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Lesson 13:Lesson 13:DocumentaryDocumentary
Professor Aaron Baker
Nanook of the North Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1922)(Robert Flaherty, 1922)
Previous LecturePrevious Lecture
• Film Authorship• French Ideas of Auteurism
-Film as Art
-Director Unifies Film/Communicates Personality (World View)
-Uses Style and Theme
-Film Can Be Commercial and Meaningful
Mira NairMira Nair
• Global Auteur• Her Themes:
-Diasporic Indian Culture
-Gender Roles• Represented Through Mise-en-Scene (Color),
Sound (Music), and Characters Choosing Hybrid Identities, Strong Women Resisting Traditional Roles
• The Namesake (2006)
Today’s LectureToday’s Lecture
• Documentary
-Form
-History
-Economic Context• The New Documentary• Errol Morris, A Thin
Blue Line (1988)
4
Part I: Documentary FormPart I: Documentary Form
5
The River The River (Pare Lorentz, 1938)(Pare Lorentz, 1938)
Expectations Expectations
• Shows Reality• Voice Over• Interviews• Stock Images• Animation• Boring: Lack of
Drama, Excitement
6
Errol Morris:Errol Morris:
• “People think of documentary . . . as a species of the news, or journalism . . . about reality.”
7
All Films Have a PerspectiveAll Films Have a Perspective
• No Film Fully Objective
• Choices about Content, How to Interpret It
• Still Documentary makes “claims to truthfulness” – Pat Aufderheide
8
When the Levees Broke When the Levees Broke (Spike Lee 2006)(Spike Lee 2006)
A Certain Kind of ViewerA Certain Kind of Viewer
• Already Knowledgeable
• Interested in Learning More
• Willingness to Act As Citizen Based on Information Learned from Documentary
9
Wal-Mart: The High Cost Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (of Low Price (2005)2005)
Part II: History of Part II: History of DocumentaryDocumentary
10
• Documentary Popular from Origins of Cinema
• 1890s Lumiere Brothers• Actualities• Travelogues/ “Scenics”• Flaherty, Nanook of the
North (1922)• Cooper, Schoedsack
Grass (1925)11
From the BeginningFrom the Beginning
Clip # 1: The Lumieres’ Clip # 1: The Lumieres’ ActualiteActualite
• Workers Leaving Photographic Factory in Lyon, France
• 1895/First Film• 46 seconds• Louis Lumiere• Cinematographe
12
Flaherty: “Artistic Flaherty: “Artistic Representation of Actuality”Representation of Actuality”• Artistic License• Essential Truth• “A definition that has
proved durable because it is so flexible” --Aufderheide
13
Cinema VeriteCinema Verite
• Direct Cinema• Location, Handheld
Camera, Synch Sound
• Observation • Minimal Director
Involvement
14
Frederick Wiseman’s Frederick Wiseman’s High School High School (1968)(1968)
Political DocumentaryPolitical Documentary
• Harlan County 1976 Barbara Koppel
• Coal Miners’ Strike in Kentucky
• Their Own Words• 1976 Academy
Award
15
Fahrenheit 9/11, Fahrenheit 9/11, 2004 2004
• Negative Portrayal Pres. George W. Bush
• Claims
-Inept Handling 9/11
Attacks
-Ties to Saudi Royal
Family• Clip # 2
16
17
Angry, Controversial—Not Angry, Controversial—Not BoringBoring
• Fits New Documentary Style• Humor, Strong POV• Top Earner All Time for
Documentary
Propaganda?Propaganda?
18
• Eternal Jew (1940)
Anti Semitism• Olympia (1938)
Nazi Superiority• The River (1938)
Support for New Deal
Oppositional Viewpoints Oppositional Viewpoints
• Inform Public of Views Don’t Often Here
• Freedom of Speech• Question Authority• Instigate Reform
19
Emile de Antonio’s Emile de Antonio’s Point Point of Order of Order (1964)(1964)
20
Wal-Mart The High Cost of Wal-Mart The High Cost of Low PriceLow Price, 2005, 2005
• Filmmaker Robert Greenwald• DVD Distribution• Impact on Small Business, Employees• Sought Legislative Pushback
21
Reaction from Wal-MartReaction from Wal-Mart
• Attack Ads• Blogs• Mainstream Media
Coverage• Bill O’Reilly on Fox: “Greenwald . . . is a
ridiculous human being.”
22
An Inconvenient TruthAn Inconvenient Truth, 2006, 2006
• Filmmaker, Davis Guggenheim
• Presentation by Al Gore
• Global Warming• Information on
Climate Change and a Definite POV
Jim Hansen, NASA:Jim Hansen, NASA:
“Al Gore may have done for global warming what Silent Spring (1962 book)
did for pesticides. He will be attacked, but the public will have information.”
--Quoted in Auferdeide, 8.
23
Born Into Brothels, Born Into Brothels, 20042004
24
Original Plan: Show Original Plan: Show Prostitutes Prostitutes
• Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman
• Calcutta Red Light District
• “An inherently abusive place”--Briski
25
Their KidsTheir Kids
• Gave Cameras to Kids
• To “See this world through their eyes”
26
Their PerspectiveTheir Perspective
• How do we get the kids point of view in this clip?
• Clip # 3
27
Their Voices/ViewpointsTheir Voices/Viewpoints
• Kids are each introduced.
• Protagonists• We see them taking
pictures.• Briski’s Voice Over• Kids speak also.
28
But Filmmakers’s But Filmmakers’s InvolvementInvolvement
• Briski and Kauffman tried to help kids.
• Avijit to Amsterdam• Boarding School • Still Documentary?• Involvement Typical of
“New Documentary”• Academy Award
29
Token ImprovementToken Improvement
• Partha Banerjee• No Improvement for
Other Children• Social Context Too
Complicated
30
Awareness Through Awareness Through Documentary DiscourseDocumentary Discourse
• Paolo Freire, Brazilian Scholar, Activist
• Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968)
• Everyone can be a human rights educator
• Raise awareness through cultural discourse.
31
Part III: Economic ContextPart III: Economic Context
32
Not Commercial?Not Commercial?
• Documentaries Teach
• No Entertainment? • Too Serious?
33
Since 1990s, Popularity Since 1990s, Popularity GrowsGrows
Revenue in Millions:
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) $106.8
Bowling for Columbine (2002) $21.8
Super-Size Me (2004) $11.4
Winged Migration (2003) $10.8
Hoop Dreams (1994) $7.8
Spellbound (2003) $6.7
34
Less Costly to MakeLess Costly to Make
• Fictional Films Avg. $100 million (MPAA)
• Docs Cheaper• Still Require
Business Model• Must Reach
Audience• Broadcasters (PBS,
HBO)35
The Secret History The Secret History of the Credit Cardof the Credit CardFrontline Frontline Documentary on Documentary on PBSPBS
Reality TV, Not Reality TV, Not DocumentaryDocumentary
• Unscripted• Non Professionals
(Usually)• But Artificial
Situations• Emphasis on Drama• “Docusoaps”
36
TheThe Real World Real World MTV 1992MTV 1992
Sensationalism SellsSensationalism Sells
• Sex, violence, controversy sell.
• Aufderheide: Are Films with Those
Elements,
-Truthful?
-Informative?
-Challenge viewers to know more?
37
Fahrenheit 9/11Fahrenheit 9/11: Selling : Selling Working-Class Rage?Working-Class Rage?
“He was encouraging viewers to look critically at the government’s words and actions. Potentially weakening this encouragement, however, was his calculated performance of working class rage, which can lead viewers to see themselves not as social actors but merely as disempowered victims.”
Aufderheide, 7
38
Part IV: New Documentary Part IV: New Documentary and The Films of Errol and The Films of Errol
MorrisMorris
39
New DocumentaryNew Documentary
• Ross McElwee Sherman’s March 1986
• Errol Morris The Thin Blue Line 1988
• Reenactments• Stylized Form• Personal and Objective
40
Errol MorrisErrol Morris
• Eleven Films• 2004 Oscar for Fog
of War
As Interviewer:• Fewer Questions• Let Subjects Talk• Stream of
Conscious Interview
41
InterrotronInterrotron
• Like Teleprompter• Subjects Speak
Directly to Viewers• No Filmmaker
Presence• Clip # 4 Using
Interrotron from The Thin Blue Line
42
Film to VideoFilm to Video
• Changed from shooting film to HD Video
• Sony 24 P Camera• From 11 Mins. In
Film Magazine to Unlimited Shooting
• Marathon Interviews
43
The Thin Blue Line, The Thin Blue Line, 19881988
• Argued Randall Adams wrongly convicted for murder of a police officer in Dallas County, Texas
• Initially avoided documentary label for better marketing
44
Murder Case ReopenedMurder Case Reopened
• Adams served 11 years for murder.
• Chief witness, David Harris, confesses at end of Morris’s film.
• Adams’ conviction overturned. Thin Blue Line
45
David HarrisDavid Harris
• Harris Committed Another Murder the Weekend Scheduled for Morris Interview
• After Adams acquittal film called “documentary”
• Harris Executed in Texas in 2005
46
Worked as Private DetectiveWorked as Private Detective
47
• Has called himself a "detective director”• Spent 30 months investigating Adams case
for The Thin Blue Line.• "Adams told me he was innocent," Morris
remembered. . . , "but everybody in prison tells you they are innocent. It was only after I met David Harris that I began to suspect that the wrong man had been convicted of murder."
New Documentary New Documentary StylizationStylization
• Dramatic Reenactments
• Staged Shots• Slow Motion• Clip # 5
48
DreamscapesDreamscapes
“Part of what I love about documentary is this idea that you can reinvent the form every time you make one. And you can create visuals that are really strange. Oddly enough, that are severed from reality. They’re not reenactments, per se. . . . They’re dreamscapes that you’re creating to go with interview material.”
--Errol Morris
49
Critic Linda Williams: Critic Linda Williams:
• The Thin Blue Line upsets traditional opposition truth vs. fiction
• Morris’s film instead shows more important choice between which strategies of fiction to use to reach relative truths.
Linda Williams, " iMirrors without Memories," in Barry Grant and Jeannette Sloniowski (eds), Documenting the Documentary, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1998.
50
SummarySummary
• Documentary Informs Us About World
• But Always Presents A Perspective
• New Documentary • “Fictionalize to Reach
Truth”• Errol Morris, The Thin
Blue Line 198851
52
End of Lecture #13End of Lecture #13
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