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Dawn Dusk review – handbag designer deals with grief over murdered sister and dead friend

Not long out of high school, Chelli is finding her way through awful grief for her best friend, and for her sister, but this documentary loses sight of its subjectChicago-based Chelli Look, the subject at the centre of this diffuse documentary, seems like a nice person, with a talent for designing and making minimalist leather handbags. Not long out of high school, the best friend with whom she planned to start a business died in a car accident. Then her elder sister, Megan Henneberg, was murdered in 2007 by her husband Brian, leaving Chelli, her parents, siblings and extended family to deal with the harrowing loss.And yet, no matter how much sympathy you might feel for Chelli and her family’s trauma, or interest you might have in her bagmaking skills, or engagement with her as a person, somehow those core components don’t coalesce to make this feature-length documentary feel vital or even especially necessary. A self-described introvert, Chelli herself is a pretty opaque figure although she speaks quite expressively and intelligently about her approach to design. We only get tiny glimpses of her home life with husband David, so she’s not really developed as a “character” sufficiently to carry the film. Continue reading...

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