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Entary, Experimental, Animated Films

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Entary, Experimental, Animated Films fj t3<>M..( ~~~ 'I" ·~tk:'?itlf~'!, 1= ,'I m ltr} r~ ~~f'l- ...,-,.,v~TC~ ,;;. ny ~ m~c;, ~'"-~<~ #,4 :Jr:; It> entary, Experimental, Animated Films orne of the most basic types of films line up as distinct alternatives. We com­ .. monly distinguish documentary from fiction, experimental films from main­ Sstream fare, and animation from live-action filmmaking. In all these cases, we make assumptions about how the material to be filmed was chosen or arranged, how the filming was done, and how the filmmakers intended the finished work to ·affect the spectator. Chapter 3, on narrative form, drew its examples principally · from fictional, live-action cinema. Now we'll explore these other important types of films. Before we see a film, we nearly always have some sense whether it is a documentary 'or a piece of fiction. Moviegoers entering theaters to view March of the Penguins ~·_\!;t~cted to sn· real birds in nature, not wisecracking caricatures ;;•_- ;_;Hins i11 1~iadagascar. What Is a Documentary? What justifies our assumption that a film is a documentary? For one thing, a docu­ mentary typically comes to us identified as such-by its title, publicity, press cov­ erage, word of mouth, and subject matter. This labeling leads us to expect that the persons, places, and events shown to us exist and that the information presented about them will be trustworthy. Every documentary claims to present factual information about the world, but the ways in which this can be done are just as varied as for fiction films. In some cases, the filmmakers are able to record events as they actually occur. For exam­ ple, in making Primary, an account of John' Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey cam­ paigning for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination, the camera operator and sound recordist were able to closely follow the candidates through crowds at rallies (5.134). But a documentary may convey information in other ways as well. The filmmaker might supply charts, maps, or other visual aids. In addition, the docu­ mentary filmmaker may stage certain events for the camera to record. It's worth pausing on this last point. Some viewers tend to suspect that a docu­ mentary is unreliable if it manipulates the events that are filmed. It is true that, very often, the documentary filmmaker records an event without scripting or staging it. For example, in interviewing an eyewitness, the documentarist typically controls where the camera is placed, what is in focus, and so on; the filmmaker likewise _ ......i ! 350 CHAPTER 10 Documentary, Experimental, and Animated Films controls the final editing of the images. But the filmmaker doesn't tell the witness what to say or how to act. The filmmaker may also have no choice about setting or lighting. Still, both viewers and filmmakers regard some staging as legitimate in a docu­ mentary if the staging serves the larger purpose of presenting information. Suppose you are filming a farmer's daily routines. You might ask him or her to walk toward a field in order to frame a shot showing the whole farm. Similarly, the cameraman who is the central figure in Dziga Vertov's documentary Man with a Movie Camera is clearly performing for Vertov's camera (10.1). "There are lots of in-between stages In some cases, staging may intensify the documentary value of the film. Hum­ from shooting to public projection­ phrey Jennings made Fires Were Started during the German bombardment of Lon­ developing. printing, editing, don in World War II. Unable to film during the air raids, Jennings found a group of commentary, sound effects, music. At bombed-out buildings and set them afire. He then filmed the fire patrol battling the each stage the effect of the shot can blaze (10.2). Although the event was staged, the actual firefighters who took part be changed but the basic content must judged it an authentic depiction of the challenges they faced under real bombing. be in the shot to begin with." . Similarly, after Allied troops liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp near the -)oris Ivens, documentary filmmaker end of World War II, a newsreel cameraman assembled a group of children and had them roll up their sleeves to display the prisoner numbers tattooed on their arms. This staging of an action arguably enhanced the film's reliability. Staging events for the camera, then, need not consign the film to the realm of fiction. Regardless of the details of its production, the documentary film asks us to assume that it presents trustworthy information about its subject. Even if the filmmaker asks the farmer to wait a moment while the camera operator frames the shot, the film suggests that the farmer's morning visit to the field is part of the day's routine, and it's this suggestion that is set forth as reliable. f\s a type of film, documentaries present themselves as factually trustworthy. Still, any one documentary may not prove reliable. Throughout film history, many documentaries have been challenged as inaccurate. One controversy involved Mi­ chael Moore's Roger and lv/e. The film presents, in sequences ranging from the heartrending to the absurd, the response of the people of Flint, Michigan, to a series of layoffs at General Motors plants during the 1980s. Much of the film shows inept efforts of the local government to revive the town's economy. Ronald Reagan visits, a television evangelist holds a mass rally, and city officials launch expensive new building campaigns, including AutoWorld, an indoor theme park intended to lure tourists to Flint. No one disputes that all these events took place. The controversy arose when critics claimed that Roger and Me leads the audience to believe that the events oc­ curred in the order in which they are shown. Ronald Reagan came to Flint in 1980, the TV evangelist in 1982; AutoWorld opened in 1985. These events could not have 10.1 Although the central figure of been responses to the plant closings shown early in the film because the plant clos­ Man with a Movie Camera is a real ings started in 1986. Moore altered the actual chronology, critics charged, in order cinematographer, his actions were staged. to make the city government look foolish. Moore's defense is discussed in "Where to Go from Here" at the end of this chapter. The point for our purposes is that his critics accused his film of present­ ing unreliable information. Even if this charge were true, however, Roger and Me would not therefore turn into a fiction film. An unreliable documentary is still a documentary. Just as there are inaccurate and misleading news stories, so there are inaccurate and misleading documentaries. A documentary may take a stand, state an opinion, or advocate a solution to a problem. As we'll see shortly, documentaries often use rhetoric to persuade an audience. But, again, simply taking a stance does not turn the documentary into fic­ tion. In order to persuade us, the filmmaker marshals evidence, and this evidence is put forth as being factual and reliable. A documentary may be strongly partisan, but 10.2 A staged blaze in Fires Were as a documentary, it nonetheless presents itself as providing trustworthy informa­ Started. tion about its subject. Documentary 351 Types of Documentary Like fiction films, documentaries fall into genres. One common documentary genre is the compilation film, produced by assembling images from archival sources. The Atomic Cafe compiles newsreel footage and instructional films to suggest how 1950s American culture reacted to the proliferation of nuclear weapons (10.3). The interview, or talking-heads, documentary records testimony about events or social movements. Word Is Out consists largely of interviews with lesbians and gay men discussing their lives. The direct-cinema documentary characteristically records an ongoing event as · it happens, with minimal interference by the filmmaker. Direct cinema emerged in 10,3 Older documentary footage of the 1950s and 1960s, when portable camera and sound equipment became available protective gear incorporated into The and allowed films such as Primary to follow an event as it unfolds. For this reason, Atomic Cafe. such documentaries are also known as cinbna-w!rite, French for "cinema-truth." An example is Hoop Dreams, which traces two aspiring basketball players through . high school and into college. · Another common type is the nature documentary, such as Jlolicrocosmos, which used magnifying lenses to explore the world of insects. The Imax format has spawned numerous nature documentaries, such as Everest and Galapagos. With . increasingly unobtrusive, lightweight equipment becoming available, the portrait documentary has also become prominent in recent years. This type of film cen­ ters on scenes from the life of a compelling person. Terry Zwigoff recorded the eccentricities of underground cartoonist Robert Crumb and his family in Cmmb. In American Movie, Chris Smith followed the difficulties of a Milwaukee film­ maker struggling with budgetary problems and amateur actors to make a horror film (10.4). Very often a documentary pursues several' of these options at once. A film may mix archival footage, interviews, and material shot on the fly, as do Fahrenheit 9/11, The Fog of Wm; and In the Year of the Pig. This sylllhetic documentary for­ mat is also common in television journalism. The Boundaries Between Documentary and Fiction In contrast to a documentary, with a fictional film, we assume that it presents imagi­ nary beings, places, or events. We take it for granted that Don Vito Corleone and his family never existed, and that their activities, as depicted in The Godfather, never took place. Bambi's mother did not really get shot by a hunter because Bambi, his mother, and their forest companions are imaginary.
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