Disenchantment vs. Hope: Documentation in "Not One Less"

In class, we discussed how documentation can disenchant us. We may think one thing, but learn another as we experience reality. This is what occurs in “Not One Less” for the teacher and the students. Wei accepts a job as a substitute, believing the job to be simple and hoping to be paid well for not doing much. She finds this to be much harder than expected and learns that she must keep the children in school in order to be paid. They will not do the work she assigns and she takes the assignment literally by barring them from leaving until the end of the day. Then one of her students is sent away to work off his parents debt. Wei needs to be paid so she goes on a journey to find Zhang Huike. Zhang Huike, on the other hand, has ideals about the city. He expects that he’ll be able to avoid work and be fine so he runs away. He finds himself begging for food during the day and sleeping in the train station at night.

There is another level to this disillusionment as an audience. Just as Wei hopes for an easy job and Zhang hopes for an easy life, we hope for the characters to acquire what they need. We anticipate that Wei will find Zhang. But she doesn’t. At least not right away. Our anticipation turns to expectation that the people around her will help, and they don’t either. There is too much red tape and the system fails her over and over again. The realization that all the things put in place to help and protect—security guards and systems—are actually working against the very thing they are supposed to do. Not until someone recognizes the suffering occurring because of the system does remediation occur.

The adventure happens in the everyday. Labor leads to learning. It is through experience that one grows up, and not just mystical kinds of experiences, but ones in which a person simply engages with the world around them.

There is the heartbreaking interview with Zhang as reporters ask what will he remember about the city. “That I had to beg,” he answers. The film records reality and the harsh truth of the world. This is similar to the clip from “Bicycle Thieves” that we viewed in class. The father is trying to be honest and follow the rules of the world, but finds no success. Society does not take care of people as we hope it will. It often punishes them.

This reminds me as well of the documentary I viewed at Sundance. “Most Likely to Succeed” disappoints the audience by revealing the reality of the education system. As a society, we hope that it will prepare students for life after school, but in actuality it prepares them for tests and more recently is not aiding those who graduate to find jobs.

A risk runs of losing hope when seeing these realities, but it is often the human spirit and innovation that finds a way. Wei perseveres and because of a sincere, heartfelt plea, is able to triumph over the severity of the city. Charity of an ordinary man spares the father in “Bicycle Thieves.” In the documentary “Most Likely to Succeed,” normal teachers find alternative solutions to help their students thrive. Humanity saves itself from humanity. Although disenchantment exists, optimism endures.