Watched: 12/3/2022
Format: HBOmax
Viewing: First
Director: Nick Sweeney
The basic concept for Santa Camp (2022) contains all the volatility you'd expect of a movie that decides to use the familiar cultural touchstone of Santa Claus and the people who play him in malls, parades, personal appearances, etc... to explore modern social wars and challenges of diversity and inclusivity.
The movie clearly has a POV, but it's also one that is never stated directly by the filmmakers - this is a doc that lets people be themselves for good or ill on camera. So, it lives in editorial choices. Who knows what was left on the cutting room floor? Maybe some stuff was worse? Maybe items that were innocuous are cherry picked for context? But when you're letting Proud Boys speak for themselves, it's hard to say how much nuance you're losing.
Opening with a meeting of a grand council of Santa's of New England, a role and career choice for aging white men who have a very certain look, we get an idea of who has been a Santa - who embodies jolly ol' St. Nick in our physical space rather than paintings and cartoons. To my surprise, this group of very similar older guys have already decided that maybe Santa needs more options for the public than just older, white, paunchy men, and they're in agreement that they need to start diversifying by inviting new recruits to their annual weekend retreat known as "Santa Camp".
