#nasdoc

The pacing of the imagery seems to be rhythmic and fast to go along with the music from the album. The movie’s pace moves quickly and inserts live concert footage between many of the interview scenes.  

Overall, while the storytelling was rather conventional, it was cool to gain some insight on how a precocious teen from Queens made it but never really left home.

Strong close ups added to the feel of the film.

There are two moments that were particularly beautiful. The first was when we see a close up shot of a fence and then the lens switches its focus to the bridge far off in the distance past the fence. The patterns seemed to align in process. It almost seemed as if the fence became the bridge. Not only was it beautifully executed, it also stands as a stunning metaphor for Nas’ life trajectory from being stuck in the hood to attaining superstar status, from feeling imprisoned to a life rife with bridges out of the hood. The second moment that I found particularly beautiful was the b-roll during his Harvard visit. We look upward toward the edge of a stone fence and we see the leaves of the tree overhead as Nas waxes poetically about having made it to Harvard. It captured the mood very well. But apart from these two moments, I really enjoyed the director’s placement of Nas and his brother in the hood. In fact, we rarely get glimpses of his life now. I think it was exceedingly important to put Nas in the place where Illmatic took form, watching Nas and his brother’s live reactions as they walked through the hood and recounted stories from their childhood gave this film a sense of authenticity.

Music plays an important role in this documentary, which I believe it makes it so intense and entertaining. Whether it is in the background or explicitly shown, it is present the hole time and goes along with the different moods or sensations during the film.

The director of Nas: Time is Illmatic, One9, used various interview styles to portray Nas’ amazing story of victory in the midst of struggle. From a structural perspective, One9 utilizes wide shot and close-up shot PBS style interviews throughout the film, both newly shot and archival (of Nas’ Dad at a younger age.) Further on that note, throughout the entire documentary there is a mix of new and archival footage, whether it be new interviews or recent performance footage or archival interviews of Nas’ parents and old performance footage of Nas’ come-up. When discussing Queensbridge and the struggles along with growing up/raising children in NYC, a lot of NYC landscape panning was used, mainly aerial shots of  the Queensbridge homes. Toward the end of the film, moving cinema verite was used to follow both Nas and his brother, Jungle, as they walked through Queensbridge today, reminiscing on the place they both once called home. The use of audio in the film is also relatively unique. From the opening credits, the use of sound effects in connection with the film's narration creates very palpable moments. In the beginning, when the film focused on Nas’ father, also a musician, his music was played behind the narration. All through the film, when Nas discusses old school rap, that he grew up on, and rap battles between the various NYC boroughs, the director uses a mix of live rapping (from Nas, while being interviewed), live performance footage from the group he’s talking about, as well as just the studio-audio while the camera is on present-day Nas (interview style) as he vibes out to the music. Nas: Time is Illmatic is one of my favorite music documentaries, through the use of music and the various bits of  footage and cinematography used to depict Nas’ struggle growing up in NYC (and specifically Queensbridge,) the viewer feels deeply connected to Nas’ story and ultimate victory.