Rob Munday
Set in the world’s only diamond-bearing site open to the public, on the surface Caitlyn Greene’s documentary The Diamond might seem like a story about folks looking to get rich quick, but once that top layer is turned over, it reveals a poignant film looking at something much more precious – the humans who spend their time at the Crater of Diamonds State Park. Over the film’s 16-minute duration you’ll hear stories of love, loss, war and devotion, as Greene uncovers the various emotional motivations behind the people who spend endless days hunting gems in the dirt.
The film was driven by genuine curiosity about the people in the field”
A meditative watch, it becomes clear early on in The Diamond that Greene’s focus isn’t so much on the precious stones buried deep underground, but the souls above them. “The film was driven by genuine curiosity about the people in the field, and the metaphor of the place and the search”, the director explains. And as we hear their stories, either directly to the camera or as voiceover, as viewers you’re both immersed in the story and free to let your mind roam, considering the implications of their words and what you would do in their situation.
As is often the case with character-focused documentaries, the success of this short relies on the way that Greene decides to frame her interviewees. Does she portray their stories with a humorous touch or capture them with empathy and compassion. In The Diamond, it’s certainly the latter, as the director brings the tales of these individuals to the screen with a sense of genuine interest and understanding. Greene states that she was motivated to unearth “what we could learn about life from the diamond miners” and while there is certainly some wisdom shared from these down-to-earth folks, it does also feel as if the interviews provide a little cathartic release for them, the camera almost leading them to therapy-like confessions.
“I was curious who I’d find there, what led them to search, and what was going on in their lives” – Greene on her attraction to the Crater of Diamonds State Park
This certainly appears to be the approach Greene was going for, with the director revealing that “most of the people in the field were passing through, so we only had one chance to film with them”. Describing the interviews as “cold calls”, the filmmaker admits to letting “the conversations meander quite a bit until folks revealed what was really occupying their minds”. As mentioned earlier, the State Park isn’t really the focus of the film, but Greene shoots it almost as if it’s another character in her film, Nick Perron-Siegel’s camera often feeling like its an extension of the hallowed dirt, down there at ground level as these hopeful people root around searching for diamonds, purpose and meaning.
Returning to our site for a second time, after being selected for S/W back in 2017 with August, The Diamond screened at a number of festivals in 2021, before being acquired by The New Yorker at the tail-end of the year. An Emmy Award-winning editor, Greene is currently working on her first feature-length documentary, which she describes as “a character-driven film set in Louisiana about the Mississippi River and the control of nature”.