Documentary Seminar

Today was the first seminar for the documentary project module. We first went through the module guide, looking at the content we would cover each week, the schedule for work submissions and the project briefs: to create a two-minute 'poetic documentary' and then a 5-10 minute film linked thematically to that. After re-introducing each of ourselves to the group we watched clips from a number of feature documentaries, each with their own different styles and subjects.

Touching the Void (2003)

We first watched a clip from near the end of 'Touching the Void', a documentary about two climbers who get into trouble while climbing the Andes. The film uses the conventional talking head interview setup and voice-overs to allow the climbers to tell their story, but for the most part the film is a dramatic reconstruction of the events using actors, which raised the question of whether it could still be considered a documentary.

Other notable features in the film were the use of varied and interesting shots, such as time-lapses, which clearly become available when reconstructing events like a conventional drama film. It also had an inventive sound design which added to the tone of fear and helplessness in the particular scene we watched.

Grizzly Man (2005)

'Grizzly Man' follows activist Timothy Treadwell as he documents his life alone with the grizzly bears in Alaska. With a mixture of interviews and extensive footage filmed by Treadwell himself, director Werner Herzog provides omnipotent voice-over throughout. Similar to 'Touching the Void', the choice for Herzog to provide his own interpretation and narrative of Treadwell's footage was controversial with some people, but from the clip we watched I felt that it added a layer of deeper understanding and coherence to the images.

Tarnation (2003)

The next film we watched was 'Tarnation' a documentary about director Jonathan Caouette's upbringing with his schizophrenic mother. We watched a clip from near the beginning of the film which told us about his mother's own upbringing, told entirely through old footage, photos and on-screen text. The length of this section and the amount of text to read made me feel bored and exhausted whilst watching it. I thought that the entire film was made in this format, but later on it makes use of a much wider range of media such as video diaries and answer machine messages.

The Alcohol Years (2000)

The last film that we watched was 'The Alcohol Years' by Carol Morley, a Mancunian who returns to the city after some years to find out about a period in her life she can no longer remember due to alcohol abuse. I was expecting the film's tone to be somber and serious, but was surprised to find it refreshingly upbeat and funny, with the film's many interview subjects and friends of Morley's giving their honest opinions of her at the time and telling stories about her too - creating a like-able and eccentric persona.

In the clip we watched the film was mainly structured around casual interviews with her friends but also abstract reconstructions of some of the stories they describe, with Morley also visiting some of the old clubs she went to in that time period.

After screening and discussing the films we began looking into the history of documentary film, in particular a brief overview of the different movements, how they originated and what they involved. 

First, we talked about early Soviet cinema involving such filmmakers as Dziga Vertov ('Man with a Movie Camera'). We looked at how the second Russian revolution had brought about the notion of the 'Art of Facts' as fiction film was too bourgeois, 'Kino Pravda' the cinema of truth, and the constructivist philosophy which was drawn to new technology and machinery. We watched a clip from 'Man with a Movie Camera', which displayed very advanced film-making techniques such as composites and montage.

The second movement we looked at was the British Movement in the 1930s/40s, led by John Grierson. Grierson defined documentary as the 'creative interpretation of actuality', and the movement believed that cinema has to fulfill a utilitarian purpose - educating people and allowing for social betterment. We were also given some examples of filmmakers part of the movement, such as Humphrey Jennings.

Lastly, we looked at Cinema Verité, the cinema of truth, a moment which began in the 1960s as a result of a number of advances in film technology. Lighter cameras and faster film stock allowed filmmakers to take cameras into new filming situations with less artificial lighting, and the separation of sound and video allowed for further experimentation. We looked at the various forms this movement took across the world, such as 'Candid Eye' in Canada and 'Free Cinema' in Britain - each with their own views on the level of intervention the filmmaker should have with their subjects.