IN NEED OF SEAWATER (Documentary Short Film Reviews)
““An incredibly impactful and necessary documentary—poetry, identity, and truth in affecting motion.” ★★★★★”
“The documentary’s structure is refreshing and experimental, grounded in an intimate performance.”
“A deeply resonant poetic documentary that traces the emergence of an artist’s voice while reflecting on Black identity, memory, and artistic resistance in America.”
“For viewers open to listening—to words, to silence, to memory—it is a quietly powerful experience that lingers long after the final reading ends.”
“This is art right onscreen; you can hear it, you can see it, you can feel it.
★★★★½”
“If we look at the short as a purely artistic vehicle, it’s a smashing success: the POV memory shots that evoke the visuals of Nickel Boys, the uplifting music, and those gorgeous crashing waves on the beach—it’s all beautifully composed even when a great deal of subtext is lost.”
“A good film is not only cathartic to watch, but can also be therapeutic to create. This is no more apparent than in the short documentary In Need of Seawater, a deeply personal look into the life of poet and producer Mark Anthony Thomas. Directed by Richard Yeagley, In Need of Seawater is a moving portrait of Thomas’s vulnerability and creative self-expression.”
“Richard Yeagley’s In Need of Seawater is a 26-minute documentary following its writer Mark Anthony Thomas across an evening of poetry and which, through reflection, flows across the years leading up to that evening in a crowded kitchen. Its draw is its subject, whose spirited recital even outshines the poems themselves. ”