对于一个家庭的磨难与坚韧的有力表述盖茨笔记

　　来源：比尔盖茨

　　I have written before about two books —An American MarriageandThe New Jim Crow— that really broadened my understanding of some of the hardships faced by Black people in America. There’s a movie out now calledTimethat ranks up there with both of them. It wasnominatedfor Best documentary at the Academy Awards this year, and I can see why. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

　　我曾就《美国式婚姻》和《新吉姆·克劳》这两本书写过文章——它们确实使我对美国黑人所面临的一些困难有了更深入的了解。现在上映了一部叫做《时间》的电影，与这两本书一样占据一席之地。它获得了今年奥斯卡金像奖最佳纪录长片奖提名，我能知道原因。我如何推荐它都不为过。

　　I sawTimeat the Sundance Film Festival last year (before the COVID-19 pandemic shut things down) on the recommendation of a friend who served as an executive producer on the movie. It isavailable for streaming nowon Amazon Prime.

　　在担任这部电影执行制片人的朋友推荐下，我在去年的圣丹斯电影节上看了《时间》（这是在新冠肺炎大流行迫使各项活动暂停之前）。你现在可以在亚马逊Prime平台上观看它。

　　On the surface,Timeis about a Black mother of six named Sibil Fox Richardson who is trying to get her husband, Robert, out of state prison in Louisiana. He was sentenced to 60 years for armed robbery; much of the movie takes place at a time when he has been in prison nearly 18 years. Sibil—who also goes by the name Fox Rich—participated in the robbery and served three and a half years herself.

　　从表面上看，《时间》是关于一个育有六个孩子的黑人母亲的故事，她的名字叫西比尔·福克斯·理查森，正尝试把她的丈夫罗伯特从路易斯安那州立监狱中解救出来。他因持械抢劫被判处60年徒刑。电影中的大部分情节都发生在他入狱近18年的时候。西比尔（她也被人叫做福克斯·里奇）参与了那次抢劫，并因此获刑三年半。

　　The movie is not about whether Robert and Sibil committed the crime. They did. It is partly about the impact on a family of locking up a father for 60 years—and very much about their family’s resilience.

　　这部电影不是讲罗伯特和西比尔是否犯了罪。那的确是他们干的。电影部分讲述了将一名父亲关押60年对一个家庭造成的影响，以及很多关于这个家庭的坚韧。

　　Many documentaries I’ve seen lay out all the facts in a clear storyline: this happened, then that happened.Timedoesn’t work that way. The director, Garrett Bradley, is not interested in explaining every fact. You learn only a few details about the robbery and their separate trials, although there is a long sequence in which Sibil talks about making amends with the victims of their crime.

　　我看过的许多纪录片都以一条清晰的故事线列出所有事实：这个先发生，接着那个再发生。《时间》并没有采取这种做法。导演加雷特·布莱德利对于解释每一个事实并不感兴趣。你只会了解关于这次抢劫和他们各自审判的少量细节，虽然电影中有很长一段关于西比尔讲对受害者做出的补偿。

　　AlthoughTimedoesn’t tell you much, it shows you a lot. It is a poetic portrait of a family who love and support each other despite their difficult circumstances. In one scene, one of the couple’s sons graduates from a dental program. But the movie doesn’t take time to explain what kind of degree he got, or much of anything else. It is all about the joy of his accomplishment and how the family comes together to celebrate. The details are not as important as the way they show up for each other.

　　尽管《时间》没有告诉你很多，但它向你展示了很多。这是对于一个家庭的诗意刻画，这个家庭尽管遭遇困难的处境，却依旧深爱并支持着彼此。在一个场景中，这对夫妇的其中一个儿子从牙科专业毕业。但电影并没有花时间解释他获得的是何种学位，也没解释其他很多东西，而是都在描写他获得成就的喜悦，以及这个家庭如何聚在一起庆祝。比起他们为彼此加油打气的方式来说，细节并不那么重要。

　　The same is true of the movie’s portrayal of Sibil’s efforts to help Robert and speak out more broadly against mass incarceration. She is repeatedly told that there is no news about her husband’s case. There are painfully long scenes of her waiting on the phone to speak to a bureaucrat about a judge’s ruling. It is not always quite clear what the particular ruling in question might be, but again, that is not what matters. The point is how impersonally and inhumanely the system treats everyone caught up in it, including the offenders and their families, and how much time and energy are required to navigate it. This idea is important inAmerican MarriageandNew Jim Crowtoo, but with this movie, you see it first-hand.

　　同样的处理被用在描写西比尔如何帮助罗伯特，以及如何更广泛地大胆抗议大规模监禁。她一再被告知没有关于她丈夫案子的新消息。电影中有很多漫长到让人感到痛苦的场景，关于她在电话里等待着与一位长官沟通法官的判决。我们不总是清楚地知道他们具体谈论的判决是哪一个，但这再一次表现得无足轻重。重点在于，这个系统对待被卷入其中的每个人——包括罪犯和他们的家人——是多么的冷漠无情和惨无人道，以及人们需要多少时间和精力才能驾驭这个系统。这个观点在《美国式婚姻》和《新吉姆·克劳》中也很重要，但有了这部电影，你可以直接看到它。

　　This is one of the most intimate movies I have ever seen.Itrecordsevents that arealmostunbearablyemotional. There is one scene at the end that is unlike anything I had ever seen before in a documentary. I don’t want to reveal what happens, so I will just say that I could not believe I was watching it. It was that powerful.

　　《时间》是我看过最没有距离感的电影之一。它所记录的事件具有几乎令人难以承受的情感。影片的结尾有一幕与我以往在纪录片看过的都不一样，我不想剧透，所以只能说我不敢相信我当时正在看的东西。那实在令人震撼。

原标题：对于一个家庭的磨难与坚韧的有力表述盖茨笔记