Introduction to Documentary Response (Sean Strelow)

Before this reading, I was aware of some of the different forms of documentary, but I never thought about the social and economic conditions that prompted their creation until now. This was the most interesting aspect of it for me. It made me realize that all art is a reflection of the state of society at the time, even if it tries not to be. An example of this would be the film Nightcrawler, which I saw over break. Its story reflects the trend in American media to perpetuate a culture of fear, highlighting only the disturbing events that happen in order to get more views, but at the same time promoting a falsely afraid view of society. It also speaks to the obsession in modern society of watching things removed from them instead of actually a part of them, which is especially relevant now as people are more and more easily able to record things with smart phones and such.

I find the trend in films recently to make pseudo-documentaries, sparked by films like The Blair Witch Project and continued with the Paranormal Activity series, to be very interesting. It almost speaks to the power that people give to the camera, that if the camera operator is made present to us, as viewers, we will trust that the events in front of us actually happened, or at least, be entertained by the thought that they could have actually happened. I wonder if they comprise their own special category of documentary. If so, I would put Man with a Movie Camera, a film mentioned in the article, also in this category. The film purports to be a purely cinematic recording of the happenings in various Russian cities, but is clearly staged in the scenes where the cameraman becomes visible.

One of my favorite documentaries is Marwencol, a film about a man named Mark Hogancamp who, after being beaten into a coma by five thugs and unable to pay for therapy upon recovering, uses dolls to act out his own stories in a fictional Belgian town set in World War II. It’s an amazing story and one that uses both the participatory mode in the form of interviews and the performative mode in that it tries to align the viewer with Mark’s perspective. The following link shows the interview nature of the film, which reflects its participatory mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrM9TLw3hTU

morality in different modes of documentary

The issue of morality in documentary films is always an interesting one. I feel like there are two crucial elements to such a discussion. First, viewers are often under the impression that because a film is a documentary, it depicts reality. It is important to remember that no matter how observational or removed a documentary might seem from the subject matter, there is still always a point of view that is being suggested. This is usually done through the editing process: what does the filmmaker choose to include and exclude from the film; how does he order the shots and scenes; what music does he pick, and so on.

As you can see, I am generally skeptical of documentaries that claim they are unbiased and are simply portraying a subject. However, I do think that Capturing the Friedmans does a very good job of presenting the audience with two sides, and most significantly, of refusing to commit to one side or other. You can watch the trailer here:capturing the friedmans

Secondly, the issue of morality tends to come up when talking about the vulnerability of the subject. Questions of dignity and the way the filmmaker chooses to portray the subject often come up in observational and expository documentaries. A great example of a documentary that has caused some debate about whether or not the filmmakers were somewhat cruel in the way they the exposed the vulnerabilities and eccentricities of their subjects is Grey Gardens. The film feels invasive and it is clear that the subjects, a mother and a daughter, have come to rely on the filmmakers in an inappropriate a way, a way that makes it easy for the filmmakers to take advantage of the two women. The Cruise is another great example of this.

As a side note, here is an example of a totally heartbreaking participatory documentary: dear zachary
The filmmaker is very closely involved in the story, and so it makes the upsetting subject matter all the more compelling and difficult to watch.

Documentary Reading: Aisyah

     This reading touches upon documentary and six of its modes: poetic, expository, participatory, observational, reflexive and performative. Although this was something I learned last semester in the Intro to the Art of Film course, I still found the reading very interesting especially during the section titled, "Grouping the Many Voices of Documentary".

     After having read the first section of the reading, I now understand that the order presentation of the modes of documentaries corresponds roughly to their chronology of introduction, and not by  the "what's better than the other" concept. Generally, we invent/come up with new ways of doing things because the older ways have certain flaws or dissatisfaction in them that needed improving. However, this does not mean we completely disregard them. What the reading discussed was that a new mode carried a different set of emphases and implications that the previous mode did not ("What changes is the mode of representation, not the quality or ultimate status of the representation.") This is why a lot of documentary filmmakers nowadays choose to implement more than one type of mode into their videos, so that they could emphasise/tackle certain aspects of the topic that they are documenting.

     An example of a documentary that I can think of that uses more than one mode is Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. He uses some elements of expository mode, however the documentary is clearly constructed around his opinion which keeps the documentary mainly in the participatory mode.

intro to documentary - onnolee

We learned about documentary in my French cinema class as it pertains to the new wave, but focused more on aesthetic rather than how it related to other categories of documentary. In the terms of the article, we learned about poetic documentary, where plot isn't stretched and takes back seat to the mood of the film. In Cocteau's Le Testament d'Orphee, the filming style is treated as a documentary, where chracters (most notably Orpheus himself) occasionally speak directly to the camera. While many of these films also ended up with a fair amount of plot, utilization of the documentary was incredibly important for defining that particular facet of French cinema.

In a more modern sense, documentary is still changing the media we consume, especially when it comes to television. Shows like The Office and Parks and Recreation are utilizing a documentary format (and are incredibly successful for it), and using an unexpected style for an established kind of story have made those two shows in particular stand out. There are a whole lot of other shows that use a documentary format, most notably "reality" shows, but in the case of those documentary is expected - which I personally think is so they can make it seem more "true" since most people associate documentary with some notion of 'this is the truth.'

Also in the more modern sense, expository documentary itself is also changing. One of the biggest means for documentaries to be seen, PBS stations, are promoting more traditional drama-based shows (coughcoughDowntonAbbeycough) to the detriment of documentary filmmakers, even for their highly successful Frontline series, and as a result modern expository documentarians have to compete even more for airtime.

Danielle Rennalls: Intro to documentary

Indiana University Press’ article on “Introduction to Documentary” reveals aspects of documentary film that I never knew existed. I find it rather interesting that most people (including myself) tend to have a mentality that all things are essentially molds that result from a unique cookie cutter, creating no room for diverging. We tend to think things are cut and dry and that they essentially take on one single form. However, this article and many others like it prove that our generalization is due to our lack of knowledge and understanding in certain areas.

Before reading “Introduction to Documentary” I believed documentaries basically involved a filmmaker following his/her subjects on a daily basis in order to obtain the story he or she wants to share with the rest of the world. My lack of knowledge led me to believe that documentaries had to incorporate big, interesting stories that no one ever heard of before. I never thought that the regular daily news was classified as documentary film, furthermore that documentaries consisted of six subdivisions (moods) including poetic, expository, participatory, observational, reflexive, and performative.

Poetic and expository documentary are essentially the types of documentary that I defined documentary as a hole to be, before reading this article. As stated in the article, poetic and expository documentary “…often [involved] the specific act of filming people to construct formal patterns or persuasive arguments. The filmmaker gathered the necessary raw materials and then fashioned a mediation perspective or argument for them.” (109) Nevertheless, the mode that I found most interesting of the six was observational. I like the fact that the filmmaker essentially has no control over his environment and he/she basically goes with the flow observing his/her subjects not knowing what could take place at any given moment. I personally feel this is what true documentary should incorporate.

I really enjoyed the fact that I was able to learn about different aspects of documentaries and become exposed to their elements. This article is a true definition of the saying “the more you know.”

Observational Documentary:

https://vimeo.com/89250470

https://vimeo.com/109664523

Expository Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONTBSDqb7u0&list=PL4CE93F5B4A071161

Christian Cieri - Intro to Documentary

I found this reading kind of interesting because I never really gave much though to documentaries. I honestly thought they were all the same; find a topic you want to document, create it, and that’s all there is to it. But there is so much more, and the fact that there are genres of documentaries astounds me because it’s something I’ve never considered before. The fact that this reading talks about six different forms of documentaries astounds me, because honestly they all seem the same. But even though the reading does try to differentiate between genres, I couldn’t help but think they’re basically all the same. True, they have different styles and feels, but eventually a documentary is, in my mind, no different then any other. Still, I can understand the classifications enough; documentaries are just something I am so unfamiliar with that I would never think that they involve so much more.

As I was reading the selection, I did start to think about the nature of a documentary, and how they’re used in media nowadays. Most horror films that I’ve seen (which is not many because I dislike the horror genre and being scared in general) have always been shown in the “found footage” format, where most of the action is derived from the main character’s camera. These feel like documentaries because of this format, but they are clearly not. The media has also grown into television as well, with many television shows adopting the “documentary” format such as “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation”. While it wasn’t the aim of the reading, the selection really opened my mind to how much the documentary style has invaded the film and television mediums, and influenced some of the most well known shows and movies of our time. To show an example of how documentaries have influenced other mediums, here is a clip from “Parks and Recreation” because I just love this show so much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwGat4i8pJI

You can see how the documentary format has influenced the make up of the show: the camera is constantly moving as if it is filmed by a documentary crew always on the go, characters have monologues commenting on what’s going on so they are aware of their audience, and they will even acknowledge the camera at times, so they know the cameras are there.

Intro to Documentary- Karina Banda

In Introductory to Documentary Chapter 6, the author introduces us to the 6 types (modes) of documentary: poetic, expository, participatory, observational, reflexive and performative. The two that I am most familiar with even before I read up on documentaries are the expository and participatory modes of documentary. Expository is probably the single most that everyone has been exposed to because of news stories and documentaries on history we are forced to watch in elementary school. Participatory is another type of documentary that is well known because it is a very popular type of way to shoot documentaries now because it is very easy to document while being fully immersed in a culture because cameras are very portable now. The most recent participatory video I can think of that I have watched is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Yd7M3JNlw, of a story of a guy tripping on hallucinogenic frogs. Although it may seem expository at first, the author of Intro to Documentary has pointed out that:  “A film identified with a given mode need not be so entirely… the characteristics of a given mode function as a dominant in a given film: they give structure to the overall film, but they do not dictate or determine every aspect of its organization (100)”. It uses expository to describe things at some parts but the way he has fully immersed himself with these people and their customs is more important I feel and gives it the participatory mode as its dominant.

One mode that I was really surprised to learn about though was the poetic mode. “This mode stresses mood, tone and affect much more than displays of knowledge or acts of persuasion” (103). I would never take things like Rain by Joris Ivens (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_MXa9enUfE) or Play of Shadows by Laslo Moholy (http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/1) as being documentary. I took them as being video art but it never occurred to me that video art could work as documentary. Although now in hindsight, it seems fairly obvious that it is documentary because it is documenting things that are real. This made me also go back and realize that the music festival after movies that I always watch can also be classified as poetic documentaries, for example last years Electric Zoo after movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1KMuHRWnBA. Although there is an observational mode present in these types of videos, as they are recording live experiences spontaneously, the dominant mode is still poetic. It is not observational as there is an obvious editor that constructs it in such a way to create a “euphoric” sense of place rather than just simply observing what happens in front of the camera.  They make sure to record the happy people jumping, they play a slow-mo of hair flipping in the wind, and record the hottest people. The viewer is not asked to take a more active role in determining the significance of what is being shown because it is very obvious in what direction the filmmakers wanted to take the video in. There is also an element of performance documentary as there is a lyrical poem spoken throughout it adding to the euphoric feeling of the video but the voice does not dominate the images you see. The video stresses more the mode and affect that this festival is supposed to bring to people.  

Intro to Documentary Response - Lauren

I found “Intro to Documentary” very interesting because I’ve never taken the time to think of the different types of sub-genres of documentary. The ones I found most fascinating were the observatory and participatory modes, partially because they are categorized so similarly. The observatory mode is when the filmmaker simply watches his/her environment unfold around them, being as un-intrusive as possible; participatory mode on the other hand is when the filmmaker emerges themselves in their environment, demonstrating any outstanding difficulties. The first thing I thought of when reading about participatory mode was the show 30 Days where the host or another person emerges themselves in an alternative lifestyle for 30 days to better understand a struggle or to prove a point. (This show can be found on Netflix by the way). One episode involves the host, Morgan Spurlock (the same guy from Supersize Me), to be put in jail for 30 days where he gains a better understanding for the maltreatment of the prisoners and how messed up the judicial system in the U.S. is. In another episode a mother decides to binge drink for 30 days to prove to her 19 year old daughter in college how dangerous it can be. This show and other similar styled documentaries are targeted towards proving a point and show the public another viewpoint which they may not have expected. One thing the article mentioned was the evolution between the different modes. For example the observatory mode came to be from the progression of video and sound technology: smaller cameras were developed and there was no longer a separate device to capture sounds. If we were to think about the development of documentary even further, up to present day, how would we categorize reality television and news reports? Depending on how reality TV is viewed and what show we are focused on, that particular genre could fall into any one of the six different modes. Alongside this argument, we could also make a similar one for news reports. Would they be categorized similarly to reality TV, or does it fall into its own category?