Director: Duncan Cowles
In recognition of his own inability to open up to his family and loved one, filmmaker Duncan Cowles embarks on a very personal quest to understand some of the more general inhibitors that prevent men from talking to one another but, more specifically, why it is so difficult in his family. The 90-minute documentary Silent Men is the result, a film that is sometimes very honest about Cowles’ refusal to face the challenges of male mental health but in taking such a self-reflective position it doesn’t fully consider the ethical implications of interviewing vulnerable men.
Taking a chronological approach to filming interviews and discussions as they arise, Silent Men builds on work that Cowles has undertaken before and the several failed attempts to make this film over many years. There is a DIY approach to construction that lends authenticity to the conversations that Cowles has with his father, brother and friend over several years but the film then struggles to contextualise how the men’s lives have changed during the period of filming and how these add up to any consistent reflections on the causes and effects of men’s inability to express their emotions.
Cowles provides no academic or intellectual frame for these conversations apart from a single mental health professional and in an assessment like this you might expect a much broader understanding of applied masculinity, particularly in the questions that Cowles is asking the contributors. What is it about the duties and expectations of being a husband / father / manger / colleague/ friend that deters conversations; where do these ingrained notions come from and how do they manifest on a daily basis? Cowles includes plenty about what individuals may feel but not enough of the why – the social, cultural, political, economic and historical factors that shape manliness today.
And because Silent Men is Cowles’ attempt to understand himself as the primary outcome of the film, there are some troubling ethical outcomes when the director is essentially applying their experience to his own life. Putting an advert online, Cowels meets John who he interviews over serval years learning about unemployment, mental breakdown and suicide attempts during the years of interaction. But there is no sense of what support or structure is put in place for John as a result of capturing his trauma in this intensive way. And although he may have consented to it, it is not at all clear that this is the right thing for him, especially in a film where John becomes the only interviewee selected by this method and the purpose of Silent Men is solely for Cowles to reflect on himself.
The documentary is an admirable idea and the fly-on-the -wall approach to filmmaking enhances the personal story but even if the proper structures were in place, the film itself does too little to acknowledge the duty of care to its subjects.
Silent Men is in UK cinemas from 19th November.
