TFE Ch 8, Documentary Films PDF

CHAPTER EIGHT Documentary Films: Representing the Real Key Objectives Recognize that documentary films are best distinguished as cultural practices. Describe how documentary films employ nonfictional and non-narrative images and forms. Identify how documentary movies make and draw on specific histor...

CHAPTER EIGHT Documentary Films: Representing the Real Key Objectives Recognize that documentary films are best distinguished as cultural practices. Describe how documentary films employ nonfictional and non-narrative images and forms. Identify how documentary movies make and draw on specific historical heritages. Explain the common formal strategies and organizations used in documentary films. Summarize how documentary films have become associated with cultural values and traditions from which we develop filmic meaning. A Short History of Documentary Cinema (1 of 6) A Prehistory of Documentaries: The following practices were all precursors to documentary film: – – – – – – – Sermons, political speeches, academic lectures Maps, photographs, paintings Folk songs and symphonies Written letters, diaries, scientific treatises Essays Print journalism Photography and photojournalism A Short History of Documentary Cinema (2 of 6) 1895‒1905: Early Actualities, Scenics, and Topicals – Actualities: nonfiction films of continuous footage featuring real people and events. – Scenics: nonfiction films that presented exotic images of nature or foreign lands. – Topicals: early films that portrayed or re-created historical or newsworthy events, such as the SpanishAmerican War in 1898. A Short History of Documentary Cinema (3 of 6) The 1920s: Robert Flaherty and the Soviet Documentaries – Robert Flaherty is often called “the father of documentary cinema.” His popular works, including Nanook of the North (1922), blended fascination with nature and an anthropological desire to record other civilizations. – Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s began filming documentaries with strong ideological messages. Montages were a key feature of these films. A Short History of Documentary Cinema (4 of 6) 1930‒1945: The Politics and Propaganda of Documentary – The introduction of optical sound recording revolutionized documentary cinema by allowing spoken commentary to accompany the images. – Documentary films in this period were often funded by government institutions. This led to propaganda films like the German Triumph of the Will (1935) and the U.S. film Japanese Relocation (1943). A Short History of Documentary Cinema (5 of 6) 1950s‒1970s: New Technologies and the Arrival of Television – The invention of lightweight cameras led to the cinéma vérité movement, which focused on filming real-life situations. – Documentaries aimed at a new television audience became very popular during this period, merging older documentary traditions with television news reporting. – Direct cinema: documentary style originating in the United States in the 1960s that aims to capture unfolding events as unobtrusively as possible. A Short History of Documentary Cinema (6 of 6) 1980s‒Present: Digital Cinema, Cable, and Reality TV – Activist videos: confrontational political documentaries that use low-cost video equipment – Documentary shooting ratio increased exponentially, leading to the growth of personal documentaries. – New distribution and exhibition methods include the growing video rental market, new cable and satellite TV networks, and film festivals. All of these factors increased the availability and popularity of documentary films. The Elements of Documentary Films (1 of 3) Nonfiction and Non-Narrative – Nonfiction films: documentaries that present supposedly factual descriptions of real events, people, or places. – Non-narrative films: documentaries that do not use stories or narratives. Instead they employ other organizational structures like lists, repetition, or contrasts. The Elements of Documentary Films (2 of 3) Expositions: Organizations That Show or Describe A documentary can employ various organizational strategies to deliver its message, including: – Cumulative organizations: present a catalog of images or sounds throughout the film – Contrastive organizations: present a series of contrasts that indicate different points of view – Developmental organizations: places or experiences are presented through a pattern that has non-narrative logic but follows a logic of progression The Elements of Documentary Films (3 of 3) Rhetorical Positions – Explorative positions assume the perspective of a traveler or investigator who encounters unfamiliar places, facts, or experiences. – Interrogative positions commonly include interviews or a voiceover asking questions about the film’s subject. – Persuasive positions employ facts, interviews, or images to convince the audience. – Reflexive and performative positions call attention to the filmmaking process itself. Thinking about Documentary Films (1 of 3) – Documentaries offer different kinds of truth from narrative movies. Often they reveal new or ignored realities that have been excluded from our social experience or from our experiences of narrative films. – The relationship between documentary films and the cultural and historical expectations of viewers thus plays a large part in how these movies are understood. Thinking about Documentary Films (2 of 3) Confronting Assumptions – Documentaries achieve fresh insight by:  Questioning the basic terms of narratives  Drawing on perspectives or techniques that are out of place in a narrative movie Altering Opinions – Some documentaries are openly polemical when presenting a subject.  They may confront viewers’ assumptions or attempt to alter currently held opinions about the person or event.  Other films may ask us to rethink a moment in history or our feelings about what once seemed like a simple exercise. Thinking about Documentary Films (3 of 3) Interpretive Contexts and Traditions – Social documentaries emphasize the political and historical significance of certain events and figures.  Political documentaries aim to investigate and celebrate the political activities and political issues.  Indigenous cinema involves direct representation of native cultures and their ability to assert power through the control of image.  Historical documentaries concentrate on recovering and representing events or figures in history. – Ethnographic documentaries show peoples, places, or cultures that have been marginalized by the mainstream. – Personal documentaries (a.k.a. subjective documentaries) are similar to autobiographies, showing personal events in the subject’s life.