Mayor
Film poster
Directed byDavid Osit
Produced byDavid Osit
StarringMusa Hadid
CinematographyDavid Osit
Edited byDavid Osit & Eric Daniel Metzgar
Production
companies
Release date
  • March 5, 2020 (2020-03-05) (True/False Film Festival)[1]
Running time
89 minutes
CountriesUnited States, United Kingdom
LanguagesPalestinian Arabic, English

Mayor (Arabic: العمدة, romanized: al-ʿUmda) is a 2020 documentary film produced and directed by David Osit.[2] The film follows Musa Hadid, the mayor of Ramallah, the de facto capital of Palestine, for two years.

Release

Mayor premiered in March 2020 at the True/False Film Fest, one of the last film festivals to proceed as scheduled in the first half of 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.[3] The film was acquired by Film Movement for theatrical distribution in North America, beginning at Film Forum on December 2,[4] and was released online on the Criterion Channel and video on demand platforms in early 2021.[5] The film was subsequently a recipient of a 2022 Peabody Award.

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on 42 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "A clear-eyed look at an extraordinary subject, Mayor makes essential viewing out of one politician's quest to preserve dignity in the midst of bureaucracy."[6] In his Critic's Pick review for Indiewire Eric Kohn writes "There have been countless documentaries made about the West Bank experience, from “5 Broken Cameras” to “The Settlers,” and they often involve the travails of ordinary life existing side by side with military persecution. “Mayor” offers a striking new perspective on that struggle, with a personal on-the-ground quality matched by grand tonal ambitions that makes it the best of its subgenre."[7]

Tomris Laffley of Variety writes "Osit brings a respectful approach that admirably never registers as observations of a patronizing Westerner", and called the film "astonishing" and "sharply witty".[8]

Many reviews praised the film's use of dark comedy; in his Critic's Pick review for The New York Times Ben Kenigsberg calls the film "surprisingly funny",[9] Stephen Saito of Movable Fest writes that the film often resembles "a lost season of Veep"[10] and Mary McNamara of Los Angeles Times describes the film as both "troubling and hilarious".[11] Alissa Wilkinson of Vox wrote "At times, it plays like Veep — if the characters in Veep were actually kind, compassionate, and oriented toward what best serves the public’s interest. But Mayor also shows how challenging the job of mayor is, even for a talented leader like Hadid, who struggles to show the world what the citizens of his city are facing as they, and he, go about their lives under impossible and seemingly intractable circumstances."[12]

Awards

Award Category Recipient(s) Result
Copenhagen International Documentary Festival NEXT:WAVE Award[13] David Osit Won
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Reva and David Logan Grand Jury Award[14] Mayor Won
Port Townsend Film Festival Best Documentary Award[15] Mayor Won
Boston Palestine Film Festival Audience Award - Best Documentary Feature[16] Mayor Won
Philadelphia Film Festival Honorable Mention[17] Mayor Won
Best Documentary Mayor Nominated
Cinema Eye Honors Unforgettables[18] Musa Hadid Won
Spotlight Award[19] Mayor Nominated
Peabody Awards Documentary [20] Mayor Won
News & Documentary Emmy Awards Outstanding Government & Politics Documentary [21] Mayor Won
Cinema for Peace awards Award for The Political Film of the Year Mayor Won

Lists

Mayor in best-of lists
Critic/Publication List Rank Ref.
Indiewire The Best Movies of 2020 16 [22]
The Best Documentaries of 2020 Placed [23]
The Boston Globe Best Documentaries of 2020 Placed [24]
Vulture The Best Movies Of 2020 10 [25]
Paste The 25 Best Documentaries Of 2020 Placed [26]
Vox The Best Movies of 2020 2 [27]
Hammer To Nail Hammer To Nail's Best Movies of 2020 Placed [28]
Polygon The Best Documentaries of 2020 9 [29]

References

  1. ↑ "'Mayor': Film Review". 18 March 2020.
  2. ↑ "Home". Mayor. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  3. ↑ "True/False Film Fest 2020: The Value of the Theatrical Experience (Coronavirus Remix) | Filmmaker Magazine". 25 March 2020.
  4. ↑ "'Mayor' Trailer: A Darkly Comic West Bank Portrait Through the Eyes of a Celebrity Mayor". 19 October 2020.
  5. ↑ "The 100 Best Movies on the Criterion Channel (July 2021)". 23 March 2021.
  6. ↑ "Mayor". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  7. ↑ "'Mayor': Film Review". Indiewire. 6 March 2020. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  8. ↑ "'Mayor': Variety Film Review". Variety. 18 March 2020. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  9. ↑ Kenigsberg, Ben (2 December 2020). "'Mayor': Leading A City With The World Watching". New York Times. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
  10. ↑ "True/False 2020 Review: Even When the Top Official Has Little Control, "Mayor" Speaks With Authority". The Moveable Fest. 2020-03-07. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  11. ↑ "Column: 'Mayor' shows the West Bank as we rarely see it". Los Angeles Times. 2020-03-13. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  12. ↑ "Best Movies of 2020". Vox. 17 December 2020. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
  13. ↑ "CPH:DOX announces its 2020 award winners". en.cphdox.dk. Archived from the original on 2020-05-11.
  14. ↑ "2020 Award Winners".
  15. ↑ "Jury Awards". www.ptfilmfest.com. Archived from the original on 2020-12-05.
  16. ↑ "2020 Audience Award Winners Announced". Boston Palestine Film Fest. October 2020. Archived from the original on 15 November 2020.
  17. ↑ "30th Philadelphia Film Festival". Philadelphia Film Society.
  18. ↑ "The Unforgettables Archives".
  19. ↑ "Spotlight Award Archives".
  20. ↑ "82nd Peabody Award Nominees Announced". 13 April 2022.
  21. ↑ "The 43rd Annual News & Documentary Nominations". 7 July 2022.
  22. ↑ "The Best Movies of 2020". Indiewire. November 30, 2020. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  23. ↑ "The Best Documentaries of 2020". Indiewire. December 13, 2020. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  24. ↑ "A Very Good Year For Documentaries, If An Annus Horribilis Otherwise". The Boston Globe. December 15, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  25. ↑ "The Best Movies Of 2020". Vulture. 8 December 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  26. ↑ "The 25 Best Documentaries of 2020". PASTE. December 15, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  27. ↑ "The Best Movies of 2020". Vox. December 17, 2020. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  28. ↑ "Hammer To Nail's Best Movies of 2020". Hammer To Nail. December 15, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  29. ↑ "The Best Documentaries of 2020". Polygon. December 19, 2020. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
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