Five Modes of Documentary Representation

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Five Modes of Documentary Representation

• The Expository Mode of Documentary Representation

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Table of Contents

• 1) General ideas of documentary films
• 2) Five modes of documentary films
• 3) Expository mode of documentary representation
• 4) Robert Flaherty and his documentaries
• 5) Flaherty and British documentaries

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General Ideas of Documentary Films

• Documentary a factual film or television
  programme about an event, person, etc.,
  presenting the facts with little or no fiction.
• Documentary A film whose representation of its
  subjects that viewers are intended to accept
  primarily as factual. A documentary film may
  present a story or it may not.

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General Ideas of Documentary Films

• The positions being questioned
• Documentaries are non-fiction films which are
  sharply distinguished from fiction films. The
  world depicted in the documentary is real, not
  imaginary.
• The documentary filmmaker simply observes and
  makes an objective record of real events.

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General Ideas of Documentary Films

• Documentary films do not create but record
  reality.
• - Consist of raw footage of real people, real
  events and real objects.
• Truthful reflection of actuality.

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General Ideas of Documentary Films

• Are documentary films true to their subjects?
• Joris Ivens (a controversial Dutch documentary
  filmmaker) says it is permissible to make up
  things in non-fiction movies.

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General Ideas of Documentary Films

• Filmed in selected mise-en-scène
• Filmed events are ordered and reshaped in
  particular montage
• NOT RECORDED BUT CONSTRUCTED REALITY

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General Ideas of Documentary Films

• Documentaries represent events, objects and
  people only in degrees more truthfully than other
  types of films.
• Truthfulness and factuality - only relative
  concepts
• NEVERTHELESS
• Search for ways in which documentaries represent
  actuality as it really is
• ? Types and schools of documentary filmmaking

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Five Modes of Documentary Films

• Types of documentary films - - factual film,
  ethnographic film, films of exploration,
  propaganda film, cinéma vérité, direct cinema
  (Richard Barsama)
• Expository, observational, interactive,
  reflective and performative mode of documentary
  representations (Bill Nichols)

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Expository Mode of Documentary Films

• The expository text addresses the viewer
  directly, with titles or voices that advance an
  argument about the historical world Expository
  texts take shape around commentary directed
  toward the viewer images serve as illustration
  or counterpoint. Bill Nichols
• Voiceover (or subtitles) illustrate story and
  image

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Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries

• Robert Flaherty (1884-1951)
• One of the founding fathers of documentary film

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Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries

• of course, Moana, 1926 being a visual account
  of events in the daily life of a Polynesian youth
  and his family, has documentary value. John
  Grierson

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Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries

• Nanook of the North (1922) - about the daily
  lives of an Eskimo called Nanook and his family
  in the Belcher Islands in arctic Canada

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Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries

• Flaherty, a prospector, took a movie camera in
  his expedition and recorded the unfamiliar
  wildlife and people that he encountered.
• Lives of the Inuit people

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Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries

• TRUTH AND FICTION/
• RECORDING AND CONSTRUCTION
• Every scene was planned in advance.
• Discussion between Flaherty and Inuits about
  the filming of the walrus hunt. They may have to
  give up the kill if it interferes with the film.
  The reply yes, yes, the Aggie will come first,
  not a man will stir, not a harpoon will be thrown
  until you give the sign.

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Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries

• b) Nanook made suggestions what to be included.
• c) Reality was touched and modified during
  filming and editing processes.
• Traditional costumes specially made and worn
  the traditional harpoon was used specially for
  the film

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Robert Flaherty and Hid Documentaries

• the film is not a straightforward recording
  of their everyday life they amiably enacted some
  of it for Flahertys cameras. Bus so honest and
  instinctive was their playing that it was
  undoubtedly truth of a sort.
• Delek Malcolm, Guardian journalist

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Flaherty and British Documentaries

• John Grierson invited Flaherty to Britain
• Flaherty laid the foundation for the British
  documentary-making in the 30s
• GPO film unit and the Empire Marketing Board
• Grierson as leader and Flaherty as inspiration,
  young British filmmakers like Basil Wright, Harry
  Watts, Alberto Cavalcanti

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Flaherty and British Documentaries

• Industrial Britain (1931)
• Survey of British industry with emphasis on
  craftsmanship.
• Aestheticization of reality
• film

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Modes of Documentary Film

• In most of complex documentary films, multiple
  modes and styles are employed.
• Expository (images and verbal explanation)
• Observational (images and sound without verbal
  explanation)
• Interactive (interviews and oral history)

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Complex Documentary

• One Day in September (2000) by Kevin MacDonald
• About the kidnapping and killing of 11 Israeli
  during the 1972 Munich Olympics.
• Combination of newsreel and archival footage,
  interviews and voiceover narration

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Complex Documentary

• Clear and strong message of film makers
• Surprising incompetence of the German police
• Bungling of the rescue mission at the airport