Maris Curran’s documentary allows us into the life of physical trainer and Pulse shooting survivor Jeannette Feliciano
Through slice-of-life footage, documentary Jeannette allows us to spend a period of time with Jeannette Feliciano, physical trainer and survivor of the shooting at the Pulse night club in Orlando. Filmmaker Maris Curran and her crew film in a verite style, shadowing Feliciano in her daily life as she leads boot camp workouts, trains for a bodybuilding competition and spends time with friends and family. Feliciano raises her son, living openly as a queer woman while sharing a home with with a conservative mother.
Curran incorporates some voiceover from a few audio interviews with Feliciano, but no other sort of interview with the subject or anyone else. We see her determination and dedication in the gym, whether in her individual workouts or working with a client. She’s emotionally vulnerable in the morning boot camp she leads with close friend and fellow Pulse survivor “Eazzy.” We’re shown the discipline of her training for competition (as well as her ridiculously restrictive diet).
Jeannette depicts its subject as dimensional and multifaceted, from scenes of her doting on her son to helping her older sister in Puerto Rico with hurricane recovery after Maria. A scene of her struggling to retain her footing as she removes tree parts from her sister’s yard makes for a striking visual while symbolizing her own personal struggle. The sound design and editing at the open of the documentary, as Jeannette narrates the events of the attack that horrific night, complement the abstract visuals and concentrate the audience’s attention on her storytelling.
The downside to using very limited audio interviews is that even after spending the length of the film with the subject, some things are left unexplained. The audience is shown scenes of Jeannette at a gun range and training her son at home on gun use, moments that would benefit from further context or exploration. Perhaps it’s unfair to this documentary that I saw Uvalde Mom earlier this year and kept contrasting the two works in my head as I watched, although they differ stylistically. I couldn’t help being impressed by Jeannette the person, but Jeannette the film isn’t quite as compelling.
Jeannette is available on VOD starting June 17.
