Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies the Voice of Crime Documentaries Paradise Lost
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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Eva Bizovská The Voice of Crime Documentaries Paradise Lost (1996) and The Thin Blue Line (1988) Bachelor's Diploma Thesis Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D. 2018 / declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. Eva Bizovska I would like to thank all who gave me much needed support to finish this thesis - my family and friends, and to Mgr. Stefan Veleski, B.A. for his advice in bachelor seminars. Last but not least, I thank to doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D. for believing in my topic and laying the crucial foundations of this thesis. Table of Contents Introduction 3 1. The Documentary Genre 6 1.1. The Crime Documentaries 9 1.1.1 The Paradise Lost Series 10 1.1.2 The Thin Blue Line 12 2. Voice - Theory and Methodology 14 3. Case Studies and Seeming Objectivity 19 3.1. Paradise Lost: Guilt by Association 21 3.1.1. Sentiment and Authenticity 23 3.1.2. The Authentic Footage 24 3.2. The Thin Blue Line: "Heard of the proverbial scapegoat? " 27 3.2.1. Word against Word 29 3.2.2. Manipulated Reenactments 31 Conclusion 34 Works Cited 36 Summary 39 Resumé 40 Introduction Every film communicates with the viewer through narration and style. The combination of both transforms reality into film medium. Especially the documentarists work not only with narration and style in the process of making, but also with the approach towards depicted reality. Regardless of filmmakers' motivations, the approach they choose towards reality is visible in a final essence of the film - the essence called voice. The voice of the documentary was defined by American film critic and theoretician Bill Nichols. The documentary's voice is captured not just in the aftermath, but it is shown throughout the entire duration of the film. Nichols' work defines the qualities of the voice, such as style or arrangement observable in editing or in the compositions of the scenes, the presentation of the characters and more. These are the choices of the filmmakers' that define many approaches towards the depiction of reality in documentaries. This bachelor thesis analyzes two documentaries that differ in their approach toward reality but represent the same voice. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills and The Thin Blue Line portray two different crime stories that took place in the late 20th century in the United States. The documentaries are about the investigation of the murders without knowing the identity of murderers. The creators of both documentaries introduce the crimes through the camera in their own specific way. One uses authenticity as a key notion, while the other does the exact opposite by playing with the dramatic reenactments. Yet both are similar in two features: influence (saving innocent from life imprisonment due to active participation of filmmakers on the investigation) and manipulation of the viewer (sympathy toward the alleged suspects). Two features together create the voice of these documentaries. 3 The main goal of my thesis is to analyze these crime documentaries through their voice as defined by Bill Nichols. The voice uncovers influence and manipulation of these films created by documentarists. Filmmakers want to present unaltered reality so the viewers themselves choose their standpoint in the difficult situation such as murder investigation. However, documentarists fail to do it because every filmmaker deals with crucial stylistic and narrative choices that significantly alter reality in every filmmaking process. This thesis shows filmmakers' choices that disturb reality and it proves that such features as influence and manipulation create the same so called voice for both documentaries. This thesis is divided into three chapters, first chapter deals with the genre of documentary itself. It introduces the problematic of the documentary genre in general and briefly describes the crimes depicted in each film. The second chapter takes a closer look at voice as a term and explains its characteristics. The third chapter focuses on the analysis of films and it is also the main part of thesis as it provides the reader with specific examples of voice's presence in both films. The third chapter also consists of detailed information about the plot of both documentaries starting with Paradise Lost and then The Thin Blue Line. The filmmakers of analyzed films manage to arrange the release of falsely convicted men who were initially sentenced to life imprisonment. Paradise Lost (referred to as PL) gains such media popularity in 1996 that money is constantly raised to re-open the case. Later, this huge public interest includes celebrities who finance further investigation. The director Errol Morris in The Thin Blue Line (referred to as the TBL) records the statement from a criminal during the interview that proves the innocence of a falsely convicted man who has the main role in the documentary. The 4 voice of PL and the TBL is the reason for this thesis' research because of the impact both films have on people globally. The production team of Paradise Lost works for HBO Channel. The court in Arkansas trusted the HBO team for its reputation of a quality television in making a documentary that depicts the horror of satanic children sacrifices. The police of Arkansas believed that the presence of HBO helps to discredit three teenage suspects and possibly to gain some praise for their investigative work. However, right from the beginning the director Joe Berlinger and the camera man Bruce Sinofsky want to stay objective rather than point fingers at someone (Kors). The leader of the team of filmmakers in The Thin Blue Line is the director Errol Morris. His work as an investigative journalist results into the documentary worth the life of a falsely convicted man for the murder of a Dallas police officer. Morris' depiction of reality does not leave much space to the imagination - the reenactments of the crime scene or testimonies replace viewers' imagination. He looks at this film as a case and investigates each evidence or a testimony as a potential fact, that leaves the viewer puzzled the whole time. However, Morris knows the truthful outcome of the case and he reveals it to everyone at a right time. The documentaries cannot reveal a true killer, but the filmmakers convince the judiciary system of the innocence of imprisoned men. Two seemingly different films from diverse time periods save lives because their filmmakers discover new evidence in the process of making. Paradise Lost and The Thin Blue Line are characterized by their objective style in filmmaking which leads to very subjective results. Subjectivity of Errol Morris is on purpose while Berlinger and Sinofsky's unintended. 5 1. The Documentary Genre Documentarists create on the basis of the real events to make a unique version of known facts. Even though influencing the viewer is not filmmakers' primary intention, this effect is constantly present in each phase of the documentary filmmaking. Documentary films are hard to define for the scholars even today. There are many variations of these definitions, but most summarize this: Documentary films ... are part or parcel of the discursive formations, the language genres, and rhetorical stratagems by and through which pleasure and power, ideologies and Utopias, subjects and subjectivities receive tangible representation. (Nichols, Representing Reality 10) The definition of documentaries is formed in contrast with the limitations or the similarities of fiction films. However, the line between style of fiction and non-fiction films gets thinner as new documentaries originate every year. Bill Nichols, as Professor of Cinema at San Francisco state University, very thoroughly explores many varieties of documentary genre in his book Introduction to Documentary. The author compares documentaries with fiction films and searches for a definition of this genre. The book explores the potential and limitations of documentaries. Then voice, mentioned earlier, represents a solution for the definition of the documentary films and it elaborates on its characteristics and qualities. Nichols suggests that all films are documentaries separated in two categories - documentaries of wish-fulfillment and documentaries of social representation (1). The first category embodies everyone's dreams and fears; it depicts the imagination. This suggests the category of fiction films. The second one is about documentaries as a generally accepted non-fictional medium. With this differentiation of films, the author 6 acknowledges that behind every film is a group of filmmakers whose decisions alter reality. Whether it is a fiction feature shot in the courtroom with hired actors or a documentary about the real crime shot during the actual trial, there are still makings of a person behind the total outcome of the footage. Even when film depicts lives of real people and there is as minimum manipulation with the camera and the scene as possible, still there are choices made by director that distort reality. According to Nichols "documentary claims to address the historical world and to possess the capacity to intervene by shaping how we regard it" (39). In other words, documentary captures some periodical fragments of the time and presents itself in a certain structure observed by each viewer individually. These various interpretations made by viewer prove that the intervention of the documentary author is always present but it is more visible after the release of the film when its voice is finally recognized by the viewer. The question to which extent is the creator aware of this structure in the process of filmmaking is the topic of many discussions among film scholars. Looking from the historical point of view, Nichols explains four styles of a documentary film that can be observed, such as the direct address style aka "voice of God", then very realistic cinéma vérité or the style of direct address through interviews with participants ("The Voice of Documentary" 17).