Born Hye is a comedian from Armenia, by way of Africa. (Even though he's actually never been to Armenia, he claims the birth-land of his people with a zeal that would put to shame the most vigorous Armenian freedom fighter.) He believes that he will become a famous comic and he's doing whatever it takes to get to that place in his life.
Born Hye's real name is Sam Meneshian. He chose his aurally drug-referencing stage name due to how much time he spends toked. Unfortunately, because of the amount of time he spends high, he doesn't tend to learn from each stage show the way most comedians do, which leads to an act that never matures or improves. If his original act was amusing, it wouldn't be so bad, but, unfortunately, he's just not very good. Because Sam is honestly unaware of this fact and believes that he is truly hilarious, he tends to become the mascot of radio talk shows like KROQ's Kevin & Bean Show and TV shows like the Jimmy Kimmel show, where he's used as their impromptu court jester. But because he's so unpredictable and tends to annoy the audience, his attachment to these shows (and the temporary fame they afford) is quite short-lived.
Then he's back to trimming hair at a local barber shop and picking up gigs for himself as a clown and comedian or working gigs with his band. (Who seem like a traditional rock band, so their connection with the recorder-playing comic seems rather strange.) Despite the fact that Sam spends all of his tips on drugs (rather than investing in a computer so he could try to improve his chances of being discovered on the internet or investing in the household), his wife loves him. She doesn't really approve of most of what he does, but she clearly has chosen to love him no matter what.
The tale the directors tell through Born Hye is engaging, even as it is often painful. It manages to draw you in and entices you to strangely root for Mr. Meneshian, despite the fact that he sabotages himself more than Dustin Diamond after 'Saved By The Bell.' It's clear that Mr. Meneshian's biggest enemy to his success is his himself, but you feel a strange sort of empathetic sadness for him that he's so unaware of this. (Spending his tips on professional counseling would be a far quicker way for him to become a success than to spend it on the weed he currently does.)
With that said, despite the fact that the basic story is engaging, there were about five areas of Born Hye that could stand some major tweaks. Fortunately, because documentaries can be augmented after the fact (unless someone dies, of course!), all of these can still be captured and placed into the finished work. (If the filmmakers haven't read it over, a number of our writers here at MFM swear by the Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide as a great guide for creating and improving documentaries.)
The first question arises from the odd length of this documentary. While 69 minutes is technically a feature length film by our definition (and the definition of Sundance and other well-known festivals for documentaries), it's an awkward length. It's too long to be sold or viewed as an hour-long special on a TV channel like Comedy Central. It's too short to be considered a traditional feature to most film watchers. My recommendation would be either to see if the story could have a few more details added to bring it up to 80-90 minutes, or to streamline it a bit more to get it down to 45-47 minutes. My suggestion would actually be to augment it. (More on what augmentations I would make in my fourth and fifth point.)
