CHANTAL Ackerman's documentary about the rural town of Jasper, Texas is hard to watch. The documentation begins with a series of painstakingly slow moving images tracing the streets, houses, and people of the small town. The intention of this kind of ultra-realistic documentary filmmaking is probably to convey an understanding of the inhabitants' lives. And yet no direct connection is felt from this 'drive-by' filming. Instead we are subjected to an incessant stream of motion-sickness-inducing images.

There is no narrative throughout the 60-minute reel, which contributes to the feeling of isolated viewing. We come to discover, through various, somewhat unintelligible interviews with Jasper locals, that the town is recovering from the recent racial hate crime against James Byrd Jr. Three young white men beat and then dragged his body from the back of their pick-up truck. This barbaric torture lasted for over 3 miles, in a predominantly white neighbourhood.

The nature of the crime is appalling, but any emotional or impassioned reaction is made impossible when most of the footage contains nothing more than an eye view of a passing tree, or dilapidated house. It seems a wasted opportunity given that the issues involving racism in America are far more complex than what can be witnessed from the back of a moving car.