Missing Allen - Wo ist Allen Ross? (2001) User Reviews

As good as any crime drama

[ChungMo · 8/10 · 18 August 2005]

What starts as a well-done if mundane remembrance of a good friend soon turns captivating as the film dives deep into the disappearance of said friend. The filmmakers soon blur the line as the everything becomes deeply personal. Interviewees choke up and the director walks on camera to comfort them. Finally the director becomes a detective and the main character of this documentary as he won't just let his friend vanish. It works because the emotion behind this film is very real. The quest for the truth drives this film to the very end and holds the viewer.

Along the way we are given a window into American Paranoia and the unspoken specter of mental illness. If you have had someone close to you "suddenly" lose it and change personalities, you'll find this film important. Very effective and very moving.

Moving and disturbing documentary

[runamokprods · 8/10 · 21 January 2013]

Moving and disturbing documentary about the mysterious disappearance of Chicago film- maker Allen Ross – a frequent collaborator of Christian Bauer who directed this documentary about his search to find out what happened to his friend.

Sometimes feeling more like a good fictional detective story, the frustrating twists and turns, half-formed clues and occasional roadblocks encountered by those who loved Allen and just wanted some kind of closure are sometimes harrowing, and often sad.

There are times when the film can be hard to follow. Early on, time-lines are laid out oddly to help make the story build more dramatically. Some events are kept hidden from the audience for a time to help make later revelations more potent. It's not a fatal flaw by any means, but it does add a slight sense of manipulation (and occasional confusion) to the telling.

But this is certainly a powerfully personal document, sort of the dark counterpart to 2012's "Looking for Sugar Man", a compulsively fascinating story, well told. It's very sad that the DVD has gone out of print, and the film is basically impossible to get a hold of. It deserved a better fate.

Sad and creepy

[call1979 · 18 December 2003]

Somewhere around the mid-way point, this fascinating film moves off the beaten path into a dark area of America, one criss-crossed with secret roads and sinister people. Allen has been missing for 4.5 years, and a fellow documentary film-maker goes to find him. By the time the search leads to the basement of an Oklahoma monastery, and the discovery of an abandoned once-beloved car, the viewer realizes there will be no happy ending to this story. We find that Allen has been drawn into a sinister and sad world of cult theorists, and more and more creepy elements are brought forth to be revealed. An abandoned cabin in the mountain of Colorado provides further links; the approach and search of the house are terrifying in a way that it shouldn't be...after all, it's only a house, right? But the connections made to the apparent crime force the viewer to see everything through the lens of worst-case scenarios. The only sticking point? Why didn't we get to see any of Allen's unfinished films that he had been working on in Oklahoma?

*SPOILERS* A compelling story...

[dimmalimm · 10/10 · 5 May 2003]

that enlightens us on the wonders of the inquisitive mind. A story on why people become documentary directors/cameramen/producers... This is also a sad and terrifying story about Allen Ross, who in his short life moved many people and left a wide gap in everyones live. But most of all it is a story about a family, a family of friends that loved him and a father who go on a journey looking for answers. They do not give up. WHY DID ALLEN DISAPPEAR? WHERE DID HE DISAPPEAR TO? Along the way they discover some unpleasant facts.

A truly wonderful film, filled with blood, sweat and tears, driven by love, hate and grief.

Like H.W. Longfellow defines grief: "A feeling of sadness and longing, That is not akin to pain, And resembles sorrow only As the mist resembles the rain." (the day is done)

I have to say, as someone in the film did. Allen must have been an amazing person. I would have liked to have known him.

a moving tribute to a friend

[mizalaska · 23 May 2004]

*SPOILERS*

i have seen Christian bauer's documentary "missing allen - the man who became a camera" several time now, on late night arte TV, and each and every time, it absolutely captivated me again.

Christian bauer's longtime friend and colleague allen ross, a filmmaker from chicago, disappears without a trace not long after finishing filming a docu with bauer. 4 years later, bauer and other friends of allen's go on a search for him, taking cameras with them, trying to uncover what has happened to him, whether he's chosen to start a new life - which he had previously mentioned- or whether something else has happened. plainly speaking: whether allen has been killed.

with them, you visit places where allen has lived. you get to know allen's father, looking through allen's mail hoping to uncover anything. you are with them as they find some of his most precious belongings, including his camera, stored in a garage. you are with them as they find his beloved car. with them as they search a garbage dump after hearing claims he was buried there.

the story they finally uncover is frightening and bizarre. so bizarre that it would be unbelievable if this were a fictional movie.

but life writes the strangest stories of all.

this docu is extremely personal. the flimmakers let you get so close to themselves, to allen, to his friends, to his father. so close it hurts.

so close that by the end of it, you the viewer, too, miss allen and are sad about his loss, and wish you had known him. you feel the pain they feel, feel their need to escape from what has happened to allen. their sadness and need to escape is most obvious when bauer interviews a fellow photographer & friend of allen's on a rooftop. asking him whether he misses allen. and the photographer, camera in hand, visibly shaken and close to tears, keeps lifting up his camera, taking photos of the camera filming him, instead of replying.

bauer just says: "i, too, hide behind the camera."

sadness transcends the screen. just like the love and admiration his friends felt for him. i've never seen a greater tribute to an artist and friend before.

i wonder what allen would have said if he saw it.