Nick Beaulieu was always close to his father. However over time he drifted to the left and his father drifted further to the right. In the wake of Trumpism and Black Lives Matter protests in his home town Nick tries to open a dialog with his dad and find some middle ground.
MY OMAHA is a stunner. You may think you know where this is going or how it's going to play out and you'd be dead wrong. Beaulieu has mad a film that is vital and alive and that doesn't even attempt the easy answers. Life is messy and complicated and it has a way of throwing things at you the mess everything up. This film wonderfully lets that all shine through.
What makes this film so important is that Beaulieu doesn't try to shape the discussions, he lets the words come out. This isn't a film where we get an us and them, black and white mentality but we get to know why people feel as they do. It doesn't always makes sense to us but it makes sense to them which is the important thing.
Watching the film I wasn't certain what I was thinking or feeling. I kept wanting to interject and say something, but I couldn't, and it's better that way. I say that because trying to engage with this film until it's done is pointless. This film is going somewhere and until it finishes you just have to go with it. When I got to the end I wasn't sure what I thought of it all but I knew that I was going to have to think about it long and hard. I stopped going through Slamdance films and just sat with it a while- and then I went back and finally started writing on it several days after seeing the film.
This is a staggering work that truly gives us an insight into the seeming chasms in America, that are actually bridged by love and emotion.
Don't expect answers, but expect to be moved.
Highly recommended
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