The Manifestations of Political Power Structures in Documentary Film
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DISSERTATION THE MANIFESTATIONS OF POLITICAL POWER STRUCTURES IN DOCUMENTARY FILM Submitted by Dror Dayan Faculty of Media and Communication In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Bournemouth University Bournemouth, UK May 2018 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and due acknowledgement must always be made of the use of any material contained in, or derived from, this thesis. 2 Abstract: The manifestations of political power structures in documentary film Dror Dayan The aim of this practice-led research is to explore the ways in which the political and social power structures between filmmaker and protagonist are manifested in the aesthetics and cinematic means of documentary film. Through a synthesis of filmmaking practice and “hidden knowledge” with critical theories from the fields of cultural studies and political philosophy the research devise methodological approaches to the critical analysis of documentary films in light of the political and material conditions of their emergence. By exploring filmmaking practice, both through the practical aspects of the research as well as through experiences made and reported by filmmakers, and placing those in the context of wider theories pertaining to issues of power structures and representation, it sheds light on the different aspects which must be considered when approaching the analysis of a documentary film for its ideological and political content. The work also asserts that in order to fully understand and analyse a documentary film, a wider range of factors must be considered, most prominently the material conditions of the filmmaking process. Those include the financing and commissioning of the film, the conditions of its production as well as its distribution and reception. Drawing on methodologies of dialectical materialism in cultural studies, the research approaches the studied films as well as the practical experiences in a holistic fashion, contextulaising them in historical, political and cultural processes instead of viewing them as isolated texts divorced from social context. 3 Table of Contents LIST OF FILM STILLS 6 ACCOMPANYING MATERIAL 7 1. PREFACE: THE SMOKING TRUCK DRIVER 8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 11 2. UNDERSTANDING DOCUMENTARY AS A POLITICAL TEXT: STATE OF THE RESEARCH 12 3. METHODOLOGY AND CONTEXT 18 3.1 METHODOLOGY 18 DIALECTICAL AND HISTORICAL MATERIALISM 20 HERMENEUTICS 22 3.2 CONTEXT 23 REFLECTIONS ON THE POLITICAL ORIGINS OF DOCUMENTARY 23 POWER STRUCTURES IN DOCUMENTARY FILM 27 THE POLITICAL DIALECTIC OF CONTENT AND FORM IN DOCUMENTARY FILM 32 4. THE CINEMATIC MEANS AS LOCI OF POWER STRUCTURES 39 4.1 SOCIAL AND POLITICAL POWER STRUCTURES IN “EVEN THOUGH MY LAND IS BURNING” AND “DEADENING SILENCE” 39 “EVEN THOUGH MY LAND IS BURNING” 41 “DEADENING SILENCE” 44 4.2 DOCUMENTARY CHARACTERS: CHOICE OF PROTAGONISTS AS A POLITICAL NARRATIVE 49 THE POLITICAL DIALECTIC OF CHARACTERS AND SOCIETY 52 “HOOP DREAMS” 58 “WELCOME TO LEITH” 67 INDIVIDUALISM AND THE NEO-LIBERAL STRUCTURE 73 “KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS” 75 “MAN ON WIRE” 79 “LOVE ME” 80 THE ROLE OF CHARACTERS IN MY PRACTICAL WORK 86 CONCLUSION 90 4.3 FILMMAKER/PROTAGONIST/AUDIENCE RELATIONS, PARTICIPATORY FILM AND REFLEXIVITY 91 “I´M HARBORING A MURDERER IN MY FILM” – REFLEXIVITY AND PARTICIPATION AS CONTENT/FORM DIALECTIC IN THE FILMS OF AVI MOGRABI 100 “ONCE I ENTERED A GARDEN” 102 “BETWEEN FENCES” 107 4 “Z32” 112 “I AM A REFUGEE AND A FILMMAKER, AND YOU ASK ME TO CHOOSE WHICH?” - EXPERIENCES OF REFLEXIVITY AND PARTICIPATION IN MY PRACTICAL WORK 118 “EVEN THOUGH MY LAND IS BURNING” 120 “DEADENING SILENCE” 124 “LIMBO” 128 4.4 THE POWER STRUCTURES OF THE INTERVIEW 133 HISTORICAL EMERGENCE OF THE INTERVIEW FORM 134 AESTHETIC AND FORM OF THE INTERVIEW 135 TALKING HEAD 135 VOX POP 138 CONVERSATION, DIALOGUE OR PSEUDO-DIALOGUE 141 THE MASKED INTERVIEW 143 THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO DIFFERENT INTERVIEW FORMS 143 “FOG OF WAR” 147 THE POWER RELATIONS OF INTERVIEWS 149 INTERVIEWS IN MY PRACTICAL WORK 152 4.5 ‘YOU ARE LOOKING AT US LIKE INSECTS’ – CAMERA, SEQUENCE AND THE FILMMAKER´S GAZE 155 “WORKINGMAN´S DEATH” 159 “LES MAÎTRES FOUS” 164 “BLACK PANTHERS” 168 POLITICS OF THE GAZE IN MY OWN PRACTICAL WORK 173 5. CONCLUSION 181 LIST OF FILMS 184 BIBLIOGRAPHY 187 5 List of Film Stills FILM STILL 1: AHED TAMIMI IN "EVEN THOUGH MY LAND IS BURNING" ............................................ 41 FILM STILL 2: BEN RONEN AND MANAL TAMIMI IN "EVEN THOUGH MY LAND IS BURNING" .................. 42 FILM STILL 3: LAYLA KILANI HOLDS A PHOTO OF HER FATHER IBRAHIM AND HERSELF IN “DEADENING SILENCE” ....................................................................................................... 44 FILM STILL 4: LAYLA AND RAMSIS KILANI WATCHING HOME VIDEOS OF THEIR FATHER IN “DEADENING SILENCE” ....................................................................................................... 48 FILM STILL 5: IBRAHIM´S BROTHER, SALAH, HOLDING PICTURES OF LAYLA AND RAMSIS IN THE FAMILY´S HOME IN GAZA ..................................................................................................... 86 FILM STILL 6: BASSEM TAMIMI AND BEN RONEN IN TAMIMI´S HOME IN "EVEN THOUGH MY LAND IS BURNING" ............................................................................................................ 88 FILM STILL 7: AN INTERVIEW WITH BEN RONEN IN "EVEN THOUGH MY LAND IS BURNING" ................. 121 FILM STILL 8: BEN RONEN BEFORE A DEMONSTRATION IN "EVEN THOUGH MY LAND IS BURNING" ..................................................................................................................... 122 FILM STILL 9: CO-DIRECTOR ANNE PAQ IN RAMALLAH SHOWING LAYLA KILANI FOOTAGE OF HER FAMILY IN GAZA ........................................................................................................ 126 FILM STILL 10: LAYLA KILANI WATCHING PHOTOS OF HER FAMILY AS PART OF THE "OBLITERATED FAMILIES" PROJECT ...................................................................................... 127 FILM STILL 11: PROTAGONIST REZA AND DIRECTOR ASAL AKHAVAN IN "LIMBO" ................................ 128 FILM STILL 12: REZA MEETING NGO WORKERS IN "LIMBO" .......................................................... 130 FILM STILL 13: REZA ADDRESSING ME BEHIND THE CAMERA IN "LIMBO" .......................................... 131 FILM STILL 14: DIRECTOR ASAL AKHAVAN SHOWING REZA FOOTAGE IN A SCENE FROM "LIMBO" ........................................................................................................................ 132 FILM STILL 15: A "MASKED INTERVIEW" SITUATION IN "EVEN THOUGH MY LAND IS BURNING" ..................................................................................................................... 153 FILM STILL 16: RAMSIS KILANI AND ME IN A CONVERSATION SCENE IN "DEADENING SILENCE" .............. 154 FILM STILL 17: SCENE FROM "EVEN THOUGH MY LAND IS BURNING" ............................................. 174 FILM STILL 18: BEN RONEN IN THE VILLAGE OF NABI SALEH .......................................................... 175 FILM STILL 19: YOUTH THROWING ROCKS AT A MILITARY "SKUNK" TRUCK IN "EVEN THOUGH MY LAND IS BURNING" ..................................................................................................... 177 FILM STILL 20: BEN RONEN AND SAMER TAMIMI IN "EVEN THOUGH MY LAND IS BURNING" ............... 178 FILM STILL 21: RAMSIS AND LAYLA KILANI IN LAYLA´S BEDROOM IN “DEADENING SILENCE” ................. 179 6 Accompanying Material • DVD: Even Though My Land is Burning (Dror Dayan, Germany 2016) – Full film • DVD: Deadening Silence (Anne Paq and Dror Dayan, Germany 2018) – First 13 minutes of rough cut • DVD: Limbo (Asal Akhavan, Germany 2013) – Selected scenes 7 1. Preface: The smoking truck driver “We had such a great shooting day, we managed to get a great close-up of a real typical Argentinian” said my classmate victoriously. We were sitting in a rented apartment in Buenos Aires, where we travelled as several student crews to shoot short films for a university project. “He was driving with one arm outside the truck´s window, smoking, you know, like a typical Argentinian”. I thought of Argentinian people I knew, such as my grandparents or my father, born and raised not far from where we sat, and couldn´t remember a single time I saw any of them smoking, let alone with their hand outside the window of a moving truck. But by that time, it was already quite clear to me that in exchange programmes such as this one, which often tend to resemble expeditions more than exchanges, the students´ presuppositions regarding class and race usually supersede the experienced reality. At least once a year my university would send students to produce films in other countries, mostly of the Global South, and I have noticed that the footage and films they brought back with them usually had little to do with the realities on the ground and much more to do with asserting their own views of the world. I attempted to raise the issue a few times during screenings and lectures, but quickly found that my syllabus as a cinematography student did not equip me with the proper critical and analytical tools to be able to formulate why the rushes or rough cuts on the screen seemed to me so racist or exploitative. Only after finishing my diploma and starting my postgraduate programme, in which I directed and shot my first feature documentary, Even