M ODES OF N ON -F ICTION F ILMS

D OES D OCUMENTARY = R EAL OR T RUTH ? The photograph – once we are sure that it is a photograph – cannot lie. But it can be falsely labeled…If we accept that documentary is best defined as a way of perceiving images, we cannot evade the implication that it is blind to the falsity of labels. Documentary will be consequent upon what it appears to show, rather than upon what it necessarily shows; and the relationship between the two is a matter for the filmmakers’ ethics, inaccessible to the viewer. Yet the assumptions which the viewer makes about this relationship, on the basis of signals intended or unintended, will inform his perception of the film. To make a documentary is therefore to persuade the viewer that what appears to be IS.

S UMMARY ? EVERY text has a bias! What is bias, again? Let’s look at HOW those biases are created….. Absolute “truth”One-sided

F IRST F ILMS …W ERE D OCUMENTARIES Horse Running Frank Ott’s Sneeze Women Leaving the Factory Captured life…

A CCIDENTAL D OCUMENTARIES Zapruder film Holliday’s film of Rodney King beatingRodney King

C INEMA V ERITE Meaning of verite ? Think of Greek and Latin roots. Documentary’s driving ambition is to find a way of reproducing reality without bias or manipulation. But…such a pursuit towards actuality is futile (useless). Why?

1) E XPOSITORY M ODE Filmmaker EXPLAINS a topic to the audience. Nuclear Power History Background Interviews

D IRECT A DDRESS On-screen narrator Off-screen narrator Voice of God Text track as narrator Guide through the topic for the audience

I NDIRECT A DDRESS No direct address to audience Visual – people talking about nuclear power Visual – cutaways to pictures of Three Mile Island or some other nuclear accident site. Expected to follow along!

E XAMPLES Ken Burns…anything.Burns…anything Fifty Baraka

2) O BSERVATIONAL M ODE Audience feels as if they “are there” “Fly on the wall” Filmmaker tries to disappear Minimum of editing Little B-roll usage (cutaways to other stuff) Little non-diegetic (soundtrack) sound

Often called “ direct cinema ” Similar to C-SPAN Might feel more “real”

E XAMPLES High School Titicut Follies Spinal Tap

3) I NTERACTIVE M ODE Filmmaker is heard (and seen) on screen Subject of the film act differently because they KNOW a film is being made of them! The film maker!!

R EALITY TV = I NTERACTIVE Fear Factor The Bachelor The Apprentice Other examples Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? Fahrenheit 9/11

4) R EFLEXIVE M ODE Film that is aware of itself AS a film. Documentaries that raise questions, problems, and dilemmas about the very act of creating a documentary! Show the difficulties of making an unbiased documentary. Most obscure.

E XAMPLES Man with a Movie Camera Colbert Report

M IX OF M ODES Most documentaries are a MIX of many modes throughout.

L ET ’ S P RACTICE Chalk