What is a “Documentary” Film?
-Root: “document”
-“every documentary aims to present factual information about the world”
Types and Strategies
-Types Include…
-compilation film
-nature documentary
-portrait documentary
-Strategies include…
-voice-over narration
-interviews
-observational/ direct cinema
The Documentary vs. the Fiction Film
Documentary: “the creative treatment of actuality” (John Grierson)
– Tensionbetween“creative”and “actuality”
– Referential meaning in fiction films
– Distorted views of the world in
documentaries
* e.g., Nanook of the North
– Formal structures & stylistic techniques common to both fiction films and docs
A brief history
- 1895: Lumière brothers’ short films
(“actualités”) - 1910: newsreels
- 1922: Nanook of the North
- 1930s: John Grierson & “Classical Documentary”
– Grierson coined term “documentary” in 1926
– Also founded Canada’s National Film Board (NFB) in 1939
The Classical Documentary
- Rhetorical form – films with social purpose
- Aim: education, social change * Characteristics:
– Voice-over as structuring device - Authoritative“voiceof God”
- Filmedsubjectsare spoken for by the filmmakers
– Staged events and reconstructions common
1960s: “Observational” or “Direct” Cinema
- Technological developments:
– Portable, quiet, lightweight
cameras
– Zoom lenses
– Fast film stocks (for shooting in available light)
– Portable tape recorder synched with camera
Characteristics of Direct Cinema
Filmmaker as “fly on the wall”
Film as “a window someone peeps through” (D.A. Pennebaker)
– No argument
– No direction of subjects –
filmmaker doesn’t intervene
– No voice-over
– Long takes with relatively little editing
– Events unfold in real time
Types of Form in Documentary Cinema: Categorical & Rhetorical/ Categorical
Aim is to show
– Simple patterns
(categories) structure film
– Film as portrait
– e.g., Gap-Toothed Women
Types of form in Documentary Cinema: Rhetorical
Aim is to persuade
– Film as argument
Attributes of Rhetorical Form
i. addresses viewer openly
ii. subject usually a matter of debate (rather than generally accepted fact)
iii. film will often attempt to persuade viewer to make a choice that will affect his/her everyday life
iv. filmmaker will often appeal to our emotions
How do Rhetorical documentaries seek to persuade us? Types of Arguments: Arguments from the source
present filmmaker as trustworthy authority
How do Rhetorical documentaries seek to persuade us? Types of Arguments: Subject-centred arguments
-Filmmaker as lawyer, presenting verifiable evidence
– But may also appeal to contemporary assumptions, prejudices
How do Rhetorical documentaries seek to persuade us? Types of Arguments: Viewer-centred arguments
– Filmmaker as sermonizer
– Appeals to viewers’ emotions (e.g., patriotism, sentimentality)
The Trouble with “Truth”
- Documentary’s implicit truth claims – Voice-of-God narration: implicit
claim of authority
– Direct Cinema: implicit claim of non-interference - Can any filmmaker know/show “Truth”?
- Can any filmmaker be purely objective?
