you people at home to be watching a documentry while  I am working my ass off.   

Jan

kids are having snack, after that i am tortured w/ dora the explorer :sad2: :icon_puke_r: :cussing:~

[GODDESS6]

Oh, hey Goddess, you might want to fast forward when you see the pig in the horse trailer. Very, very brutal.

thanx for the heads up, i hadn't reached that part yet, as i have had to pause it a zillion times for freakin' potty breaks~

i did find this regarding the "ward boys"

http://blog.syracuse.com/news/2007/08/lyman_ward_last_of_the_ward_br.html

Lyman Ward, second-eldest of the four brothers featured in the 1992 film "Brother's Keeper," died Wednesday. He was 85.

The movie focused on the 1990 trial of Delbert Ward, accused of killing older brother Bill. Supporters in and around Munnsville rallied to Delbert's defense, and he was acquitted.

"Brother's Keeper" showed how the four brothers lived in poverty on a small farm near Munnsville. None of the brothers had a driver's license; when they needed to go to town, Lyman drove them on a tractor.

Ralph Cognetti, the lawyer who represented Delbert, said Lyman was the quietest of the four brothers.

"Lyman was the toughest to talk to. He rarely spoke," Cognetti said. "If you watch the movie, you'll always see him hiding behind barn doors."

Delbert, the youngest of the brothers, died in 1998 at age 67. Roscoe died two months ago at the age of 88.

Calling hours for Lyman Ward will be noon to 2 p.m. Monday at the Burgess & Tedesco Funeral Home in Morrisville. The funeral will begin at 2 p.m. at the funeral home.

[GODDESS6]

ok, on a lighter note, i loved when the ward boys named their turkey's bruce & joe...so fitting ~

that docu was very sad~ those poor boys broke my heart~ it bothers me how unsocialized they were~ how they could barely read or write & or tell time~ but they sure seemed to care for one another~ my heart swelled w/ love tho when the town surrounded delbert~ it seems not one person in the town thought he was guilty~ even the ones who thought he might of did it as a mercy killing, didn't blame him~ when they had the fundraiser for delbert & he was dancing possibly for the 1st time, was so sad~ i am glad i watched it, i even got thru the pig slaughter believe it or not~

[sheer]

I have never seen it. Can't find it to watch anywhere either.

sheer

[BlackAngel]

Is this the right one? Never mind it is.

http://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Keeper-Connie-Chung/dp/B00008DDJ6

jan

[mikespadre]

Seen it, sucks like most everything else they have their hands in.

[sunshinekitty1]

Yeah, I asked about this a while back.  I rented it from netflix but never got around to watching it.

[Kimbo]

Yes, for the first time ever, a Sinofsky/Berlinger babel fish. Listen to what they’re REALLY saying.

"We went up and just hung out with them for several weekends before we
even started shooting,"

said Sinofsky,

Translation:

We got them high and bolstered their egos.

"When we first got to Munnsville there were some high walls we had to get over, and we also arrived with our own
set of negative ideas about what we were going to encounter.
We'd heard all these weird stories about the Wards--the case against Delbert was
based on the idea that his brother's death was a mercy killing, but there
were also unsubstantiated allegations that it was a gay-sex-turned-violent situation--and we were expecting these
'Deliverance'-north types. However, the minute you meet these men and see how innocent and childlike they are, it's hard not to feel affection for them."

Translation:

Those hicks are going to make us some Deliverance moolah and they'll do it for a buck ninety.

"We all have cliched ideas about what country people are like and one
of the central intentions of the film was to break down those
stereotypes," Berlinger added. "I think by the end of the film the viewer
has become more respectful of these people and that the success of the
film rests on the intimacy we were able to establish with them--we felt a
real responsibility to this community.

Translation:

We sold it to HBO.

"I've seen too many documentary filmmakers go in and strip-mine
whatever world it is they're exploring," Berlinger continued. "Films like
'Roger and Me'--that's ambush journalism and there's something
mean-spirited about it. I think we left this community better than we
found it because for the first time these people were given a voice.

Translation:

We sold their souls for a quarter bag and a six pack.

Nobody had ever asked their opinions about anything and suddenly they're
speaking publicly about the justice system, homosexuality and community
loyalty."

Translation:

We’ve ruined their lives. Oh well. Did we mention HBO?