Documentary Editing

18Analyses of Two Short Documentaries

Skip (2011)

Directed and edited by Fielder Jewett

Skip is a nine-minute short film made in 2011 by Fielder Jewett, who was then an undergraduate student at Wesleyan University.¹ It is a funny and touching portrait of Alfie “Skip” Consavage, a self-described “big, dumb Polack” who wins the lottery one day after working for decades as a self-employed welder in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The editing builds an assured rhythm that oscillates between voice-over segments and verité segments at the same time that ...