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Our longing for answers and the limits of knowledge are at the heart of the haunting and elaborate documentary “This Much We Know.” Director L. Frances Henderson based this highly personal debut on John D’Agata’s acclaimed book “About a Mountain,” which deftly linked the suicide of a teenager in Las Vegas with the since-thwarted plans of the Department of Energy in use Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of that city, as a nuclear waste repository.
Henderson says in his poetic and philosophical narrative that he discovered the book while searching for answers to a friend’s suicide. This drew her to Las Vegas, where in 2002 16-year-old Levi Presley jumped to his death from a tower. That same year, Congress was pushing plans to bury waste beneath Yucca Mountain. Like many of the words, data sets, and facts here, Presley’s final act is researched.
Certainty and doubt are repeatedly juxtaposed. In one scene, the veteran Las Vegas coroner debunks Henderson’s somewhat hopeful theory of accidental suicide. In another, a confident engineer on the Yucca project is disconcerted by a quote Henderson reads to him stating that scientific truths can change.
“This Much We Know” begins with a frenetic reenactment of Presley’s final hours before a security guard approaches him. This kind of flashy filmmaking sets an ethically troubling tone that the film never quite shakes, even after Henderson gently interviews Presley’s parents and his friends. As eloquent as it may be, “This much we know” can also be exploitative.
This is what we know
Not qualified. Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes. On cinemas.