Documentary - Week 2
Direct Cinema vs Cinéma Vérité Direct Cinema: a sub-genre of documentary where the filmmaker observers and records the events that they show in their film without attempting to interfere in any way. Cinéma Vérité: unlike Direct Cinema, the filmmaker actively participates in the film as a subjective observer when he feels necessary.
Titicut Follies (1967) Directed by Frederick Wiseman Synopsis: In his documentary that was banned for 20 years, filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater where people stay trapped in their madness.
The observational mode the documentary uses, with the camera not being acknowledged, allows the audience an authentic experience as an outside observer, distant to the horror happening to the people in the institution.
The Thin Blue Line (1988) Directed by Errol Morris Synopsis: A film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas. (IMDB)
The film's purpose is to analyze and persuade. It analyzes the case in depth and the misconduct that got an innocent man in prison and aims to persuade the audience that he is in fact innocent (the ending shows what is Errol Morris' interpretation of the events). He aimed to demonstrate that the audience was willing to accept Adams' innocence as easily as the jurors were to accept his guilt. [1] Errol Morris uses narration, interviews and reconstruction. His use of reconstruction in this film introduced the audience to the technique in a documentary, thought initially criticized as being insensitive to the victims' families. Through the use of reenactments, Morris not only lent a clarity otherwise unavailable to particular details of what happened that night, but also allowed himself to delve deeper into the horrific event. It was his own personal brand of time travel. Of course, there were detractors; this was not only a gimmick, but insulting to those affected by the murder. [2] The music helps convey the emotions of the people being interviewed to the audience and create tense mood when needed (the reconstructions). Morris uses reconstruction to fill in the gaps in the story for the audience and help them visualize the events that transpired and builds the narrative through interviews with people involved in the case, letting them tell the story how they remember it instead of using "Voice of God" narration a lot of documentaries use.
Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary I found out that unlike Nick Broomfield, Errol Morris believes that reconstruction helps build the narrative, that truth is subjective. Unlike other filmmakers like Werner Herzog, in whose films some elements are fictionalized to impact the narrative (ie. Little Dieter Needs to Fly), while Errol Morris does not expand on the stories in his reconstruction and simply shows what happened according to the subjects. After watching the whole film and finding out the different ways different filmmakers approach their films, I was surprised that there's really nothing that can be said to be an essential part of a documentary. While some of the interviewees strongly believed that it's unacceptable for the director to star in their film (ie. Nettie Wild, Kim Longinotto), others believed that the relationship the filmmaker builds with the subjects is essential to the film (ie. Nick Broomfield, Alanis Obomsawin). The subject of music was also greatly divisive for the interviewees with some believe that music distracts from the images, that it overpowers the narrative and it influences the audience's emotions instead of letting them make conclusions of their own and that the music should not tell the audience how to feel. Others (ie. Errol Morris) believed that the music helps the narrative. The way Capturing Reality was edited really showcased the greatly contrasting opinion of the filmmakers on different practices. As Barry Stevens points out in Werner Herzog's Little Dieter Needs to Fly, a dramatization, a completely fictional moment, can be very powerful and have a very strong impact on the audience.
I would consider using reconstruction, as in my experience watching documentaries, a visualization of the events helps me follow the story more closely. As long as it's actually reconstruction of events, following the stories of the interviewees closely and not a dramatization, I think that reconstruction is a very useful technique that, if I was a documentary filmmaker, I would utilize.
[1] Flores, Lucien J. ""The Thin Blue Line" And The Ambiguous Truth". Inquiries Journal. N.p., 2017. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.
[2] Green, Gary. "Thin Blue Lines And Beyond Edges: How The ‘Dramatic Reconstruction’ Changed Documentaries Forever". HeyUGuys. N.p., 2017. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.
