We Beg To Differ

A short documentary circling the intersection of passion, strain, mental health and identity. 

Produced by Thomas Purdy & Ruairí Bradley it's twelve minutes of how to walk the line of show, don't tell.

It gives a voice and perspective to a misunderstood and largely written off culture and people. Trapped in that tricky law breaking area that many will simply use to dismiss the bigger problem.

Putting that praise and explanation aside, it is a short film about an automotive subculture in Ireland called 'diffing' - a name originating from doing rings or donuts with rear wheel drive cars. 

These kinds of maneuvers require the car to have the right kind of differential or diff for both wheels to spin, hence the name 'diffin'.

You can watch the film at the link below this sentence & after that is my thoughts.

WE BEG TO DIFFER     

I will admit my mind tends to race a bit more with a documentary. It's real lives on show, vulnerable people, and voices being platformed somewhere they wouldn't have been had someone not felt the need to document.

I felt this doco towed the line near perfectly. From the cinematography to the construction, it balances the important choice to let a culture be shown rather than explained. 

For me personally I couldn't help but make comparisons to the documentary Vice Australia did called;

'Australia's Young Car Burnout Champions : Rage In The Cage'    

That documentary is different but similar. Similar in that putting aside the automotive commonality, it shows the stories of people finding escape through chasing a feeling. A feeling which is enough to create a community. I would say it's often the community that becomes more important than what brought it about. 

Both documentaries support the criminology concept - strain. The idea that because of inequality individuals unable to achieve societal goals or expectations find or create their own through criminal means.

This isn't the only way individuals become involved in subculture's like this. For me personally the attraction to cars was a combination of mimetic desire and visual communication - design psychology. My Dad owned cool cars, and my mates taught me personal style or self-expression extends into what you drive. Eventually discovering the feeling of pushing past what's acceptable and why that can be addictive and alluring led me here.

Watching this documentary it stood out to me how careful it was to limit the amount of depiction of diffing. The shots used, the narration and sound design work so cleverly to let the culture speak without trying to glamorise it. In doing so, it tells a story of a bigger problem without redirecting or creating some kind of moral panic taking shot at the culture as the root issue.

It's a good watch.