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Jon Alpert is a lone free-lance video reporter. He is cameraman, interviewer and interpreter, and as such he has made short documentaries in the United States and Nicaragua. The selected reports reveal that his technique has advantages and disadvantages in both contrasting countries. 'You Think you Got Problems!' depicts the poor life of the Mosquitosin Nicaragua, ravaged by political decisions; 'The Battle of Wiwili' reports on a Sandinist campaign against counter-revolutionaries. 'Philadelphia Squatters' follows the successful squat by a woman and her family; the more or less successful resistance of a group of tenants forms the su bject for 'The Battle of Hoboken'. The 'Nicaragua Stories' suffer under the restrictions of Alpert's technique: they are superficial and fragmentary and Alpert's voice dominates. In 'Survival in America' his method works better: he only has to register events and stay in the background; these reports are more relevant and convincing than the ones from Nicaragua.
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