documentary film
I don't know how to play chess, but to me, life is like a game of chess.
~ Thierry Guetta, Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
documentary film
!  A documentary is a representation of the historical world.
!  Documentary films aim to present the spectator with factual
information about the world we occupy.
!  In general, documentaries seek to make a rhetorical argument.
They are constructed to convince, persuade, or predispose the
spectator to a particular view of the historical world.
Cartoonist Robert Crumb in Crumb (1993)
Olympic tragedy in One Day in September (1999)
documentary film
!  A documentary is a representation of the historical world.
!  Documentary films aim to present the spectator with factual
information about the world we occupy.
!  In general, documentaries seek to make a rhetorical argument.
They are constructed to convince, persuade, or predispose the
spectator to a particular view of the historical world.
Bowling for Columbine (2002)
The Corporation (2003)
Into the Arms of Strangers (2000)
Source arguments
Subject-centered arguments
Viewer-centered arguments
documentary film
!  There are six modes of documentary representation:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Poetic
Expository
Observational
Participatory
Reflexive
Performative
Mark Hogancamp in Marwencol (2010)
!  These modes establish a loose framework within which
documentary filmmakers may work.
!  The characteristics of a given mode provide structure
to the overall film, but they do not dictate every aspect
of its organization.
documentary film
The Poetic Mode
!  The poetic mode stresses the lyrical, rhythmic, and emotional
aspect of the historical world (sharing common ground with the
avant-garde).
!  This mode sacrifices filmic conventions like continuity editing and
a situated time and space, to explore associations between images,
objects and patterns.
Reflections in Spiegel van Holland (1950)
Culture vs. industry in Song of Ceylon (1934)
documentary film
Regen
Directed by
Joris Ivens
Writtend by
Mannus Franken
& Joris Ivens
Independent,
(1929) 12 mins.
documentary film
The Expository Mode
!  The expository mode addresses the spectator directly, with titles or
voices that propose a perspective, advance an argument, or recount
history. This mode of direct address is called a voice-of-God narration.
!  Editing in the expository mode serves to maintain the continuity of the
spoken argument/perspective. This is called evidentiary editing.
Morgan Freeman’s narration in March of the Penguins (2005)
!  Expository documentary facilitates generalization, large-scale
argumentation, and often display a sense of bias towards their subject
matter.
documentary film
The Expository Mode
!  The expository mode addresses the spectator directly, with titles or
voices that propose a perspective, advance an argument, or recount
history. This mode of direct address is called a voice-of-God narration.
!  Editing in the expository mode serves to maintain the continuity of the
spoken argument/perspective. This is called evidentiary editing.
Nazi propaganda in Triumph des willens (1935)
Georges Franju’s Le sang des bêtes (1949)
!  Expository documentary facilitates generalization, large-scale
argumentation, and often display a sense of bias towards their subject
matter.
documentary film
Why We Fight: Prelude to War
Directed by
Frank Capra
Written by
Philip & Julian
Epstein
War Activities,
(1942) 53 mins.
documentary film
The Observational Mode
!  Observational films attempt to observe aspects of the historical
world as they happen.
!  These films typically have no voice-over commentary, no
supplementary music or sound, no intertitles, no historical
reenactments, no behavior repeated for the camera, and no
interviews.
Hand-held cameras in Primary (1960)
Long-takes in Titicut Follies (1967)
documentary film
The Observational Mode
!  In observational documentary, the social actors engage
with one another as if the filmmakers were not there.
!  This requires the spectator to take a much more active role
in determining the significance of what is said and done
on-screen.
1) We develop a stronger sense
of identification with social
actors.
2) Unlike fiction films, we realize
these are real people, and take
greater care in forming
assumptions about them.
Meredith Hunter in Gimme Shelter (1970)
documentary film
Salesman
Directed by
Albert & David
Maysles
Maysles Films,
(1968) 85 mins.
documentary film
!  In general, documentaries raise a number of different
questions about its subjects/subject matter:
1. Is documentary voyeuristic?
2. Do people conduct themselves differently when a camera
crew is filming?
3. When does a filmmaker have the right to intervene?
Coppola’s depression in Hearts of Darkness (1991)
Harry Altman in Spellbound (2002)
documentary film
!  In general, documentaries raise a number of different
questions about its subjects/subject matter:
1. Is documentary voyeuristic?
2. Do people conduct themselves differently when a camera
crew is filming?
3. When does a filmmaker have the right to intervene?
Little Edie Beale performs to the camera in Grey Gardens (1975)
documentary film
!  In general, documentaries raise a number of different
questions about its subjects/subject matter:
1. Is documentary voyeuristic?
2. Do people conduct themselves differently when a camera
crew is filming?
3. When does a filmmaker have the right to intervene?
Arthur Agee’s father in Hoop Dreams (1994)
The hunting knife in Paradise Lost (1996)
documentary film
The Participatory Mode
!  Participatory documentary calls for some form of participation from
the filmmaker, in addition to the social actors.
!  These films give us a sense of what it is like for the filmmaker to be in a
given situation, and how that situation alters as a result.
!  Participatory documentaries also make use of the interview, allowing
the filmmaker to address people who appear in the film formally,
rather than address the audience through voice-over commentary.
Miners’ strike in Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)
On-scene interviews in Roger & Me (1989)
documentary film
Fast, Cheap & Out of Control
Directed by
Errol Morris
American Playhouse,
(1997) 80 mins.
documentary film
The Reflexive Mode
!  Unlike the previous four modes, the reflexive mode positions the
spectator as the focus of attention.
!  These films set out to readjust the assumptions and expectations of its
audience, not add new knowledge to existing categories.
!  The reflexive mode relies on techniques that attempt to jar us, and
sever our engagement with the film so that we are forced to think
about filmmaking as a construct.
Participatory style in …no lies (1974)
Interviews in Surname Viet, Given Name Nam (1980)
documentary film
Las Hurdes
Directed by
Luis Buñuel
Written by
Luis Buñuel &
Raphael Sánchez
Ventura
Independent,
(1933) 30 mins.
documentary film
The Reflexive Mode
!  Las Hurdes uses documentary techniques to call into question the
ethics of certain forms of documentary filmmaking that we as
spectators tend to accept.
The film manipulates our perception of the Hurdanos with its narration.
!  The expository style (evidentiary editing, voice-of-god) lends
credibility to the notion that we are seeing an attempt to document a
trip to a small mountain town.
!  We are jarred from the story as the narrator begins to abuse this trust.
documentary film
The Reflexive Mode
!  Las Hurdes uses documentary techniques to call into question the
ethics of certain forms of documentary filmmaking that we as
spectators tend to accept.
The gunshot causes us to question the validity of the images.
!  The images in the film seem to be subordinate to the voice-over.
!  The scene with the goat, however, is an example of how these
images are subverted in the film.
documentary film
The Reflexive Mode
!  Las Hurdes uses documentary techniques to call into question the
ethics of certain forms of documentary filmmaking that we as
spectators tend to accept.
The gunshot causes us to question the validity of the images.
!  The images in the film seem to be subordinate to the voice-over.
!  The scene with the goat, however, is an example of how these
images are subverted in the film.
documentary film
The Performative Mode
!  Performative documentary stresses the emotional complexity of
experience from the perspective of the filmmaker.
!  These films primarily address the spectator through tones and moods,
more so than arguments and evidence, and call for an emotional
responsiveness from us that acknowledges an understanding of the
event, more so than asking us to gain knowledge from it.
Poetry, dance, and song in Tongues Untied (1990)
Reenactments in Bontoc Eulogy (1995)
documentary film
I Am A Sex Addict
Written & Directed by
Caveh Zahedi
IFC Films,
(2005) 98 mins.