Ivan Kander
If there was ever an event worthy of surreal, Lynchian documentary coverage, it’s New York City’s SantaCon. It’s a yearly occasion that feels like the result of some eggnog induced fever dream—parades of drunk men and women storming the streets of Manhattan adorned in Santa costumes, traveling from bar to bar, puking, fighting, and hooking up in equal measure.
Acclaimed director Austin Peters sends us down this red and white trimmed rabbit hole, compiling “man-on-the-street” style interviews and vérité footage in a weird, yet compelling head trip. What it lacks in depth, Santacon more than makes up for in engagement—it’s eminently watchable. Consider it counter-programming to the holiday syrup that’s currently playing nonstop on the Hallmark channel.
Through abstract techniques that feel observational, yet creepy, Peters crafts a fascinating cultural artifact—an anthropological documentary that shows humans at their rawest and most festive. It’s like watching an episode of the Jersey Shore, except all the characters are dressed-up as as a seasonal mythological figure (insert “The Situation” joke here).
If you look past all the debauchery, there’s something to admire about the SantaCon event itself. After all, isn’t it kind of beautiful to see people from all walks of life coming together to drink and be merry? Admittedly, though, Peters’s film isn’t so much a celebration of community as it is a dark, weird window into humanity, accompanied by a delightfully disturbing soundtrack of slowed-down Christmas carols.
As Peters relates via e-mail, “I saw something happening every year in my neighborhood that blew my mind…almost everyone I knew did everything they could to avoid it and that made me want to make a film to document it and try to understand it. Every year I would think ‘I should really film this’ and then finally one year I did.”
If you have ever been the sober person amongst a sea of drunk people, it can be a somewhat surreal and depressing experience—watching slowly as people transform into their loudest, worst selves. SantaCon is like an 8-minute, visual reminder of that feeling. Merry Christmas, indeed!
Peters is currently finishing his feature documentary, Give Me Future—a film about youth culture and the Major Lazer concert in Havana, Cuba. The doc will premiere next Month at the Sundance Film Festival.