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Closely Watched Reality – Thoughts on TwoObservational Documentaries

24 May 2012 | Others | by David Zou

I’ve watched two documentaries recently,one is Hearts of Darkness:A Filmmaker’sApocalypse,which is considered to be one of the best making-of documentaries in any dvds/Blu-rays.The other is The Beatles:The First U.S. Visit,easily the best visual extensions of the greatest

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band ever.What interests me about these two films are the intimacy the camera brought me,theintimacy between me and the characters,the intimacy between me and the truth.So I looked it up onInternet,and found 6 documentary sub-genres:

1. Poetic documentaries

2.Expository documentaries

3.Observational documentaries

4.Participatory documentaries

5.Reflexive documentaries

6.Performative documentaries

These two documentaries I watched obviously belong to the Observational documentariescategory,because the description of this sub-genre reads like this:

“Observational documentaries attempt to simply and spontaneously observe lived lifewith a minimum of intervention. Filmmakers who worked in this sub-genre often saw thepoetic mode as too abstract and the expository mode as too didactic. The firstobservational docs date back to the 1960’s; the technological developments whichmade them possible include mobile lighweight cameras and portable sound recordingequipment for synchronized sound. Often, this mode of film eschewed voice-overcommentary, post-synchronized dialogue and music, or re-enactments. The filmsaimed for immediacy, intimacy, and revelation of individual human character in ordinarylife situations.”

Also I found Gimme Shelter in the examples,another great documentary about a famous band(TheRolling Stones) from Maysles Brothers,and the term “ synchronized sound” reminds of the scene inthe Beatles doc where the boys listened to their own voices with the recording equipment from thefilm crew,these two facts confirm that my categorization is correct.

After comparing the 6 kinds above,I found Observational documentaries is the one which respectsthe reality the most,or you can say it is the one which trusts there can be a certain sense ofabsolute truth under cameras.Actually it is the very definition of documentary of mine beforereading the post,of course I’ve seen or heard of famous ones like Joris Ivens’ Rain,Marker’s Sans

Soleil(Poetic documentaries),Vertov’s The Man with a Movie Camera(Participatory&Reflexivedocumentary), and Alain Resnais’ Night And Fog(Performative documentaries),but this is the firsttime I became fully aware that documentaries can be visually satisfying and highly skeptical ofrealism.Anyway,we are talking about Observational documentaries,so let’s go back to it.

10/4/2014 Closely Watched Reality – Thoughts on Two Observational Documentaries | Taste of Cinema

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Since Observational documentaries is the most satisfying kind for audiences who are lookingfor absolute truth,the making of them is not easy at all,especially when you are shootingcelebrities.Besides the equipment issue I’ve mentioned above,chance and access to get thecamera close enough to the central character are another two big factors here.

When we say something is rare,impossible to duplicate,that’s because it’s made purely bychance.Did Eleanor Coppola know his husband was gonna have so many problems during theshooting of Apocalypse Now before she shot anything? Did Maysles Brothers know The First U.S.Visit of Beatles would create so much heat before they decided to follow the young boys? Theanswers to both questions would probably be NO.Accidents like the temporary withdraw of militaryhelicopters by the Philippine government,as well as the sudden heart disease of MartinSheen,those things never occurred to the director’s mind.Before Beatles came to the U.S.,AlbertMaysles even did know who they were,let alone predicting what the trip means to American pop-culture history.These two documentaries are great,because the events are self-dramatic and sohuge,and the directors happened to captured those moments.

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Permission for the close intimacy plays another big part of these two doc’s success,if you want tobring intimacy to you audience with your camera,you have to be as near as the central character ofthe doc first.The one great thing Eleanor Coppola did is she married to Fransis Ford Coppola,andshe made the best of it.I’ve seen many making-of docs in dvds,the actual shooting set footage isnot rare at all,the rare thing about Hearts of Darkness is the camera was at the director’shome,shooting his anxiety and agony,it is such a real situation of an artist’s struggle.Also in theBeatles doc,Maysles Brother had the permission to shoot in Beatles’ room even the cars they werein,they were breathing the same air with the band and my feeling was almost as authentic as theirs.

So you know why I’m so into this sub-genre.Did it bring the truth of history to me? Yes,and No,Icould have read all these.It is the authentic state of human-being which fascinates me,I could reallyfeel the charm of these artists just like I had been there with them.I wish I could see more of thiskind but I knew it deep in my heart that it is more of the chance,than the director’s skill to makesuch films,so I will treasure these experiences and wish you could see them too.

What are your thoughts on Observational Documentaries or documentaries in general?And do you believe film camera can capture absolute realism?

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michaelgsmith • 2 years ago

David, this is a nice post but it reads like you are implying Eleanor Coppola directed Hearts of

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• Reply •

David, this is a nice post but it reads like you are implying Eleanor Coppola directed Hearts of

Darkness. While she of course shot all of the location footage, that footage was later heavily

edited by the film's true directors, Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper, who also shot a lot of

new footage for the movie. It is ultimately their perspective on the events that we are watching.

• Reply •

David Zou • 2 years ago michaelgsmith

Thanks for pointing out my mistake,Mike.I did notice the other two directors when I

looked it up on IMDB,but I just take it for granted that Eleanor shot all the footage and the

guys did the editing.The only point I wanted to make here is that Eleanor had the

privilege to shoot at home,where Coppola's most realistic state was exposed to the

camera,thus Observational Documentaries took effect,and it was great because of the

rare footage shot by Eleanor.

• Reply •

Steven Flores • 2 years ago

I had never seen either of those films but would Lost in La Mancha and Burden of Dreams

count as observational documentaries?

They're both interesting films about the making of a film and all of the trouble that happens.

Notably the former where Terry Gilliam was unable to create his dream project.

• Reply •

David Zou • 2 years ago Steven Flores

I have not seen either of them,Steven,though Burden of Dreams is on my watchlist,and I

might write a comparison between it and Hearts of Darkness.

Do they count as observational documentaries? I think it depends,if they are like

HOD,which consists of mainly actual shooting footage,YES.If they are like most of the

making-of docs I saw in dvds,are made of stills and interviews afterwards,then NO.

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10/4/2014 Closely Watched Reality – Thoughts on Two Observational Documentaries | Taste of Cinema

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?... #10 through #2 but, I have seen Happiness.

It was actually …

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