Documentary - Weeks 3&4
Documentary Disciplines - treatment: a short story narrative written in simple, non-technical language (ie. no camera angles, transitions, etc.). - proposal: frequently includes a treatment, is a thorough description of all aspects of a project. It is created in the pre-production stage of a documentary project to persuade funders, distributors and others to support the project.
Back on Road
We had an interview with the filmmaker, learning about the process she went through to be allowed to film at HMP & YOI Doncaster.
Documentary Disciplines
The article talks at length about the renaissance the documentary medium is going through currently. It touches on the subject of American xenophobia and the way many foreign-language films are not accesible in North America because the English speaking public rejects subtitles. Because of this foreign film are sparse and foreign documentary even sparser.
Scorsese on Documentaries
Nick Broomfield Nicholas "Nick" Broomfield is an English documentary filmmaker. His self-reflexive style has been highly influential, and was adapted by many later filmmakers. Nick was originally influenced by the observational style of Fred Wiseman,and Robert Leacock and Pennebaker, before moving on largely by accident to the more idiosyncratic style for which he is better known. Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003) Synopsis: Nick Broomfield's second documentary on Aileen Carol Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was executed in 2002 for killing six men in the state of Florida. This second installment includes the filmmaker's testimony at Wournous's trial. [x]
The story for me was quite shocking and I'm having trouble making up my mind about whether or not she killed in self-defense even at least the first victim. The film, as the title suggests, focused on her upbringing and what lead her to commit the crimes but does not offer a motive. Her insistence that she killed in self-defense when she believed she was not being filmed during the prison interview made me change my mind halfway through the movie after I was already believing that she killed them in cold blood and not self-defense. Just like Making a Murderer, I feel like the film aimed to confuse the audience and make them think more subjectively about the case instead of defending her because they sympathize with her or thinking she's guilty because of the biased prosecution and her family who seeked to sensationalize her case.
Kurt & Courtney (1998) Synopsis: A documentary on the life of Kurt Cobain and his relationship with Courtney Love. [x]
Just like Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, Kurt & Courtney has an inconclusive ending. Broomfield starts, and reasonable so, to doubt the sincerity of his subjects in the third act of the film. I believe that some of them, Amy and the nanny particular, lied to Broomfield to get themselves on the film. Watching Nick interview Amy, I got the feeling that she made up her story for publicity (her make up was also eerie similar to that of Courtney Love).
