Journal Issue 4.1
Spring-Summer 2012
Edited by Agatha Beins, Jillian Hernandez, and Deanna Utroske
Editorial Assistant: A.J. Barks
Editorial Intern: Vera Hinsey

Documentary Production & Documentary Problems
continued

By Shara K. Lange

   Documentaries, along with their step-cousins (inexpensively produced reality TV programming) represent fantastic opportunities to discuss our attraction to "the real" and the fact that films and television are constructions (things that someone has made) that warrant a viewer's suspicion. To help examine truth claims along with the screenings and the readings, the following could be helpful in a classroom setting:
--What is a documentary? Have the class discuss different definitions by various authors (e.g., Barry Hampe, Michael Rabiger) and filmmakers (e.g., John Grierson, Werner Herzog).
--Read and discuss Werner Herzog's piece "Minnesota Declaration: Truth and Fact in Documentary Cinema" and compare it to the essay by Bill Nichols, "What to Do about Documentary Distortion? Toward a Code of Ethics." What responsibility does a filmmaker have to his/her audience?
--Discuss the various techniques that filmmakers use to construct films including recording and performing voiceover narration, scripting and directing reenactments, and the employment of continuity editing, as well as the multiple possible uses of interviews, graphics/animation, and archival materials.
--Discuss the various styles that documentary filmmakers use to approach subjects (reflexive, observational, impressionistic, etc.). Consider the diverse styles of Nick Broomfield, Errol Morris, Barbara Koppel, among others.
   I strongly believe that students need to find their own subjects to explore with their films and that having an idea, executing it and making decisions about how to do so is the crux of what is important and valuable for students in this process. However, students don't necessarily realize that there are issues of power when you make films. It is helpful for student filmmakers to consider Laura Mulvey's ideas about the male gaze and to think about Agnes Varda's work. Considering the male gaze could affect the subject choice a student will make, or even the camera angle used in an interview. Likewise, our medium has always reflected issues of class, and the study of ethnographic film helps illustrate this. There is a long history of people with the means of production (cameras, plane tickets, and editing systems) making films about people who don't have any means of production. The resulting inequality in terms of existing films made by and about various communities (people of color, women, people in developing countries, low-income communities) is an important issue to consider that could affect the style of the filmmaker and should inform a wide range of decisions he or she will make, from subject, to shooting style and editing.
   More and more we take image making and taking for granted. My goal is not to inhibit students who are learning to express their ideas via this medium, but rather to help them understand their work as part of a larger context within the continuum of audio-visual history. They will better employ the images they create the more they understand the history, subtext, and power of their medium.
   I am passionate about documentary films and their many virtues, as cultural artifacts, as pieces of art, as sites for negotiating ideas and identities, as commentary, as entertainment and more. As a filmmaker, I love that documentaries are rebels that change form, sometimes experimental, sometimes narrative, sometimes journalistic. I love that they are underdogs--that a great story can trump a great budget. I love that when it comes down to it, it is very difficult to delineate the form's rules or even the definition of documentary film and that these parameters change all of the time with each new generation of filmmakers. For students, this is exciting, empowering, and true to their experiences. Guided exposure, engagement, and discussion of these slippery areas helps our students to develop as filmmakers, to become stronger students, and to better navigate these times.