Documentary Lecture Three:

1
Documentary Lecture Three

• Reflexive Documentary

2
The Thin Blue Line, Errol Morris,1988

• Theatricality of the opening shots suggests a
  documentary form
• Utilizes what is now familiar as Reality TV form
  (before Reality TV)
• We see the crime from a number of perspectives
• The work juxtaposes various positions of the
  people involved and doesnt adopt a Voice-of God
  viewpoint
• Shares a similar functional feeling to fiction
• Continuous use of Philip Glass music reminds the
  viewer its a representation
• By constantly changing the mode of representation
  and perspective we have no choice but to adopt
  the different subject positions, but are also
  obligated to change our reading of the
  information and signs were given.

3
How can the viewer be drawn into an awareness of
this problematic so that no myth of the
knowability of the world, of the power of the
logos, no repression of the unseen and
unrepresentable occludes the magnitude of what
every film-maker knows that every
representation, however fully imbued with
documentary significance, remains a
fabrication. -Bill Nichols
4
from http//us.imdb.com/Title?0025456Orlok
Summary The only realist film I've seen that I
enjoyed.This review is being written by a man
who absolutely despises everything about realist
style films. However, Flaherty's depiction of
life on the Isle of Aran captivated me from start
to finish. Filled with inaccuracies and
misrepresentations, Flaherty would have been
lying through his teeth to have called this a
documentary (the man of Aran wasn't even from
Aran). Man of Aran remains realist however in
that, I believe, in that it only speaks to you if
you hold a connection to the sort of life it
depicts. Flaherty brings forth the essence of
that life but will only hold your interest if you
actually care how someone might farm in a
soilless field of broken rock.If that isn't
your bag, you can still at least enjoy Flaherty's
visuals. Waves pound against rocky cliffs sending
spray a hundred feet high. It is quite a
spectacle.
5
One AM

• The use of an actor
• Costuming that provides additional meanings
• A selected environment
• Visibility of the director and crew
• Conceptual form with no scripting
• Dramatization and theatricality