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Reviews
41 (2007)
documentary film-making at its best
I was privileged to be able to attend the premiere of 41 and it was an experience I will not soon forget. I had known about the Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island that claimed the lives of 100 people. But I had not known Nick O'Neill, whose story is so compellingly told in this documentary. Nick's life had a tragic ending, but somehow 41 manages to be uplifting. Intercutting between Nick's story and his own journey as a filmmaker, Christian de Rezendes has produced a moving portrait both of the creative, rebellious, and charismatic Nick, and of his own skepticism as an objective observer to Nick's "afterlife" as a presence for his family and friends. This is a brilliant film, documentary film-making at its best. You won't think about life and death in the same way again.