EXPO: Magic of the White City
A highly interesting documentary if you are interested in the subject of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 but don't know too much about it.
Although almost all of the visuals are stills, photographs, drawings, the event itself was so surprisingly massive and epic that it consumes you for the full two hour presentation.
Actually the big of motion footage, the "B" roll as I guess you would call it, that was filmed as some of the reenactment of events are actually the worst part of this documentary. They seem out of place and betray some of the director's strange obsessions with beer and erotic dancing as these are the only subjects that feature such footage.
I was totally amazed that such an even had occurred here in the city I now live in over 100 years ago. And the fact that nearly all of the structures, despite their ornate and palatial qualities were built to be temporary and no longer stand makes it seem almost like a fantasy. In fact this place even had an affect on The Emerald City in L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" adds to that.
You almost feel like the world was more of an advanced place back then than it was now. The feeling like these people had an adventurous future ahead of them. Where as now it seems like technology has advanced to a place where it's ruining us and alienating us instead of brining us together in new and exciting ways. What happened?
Rating: 8/10