Mockumentaries and TV Series. an Analytical Approach to the Genre and Its Trends in Uruguayan TV Fiction*

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56 Comunicación y Medios N°40 (2019) www. comunicacionymedios.uchile.cl Mockumentaries and TV series. An analytical approach to the genre and its trends in Uruguayan TV fiction*

Falso documental y series de televisión. El género y sus vertientes en la ficción televisiva uruguaya*

Dra. Rosario Sánchez-Vilela Universidad Católica del Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay [email protected]

Abstract Resumen

This article addresses television genres, par- Este artículo estudia los géneros televisivos, es- ticularly the relationship between fiction and pecíficamente las relaciones entre ficción y no nonfic-tion. Indeed, this work studies the false ficción. En particular, este trabajo analiza el falso documentary as a genre and its manifestations in documental como género y sus manifestaciones Uruguayan television fiction. To do so, conceptual en la ficción televisiva uruguaya. Para ello, se de- categories will be defined following the frame- finen desde la perspectiva de la teoría del genre work provided by the genre theory in order las categorías conceptuales para abordar el falso to address the false documentary and define documental y delimitar su identidad. El análisis de its identity. By analysing different ways through distintas formas de articulación entre lo ficcional which fictional and documentary forms are ar- y lo documental en realizaciones uruguayas re- ticulated in recent Uruguayan productions has led cientes permitió identificar tres variantes: una en us to identify three variants: In one of them the la cual lo documental es mera incrustación en el documentary is just inlay in the fictional world; in mundo ficcional; otra en la que cumple una fun- another one, the documentary genre fulfills in- ción informativa y educativa; y, por último, aque- formative and educational functions, and, finally, lla propia del mockumentary, en la que lo esencial the actual mockumentary form, in which the key es la oscilación y coexistencia de ficcionalización feature is that both fictionalization and authentica- y autentificación. En los cuatro casos identificados tion oscillate and coexist simultaneously. In four como mockumentary los rasgos expresivos y de cases identified as mockumentaries, both expres- contenido confluyen en un humor incómodo que sive and content features come together in an atraviesa los falsos documentales uruguayos. awkward mood shared by Uruguayan examples of this genre

Keywords: genre, communicative pact, mocku- Palabras clave: genre, pacto comunicativo, mockumentary, Uruguayan fiction. mentary, ficción televisiva uruguaya.

* This article is part of the continuous work by the Iberian-American Observatory of Television Fiction (OBITEL) of which the author is a coordinator. Previous versions of the ideas expressed in this paper have been presented in Observatory seminars and the Observatory’s publication, particularly in Yearbook 2016: Orozco, G. and Vassallo, M. I. (coord.) (2016), (Re)invention of genres and formats in fictional television, Brazil, Ed. Sulina.

Received: 04-15-2019 - Accepted: 08-16-2019 - Published: 12-31-2019 DOI 10.5354/0719-1529.2019.52919 Mockumentaries and TV series. An analytical approach to the genre and its trends in Uruguayan TV fiction 57

1. Introduction and elaborate approach and stems from literary review; it provides conceptual tools based upon a This article deals with the subject of television wider and more general scope. Criteria takes into genres, paying particular emphasis on the rela- consideration features inherent to the discourse of tionship between fiction and non-fiction; this im- these shows, and puts more emphasis on the re- plies a complex relationship with several different lationship between discursive properties and the approaches and variants. The category chosen for reality the shows address. this study is the false documentary or mockumentary and the perspective adopted here is to treat it Feuer’s (1992) discussion of the topic and Mitell’s under the theory of genre, a theory coined in the (2004) exhaustive review both indicate the limits wake of literary analysis. From that particular body ingrained to approaches stemming from litera- of theory, the study considers the conceptual cat- ture. However, re-reading Tzvetan Todorov (1996) 1 egories with which to approach the mockumentary and Gerard Genette (1986), among others , led to and outline the identity of the genre which, in turn, reassess some other theoretical categories well- consists of its historicity, first in cinema, then on established in literary theory to better understand the small screen. television genres. In his work The Origin of Genres, Todorov (1996) proposes a theoretical argument This study is not intended to be an exhaustive anal- which transcends the literary field when we look ysis of the history of the genre. Therefore, from carefully at it. Institutionality, historicity, and dy- varying mediums, we selected examples of the namism all articulate in a theory of the origin of mockumentary’s discourse, properties, and char- genres that constitutes a useful explicative tool to acteristics defining its identity and the communica- study television genres. This particular theoreti- tive pact it offers the audience. Such identification cal perspective is what is used in this study of the allowed us to build and propose a model or matrix mockumentary. In the following pages, this paper of analysis in the second phase of the methodology. will delve deeper into the three central theoretical categories at play in this study: historicity, institu- Following that frame, we analyzed the different tionality, and dynamism. ways in which fiction and documentary articulate in Uruguayan audiovisual productions between 2012 As a manner in which to organize these works of and 2018 and examples were chosen based on the creation into types of texts, genre implies the con- defining traits of a mockumentary. The analysis figuration of a set of repeated features or traits de- connects these characteristics with the context of fining a particular identity: local audiovisual production and formulates hy- potheses that explain how the genre was adopted In a given society the recurrence of certain dis- into Uruguayan television fiction. cursive properties is institutionalized, and indi- vidual texts are produced and perceived in relation to the norm constituted by that codification. Any genre, whether literary or not, is nothing 2. The Mockumentary as a Genre: other than the codification of discursive proper- Configuration of the ties. (Todorov, 1996, p.52). Communicative Pact A work of television or literary product does not 2.1 The theoretical perspective from in and of itself constitute a genre. Its structure or which to approach the genre: configuration depends on the repetition over time historicity, institutionality, of a set of constants in such a manner as to build and dynamism a model that functions as a reference that can either be honored in parameters and reproduction, The genre of television shows can be defined using or ignored. These are the aspects of historicity and a plethora of varying criteria. A taxonomy centered institutionality in a genre. However, it is a system on the target audience can lead to define a pro- in permanent transformation in which the codifica- gram as a children’s show, for example; another tion that identifies a genre is under constant chal- focused on purpose could define a show as an edu- lenge and can splinter into many variants. cational one. The genre theory is a more complex 58 Comunicación y Medios N°40 (2019) R. Sánchez-Vilela

It is in this fashion that historicity has two as- historicity and institutionality of genres. This core pects: a diachronic aspect in which the genre is distinction between fiction and non-fiction harkens institutionalized, and a dynamic aspect. As Todorov back to the Aristotelian tradition that understands highlights (1996), genres should be understood as genre as a form of mimesis that informs the world “principles of dynamic production” (p.55) or, in the it inhabits (Aristotle, 1948). Consequently, genres words of Shaeffer (1986), for “every text in gesta- adopt different forms of representing reality, un- tion the generic model is material on which you can derstood as that which lies outside of the text and work” (p.197). The transformation of a genre oc- has an identity one can reference. In other words, curs in its historicity, and through a dialectic gam- genres can either match or not reality. In the first ing of the institutionalized genre system in every case, it requires to correspond something that historic moment. Therefore, genre is conceptual- happens or has happened: it indicates a sense of ized as a dynamic principle: its very nature is the “it is there” or “it has been” in the way indicated by tension between the stability of institutionalized Barthes (1982) regarding photography. In Plantin- models and change (Sánchez-Vilela, 2016, p. 506). ga’s words (2014): “… non-fiction affirms a belief in certain objects, entities, the state of things, events, The appearance of new literary, cinematographic, or situations that really occurred or existed in the or television genres, as well as the phenomenon real world as they were portrayed” (p.43). Any text of neo-television (Eco,1986), which we identify as following such a pattern constitutes a contract of a hybridization, are an expression of the dynamic authentication, and matches to documentary-type nature of genres as explained by its theory (Gen- discourse. ette, 1986). Recent Uruguayan audiovisual production is an example of the combination of elements Nichols (2013) affirms: “The documentary tradi- that come out of a system of genres that exists in tion heavily relies on being able to convey to us the horizon of the creators of these programs, but the effect of authenticity. It is a powerful impres- it also lies in the horizon of audience expectations sion. It began with the raw cinematographic im- of a specific historical and cultural moment. age and the appearance of movement: no matter how poor the image and how different from the thing photographed” (p.15). The tradition Nichols refers to corresponds to the notions of institution- 2.2 The Communicative Pact ality and historicity in which this study relies. On of the Mockumentary that basis, the pact of authentication is configured, that “powerful impression” of authenticity which The notion of a reading contract or a communicative documentary has developed, and which television pact originates in a line of theory development ana- has as well but in different ways. The news, tal- lyzed by the reader and informed by the processes of ent shows, reality television, all move along the reading itself.2 Eliseo Verón (1985) proposed an ap- axis of the authentication tradition, even when they proach to researching communication media under include fictional features. The distinction between that very framework. However, his formulation of the both domains (documentary and fiction) implies concept of a reading contract does not begin with that the documentary, as with text, “implies the as- taking into consideration the difference in genre, sumption that the sound and image are proof and rather it considers the types of medium. Although treated as such, rather than elements of a story” each medium can generate specific discursive prop- (Nichols, 1997, pp. 50-51). erties that have an effect on the generic identity of the text, this study adopts a rather different position, On the contrary, fictional discourses grant to en- one that considers the difference in genre within the vision a world ruled by its own rules: it demands same type of medium, such as television, implying a internal recognition without needing external veri- uniformity in its discursive features. That uniformity fication. Deception prevails in this form of com- has prompted such a medium to be classified as an munication relationship and fiction is the proposed undifferentiated flow (Williams, 1974). reading contract. In between both reading con- tracts, there are diverse combinations and gray The two central communicative pacts are authen- areas, but, at the end, the reader will attempt to tication and fictionalization, both built-up in the figure out what pact the work under scrutiny offers Mockumentaries and TV series. An analytical approach to the genre and its trends in Uruguayan TV fiction 59 him or her: there is no reading deal without the au- 3. Methodology dience’s recognition. The first stage in designing the study was rebuild- The distinction between fiction and non-fiction, ing the constitutionality of the genre, an institu- and the debate on where the documentary fits in tionality built in its historicity. A study of its history the latter, has been a subject of exhaustive analy- (section 4) lays bare evidence of the many variants, sis by Carlos Plantinga (2014, pp. 29-51) as he and, at the same time identifies the repertoire toured through authors such as John Grierson and of constant features that form the identity of the his definition of the documentary as “the creative genre and therefore, its reading pact. The tour of treatment of reality” (p.32); Jean-Louis Comolli, the genre’s history is consequently a response to who “equates the manipulation of film material a theoretical-methodological need to identify and to the fictional trend” (p.32), or Frederick Wise- propose a model or matrix to analyse the false man, who assimilates edition in documentary film- documentary. Organized into two dimensions (sec- making as a form of fictionalizing material. These tion 4.2), the matrix was the analytical tool used to views, as Plantinga posits, assume the impossi- study the relationship between fiction and non-fic- bility of imagining any discourse that isn’t fiction tion in Uruguayan television productions between therefore rendering us unable to tell the difference 2012 and 2018. The timeframe was defined by the between movies like The Wizard of Oz (1939) and moment the form broke into Uruguayan television Harlan County, USA (1976). Rather than the previ- shows that articulate fiction and non-fiction with a ous, the author proposes that one must consider certain level of consistency. fiction and non-fiction of conventional use for different purposes, “they fulfill a specific social func- To design the corpus, we selected cases in which tion, and are seen by viewers who address a dif- discursive features of both fiction and non-fiction ferent set of expectations and conventions” (p.34). were identified. Finally, seven TV shows – five of Along those same lines, Bill Nichols (2013) points them produced by free-to-air television, and two out that fiction and documentary “are made with web series – were identified and analyzed to ex- different assumptions about purpose” and that al- plore how fictional and documentary features were though “the border between these two domains is articulated: Rotos y Descocidos, Paleodetectives, very fluid, it is still perceivable” (p.13). Guía 19172, Rec, El Mundo de los Videos and the web series Escuela de Canotaje and Uruguay Descono- The reading contract behind the mockumentary cida. The last four are false documentaries. implies a communicational relationship that deals with the recognition of documentary hallmark The webseries were included in the understanding traits and those marks ingrained into fiction, to that, with the advent of the Internet, television to- foster a thoughtful distance regarding the entities day has detached itself from the artifact and now addressed by the audiovisual text. The mockumen- circulates through multiple screens. This has given tary collapses the rules of both fiction and docu- rise to new formats such as web series, either be- mentary genres to create a new one. Nonetheless, ing streamed or Video on Demand, as well as the in order to exist, both must be included in the genre subsequent transformation of our relationship system because, as Todorov indicates, “the norm with audiences. All these are questions that feed is invisible – it is not alive – without its transgres- today’s debate on television, how it is evidenced sions” (Todorov, 1996, p. 49). in the several different editions of TV Morfosis (Orozco, 2015, 2017). It is an ongoing debate and The core axis in the make-up of the mockumen- its scope exceeds this article’s goal. Lastly, the tary throughout its history has been the flexible analysis provided herein concentrates on the four relationship and blurred lines between fiction and mockumentaries identified during that time period. non-fiction: “The mockumentary is not subject to Additionally, we also interviewed the filmmakers to hard definitions, rather it accepts a variety of texts explore their motivations and their references. whose direct relationship to the documentary form can be exceedingly strong or relatively weak; however, it is recognizable as an example of that genre” (Wallace, 2018, p. 7). 60 Comunicación y Medios N°40 (2019) R. Sánchez-Vilela

4. Building the model 4.1 The False Documentary and Television Series The reconstruction of the historicity of the false documentary leads to Orson Welles’ 1938 adapta- On television, one of the most well known propo- tion of the H. G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds nents of the mockumentary took place in 1957 at (1898). The storytelling strategy deployed in the ra- the BBC: during regular programming of Panora- dio adaptation was that of a fake news anchor re- ma, the newscast show broadcasted a report on porting on the invasion of Earth by Martians, report- the exceptional nature of a particular crop of spa- ing events that interrupted a concert that was also ghetti, documented with the image of trees from part of the fictional narrative. Listeners tuned in to which hung strands of spaghetti, and interviews of the radio program, recognized the reader’s pact of farmers who “cultivated” it, particularly endorsed authentication, and panicked when they missed any by the credibility of the show’s anchor, Richard evident fictional markers of the radio program. Dimblely. The prank, which some viewers unfa- miliar with Italian cuisine believed to be true and However, it is cinema that builds the fundamentals which still others added truly incredible details, of the mockumentary. Once again, Orson Welles and was ultimately revealed to be what it was, a joke. his movie Citizen Kane (1941) stands out. With the images of the deceased Kane, a character closely Mockumentary’s features were inspired by cinema. inspired by the actual media mogul, William Ran- On television, additional variants were created and dolph Hearst, we follow a fake news report, the style shaped. Seriality, one of television’s key features, of which was regularly on display in cinemas with adapted the false documentary into the logic of investigative journalism –using interviews and wit- television formats, in fragmented storytelling, and ness testimony– on the life of Kane and the mean- managing audience expectations and habits of ing of the word “Rosebud” uttered on his deathbed consumption (programmed into linear television, (López, 2016). as well as self-managed in online viewing).

Other films are also acknowledged in building up One of the most emblematic examples of the genre the features for the genre: David Holzman’s Diary on television is a miniseries that launched both po- (1967), by Jim McBride, critically reflects on the litical fiction and the mockumentary on TV: Tanner practice of making documentaries; Take the Money ’88 (HBO, 1988), directed by Robert Altman. The and Run (1969), in which Woody Allen adapts the series portrays a candidate for primary elections documentary to tell the failures of his character in the United States of the same year the show was and parodies movies of more or less heroic delin- first aired (De la Torre, 2016, p.414). Jack Tanner is quents; No Lies (1972), by Mitchel Block, who, us- a minor politician of the Democratic Party facing ing the interview format, proposes a critical view of off against actual candidates competing in the re- the “cinema direct”, uses a handheld camera, and al-life election race (Jesse Jackson, Michael Duka- employs no added sound. They all introduce the kis). Among the hallmark traits of the genre is the anti-hero, gray and fringe lead characters, absurd discourse used over the course of the campaign, as comedy, parody, and critical thinking on cinema and well as the improvised speech recorded on camera media. in Tanner’s hotel room. The footage is taken without the candidate’s supposed knowledge that he Lastly, there are another three key works repre- is being recorded and is imperfect, including ob- senting the full range of features defining the con- jects getting in the way of the audience’s view of stitutionality of the genre: The Rutles: all you need Tanner as he paces about the room. The footage is is cash (1978) which uses the focused parody and used to portray the candidate’s authentic nature. critique of the rockumentary3; Zelig (Allen, 1983), The fiction itself narrates the entire campaign pro- which used expressive resources typical of docu- cess (images and camera angles have the look of mentaries, such as aging the image of the picture a newscast footage) seen from the perspective of and inserting interviews to tell a fake story, and different players and with the intervention of pub- lastly, The Blair Witch Project (1997), which incor- lic figures in real government at the time. In 2004, porated suspense and horror by exacerbating the the sequel Tanner on Tanner picks up the character aesthetic of hand held footage. again, with his daughter, but uses comedy. Along Mockumentaries and TV series. An analytical approach to the genre and its trends in Uruguayan TV fiction 61 these lines of the false political documentary, Wal- 4.2 The Genre’s Identity: lace’s study (2018, p.127) on The Thick of It (2005) Institutionality indicates some of the offshoots into comedy verité and the performance of authenticity. In its historicity, the mockumentary was identified as a narrative deception, using expressive rhetori- As we have already pointed out, the swing between cal tools essential to the documentary but to tell a fiction and reality, whether it is a deception or a fictional tale. It can be defined as a fictitious text documentary note of what has happened or is hap- adopting the rhetoric of the documentary through- pening, defines the communicative pact, the type out the course of its own development. In this of communicative relationship between television sense, it is in a different category from texts that text and its audience. Series such as Curb Your employ documentary images, but only fragmen- Enthusiasm (2000) deal with that ambiguity: Larry tarily during a specific moment of the narrative. David is the main character and played by Larry David himself. The same is true of Larry David’s The mockumentary appropriated the codes of the wife in the series, from whom he later divorces documentary to make itself a new genre. During in the show as well as in real life. The comedians the history of the genre, traits and characteristics coming in and out in each episode are well-known were described and indicated that made their own personages who play themselves. Additionally, the mark. In other words, these features now consti- camera is perceived constantly as it follows Larry’s tute the invariant pattern and give the model a movements. The series was a fundamental influ- shape, they define its identity in the genre system. ence on Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (De What follows is an operationalization for the analy- la Torre, 2016, p. 486) when making the British sis of specific televised fiction split into two types series The Office (2001). The sitcom was perhaps of traits, expressive and content: the culminating point for establishing the genre given the audience ratings it reached (De la Torre; 2016 p. 487). Its influence on American television (the 2005 version of the series) finally cemented its place in the recognizable genre system of producers and creators.

Expressive traits Features of content

• The story is narrated giving the illusion of being in • Anti-hero characters in two senses of the word: they are the moment of recording a live event and, therefore, imperfect, but they also tend to be marginal charac- subject to the unforeseen event or random chance; ters, devoid of any sense of exceptionality;

• The camera follows the characters’ movements, • Narrated situations are ordinary, quotidian, minimalist, their presence is regular and at the same time and of no grandeur or relevance; registers the precarious nature, either real or simulated, of the film-making process; • Humor in many aspects: parody, satire, absurd, and combinations; • The use of rhetoric modality (eye level) that break the fourth wall in place of • Critical-reflective intent: parody is the instrument of cinematographic modality (Allen,1992, p.113); choice and tends to incorporate mass media as the ob- ject of satire; • The use of interviews filmed in medium shots, as talking-heads; • Flexibility regarding topics.

• The use of off-camera voice; 62 Comunicación y Medios N°40 (2019) R. Sánchez-Vilela

Expressive traits Features of content

• Aging images, either black-and-white or colored that, at times, simulates archival footage, and other times, are included into fictional discourse;

• Sound: ambient sound is recorded on camera, the use of silence, and the absence of a soundtrack.

5. The False Documentary in Fictional Both fiction and documentary features are articu- Uruguayan Television lated in these TV shows: at times, the documentary aspect is a form of incrustation or inlay in fiction, Free-to-air Uruguayan television consists of three weakly integrated in the story being told; at other private television companies (Saeta, Montecarlo, times, fiction frames documentary features con- and Teledoce) and two public stations (a national taining educational purposes. channel, TNU, and the other focused on the capital, Tevé Ciudad). Each private TV company is related Rotos y Descocidos (2016) falls in the first category to a paid television network: TCC, Montecable, and with a nine-episode run and a rating of 0.8% ac- Nuevo Siglo respectively. Combined, news and en- cording to Kantar Ibope. With characteristics of a tertainment represent around 70% of the national- sitcom, the story revolves around Majo, a televi- based production aired on Uruguayan TV, while fic- sion producer forced by her boss to leave a news tion has a minimum weight on the whole domestic program to produce a documentary show on love. programming (0.6%). The total hours of fiction here In the fictional story, Majo’s comings and goings analyzed combined in their correspondent years on and those of her work colleagues at the network air are between 8 to 10 hours a year (Orozco & Va- are interspersed with insertions of documentary sallo, 2016). excerpts: interviews of couples that tell their own love stories, usually in a fixed shot and excluding In the history of televised fiction in Uruguay there the questions from the interviewer. The documen- are noticeably two significant moments where pro- tary does not play a part in the story: the couples’ duction capacity is concentrated: the first is be- testimonies are simply excerpts embedded in the tween 1999 and 2004 (seven shows), and the sec- fictional story and are weak in the whole plot. ond between 2009 and 2012 (fifteen shows). Both These fragments are what move the series away seemed to herald the possibility of an audiovisual from the dynamics and aesthetic essential to a industry linked to television, they demonstrated a mockumentary, while including television as a topic certain level of established capacity and continuity and a scenario for the story does align with some of in the will and desire of some actors to produce, the features of content that characterize the genre. at the same time legal reforms were pushing to establishing screen quotas for national fictional Paleodetectives (2015) and Guia 19172 (2016) are production4. However, the drive to produce ulti- two very different cases illustrating a second form mately remained limited to those two moments. of articulating fiction and documentary. Paleo- From 2014 to 2018, only six shows were aired: Pa- detectives combines documentary style and the leodetectives, Los Aristonautas, Rotos y Descosidos, building up of a fictional world closed in on itself; El Mundo de los Videos, Feriados, Todos Detrás de in other words, it needs no external validation nor Momo, publicly funded and aired on public televi- does it need to match to what is real. The fictional sion, and a few web series as well (Sánchez-Vilela, universe in the series is built on the foundation of 2017, p.379). a system of characters: a group of children that band together to found the World Organization of Curious Children (OMNC) which, in each episode, Mockumentaries and TV series. An analytical approach to the genre and its trends in Uruguayan TV fiction 63 proposes a mystery about prehistoric animals once six episodes addressing the difficulties in achiev- living on national territory that they must solve. ing the goal of making into the Olympic Committee. Another three characters – the biologist, the pa- This particular mockumentary is set squarely in the leontologist, and the biochemical physicist – lead category of comedy, and does not develop the more the research to solve the enigma, as though they critical aspect of the genre. were detectives assigned to clearing a case. Each episode covers a detective-like storytelling plot in The fictional story behind Uruguay Desconocido which documentary discourse is inserted, and then takes a young character, a media worker, whose in turn contains the information the creators wish intention is to develop a sharp journalistic show, to share with the audience (Sánchez, 2016, p. 504). with evident allusion to local news productions. The series earned a rating of 1.2% according to However, his arrogance and incompetence lead Kantor Ibope and was broadcast on public televi- him into ridiculous, awkward, and uncomfortable sion, as was Guía 19172. situations with the people he interviews. The loca- tion in which the story develops, Canal M, is also In fact, Guía 19172 aired nine episodes and earned a real network, the very channel that airs the web a 0.8% rating. The production focused on topics series under scrutiny. The parodic nature of the linked to the legalization, regulation, consump- genre is what is most evident and prevalent in this tion, sale, and production of marijuana. The name production. The journalist’s transgressive claims, of the show refers to the law number. The fictional the family ties between the network’s workers and features come from the definition of the fake doc- its owner, can be interpreted as a satire on journal- umentary: an outline that situates the documen- ism and media, another trait that characterizes the tary as the thesis the main character has to turn mockumentary. in, some situations recreating the newsmaking process, or obstacles in producing that content. The type of humor in both shows could be defined However, it ultimately fails to constitute a fictional as the most awkward and uncomfortable one. Un- universe, and the documentary and education pur- folded situations seem to go nowhere, there are no poses prevail in the overall narrative. punchlines to jokes, rather the humor arises from discomfort. The precariousness of the production, The cases described above illustrate the variety of far from being hidden, is put on display as an aes- ways that fiction and non-fiction are articulated in thetic feature. The television shows out of Rio de Uruguayan productions, but in those shows we fail la Plata, Cha cha cha, Peter Capusotto y sus videos to see the expressive traits and model content of seem to have an influence on these productions5. the mockumentary (4.2). This study only addresses the most significant features regarding how well The two productions that are clearly far more repre- they fit the constitutionality of the genre, in other sentative of the genre are the two miniseries men- words, the “standard” is readily recognizable in tioned earlier: REC, Una serie casera (2012), with those shows. These are two web series and two nine episodes, and El Mundo de los Videos (2017), mini series in which the majority of the elements with five, both produced by the same writers and described in the model apply. directors. The first earned a 1% rating according to Kantar Ibope data, and the second, aired on Tevé Between 2014 and 2015 two comedic false docu- Ciudad, has no ratings information given that at the mentary web series were produced; Escuela de time there was no way of measuring viewership of Canotaje and Uruguay Desconocido. Each consisted the channel. In REC, using a handheld camera, a of six episodes and were both aired on Canal M, an teenager named Sebastián records the goings-on Internet channel linked to the news portal Monte- of his family at home, his outings with friends, and video.com. Escuela de Canotaje tells the story of a his day-to-day life as he experiences it. Each epi- struggling women’s canoeing club determined to sode switches up stories that take place in these compete in the Rio 2016 Olympics. The documen- two areas of family and friendship. The aesthetic tary cues are incarnated in the character leading of the fiction simulates that of a home video, as the club, a character that often breaks the fourth well as the apparent irrelevant nature of all the cir- wall and tells the camera about their aim to record cumstances he catches on camera. As one of the the entire process. The rhetoric is prevalent in all producers indicates, it is an aesthetic and narrative 64 Comunicación y Medios N°40 (2019) R. Sánchez-Vilela

option born under financial struggles: “The series sound is managed is essential: silence is part of begins with the idea that we want to do something the structure of the awkwardness portrayed in the and we know we don’t even have a mango6, what scene. The ordinary or quotidian nature of life at can we do with a mango? A home video”. At the the video club and of its characters takes on a slow same time, they acknowledge being influenced by pace, at times exasperating, a feeling replicated in television series such as The Office:“From here we the somewhat pitiful lives of the characters them- try to rob the semi documentary style where the selves. camera also takes part in the story, and the natural tone of the performances that exploit the tension found in awkward moments. We want to take ordinary life to the television screen in the most au- 6. Conclusions thentic way possible”7. Uruguayan television fiction in recent years has ex- El Mundo de los Videos initially presents itself as plored, in one way or another, its relationship with a documentary about a group of people linked to the documentary genre. Three variants were iden- a local video club that tries its hardest to survive, tified: one in which documentary-like discourse is but this is a fictional story. One of the most expres- a mere addition in a fictional world; a second in sive features of the fiction refers to perceiving the which the documentary embodies informative and constant presence of the camera, there are even educational purposes, and lastly, the mockumen- moments where the characters interact with the tary in which the oscillation between fictionaliza- people behind the camera and extort them for be- tion and authentication and their co-existence is ing witnesses of one action or another. At other essential. times, the characters just look right into the camera, likewise confirming its presence and made to As it has already been pointed out, genre is defined feel awkward by it; at one point, a character runs by its institutionality and, as such, built by those through the streets attempting to escape the cam- that create material: producers and audience. Fol- era. The slight instability and movement of the lowing Todorov (1996), “genres exist as an institu- camera, the way it moves from one face to another, tion and it is why they act as «horizons of expecta- are all the hallmark traits of a mockumentary. The tion» for readers, as «writing models» for authors” absence of music during narration, emphasizing (p. 53) and, under such frame, form the basis of the idea that the only thing you hear is real ambi- a communicative or reading pact. The fake docu- ance, is one of the expressive resources used in the mentary itself is a good example of that. It is built miniseries (music is only incorporated at the end of in relation to the genres that have been historically each episode). established, but the key is the receiver: the genre functions precisely because the spectator is famil- Additionally to the way of storytelling, there are iar with the rules (Corner, 1997; 2002) and can rec- other features intrinsic to the fake documentary ognize the resources that imply a false contract of regarding content. Under a style of ensemble cast, authentication and identify those cues in a pact of characters are anti-heroes: anonymous, border- fictionalization. Along the lines of the latter, we can line, with no particularly outstanding qualities that state that genre is the result of a co-construction. set them apart. Even characters that appear to have a modicum of bad will in them (such as Willy, In the four cases of mockumentaries analyzed in the owner of the video club), really don’t represent this study, there are two overriding fundamental anything beyond cheap mediocrity. The situations aspects to content: the choice of anti-hero charac- the characters go through are laced with dark hu- ters, the recurrence of awkwardness, and discom- mor and acerbic wit. However there are moments fort as a comedic tool. In the expressive dimension, when the humor is not readily encapsulated in that these Uruguayan shows explored the presence of definition; it is more of a laugh born out of the awk- the camera to provide a sense or feeling of authen- wardness of the situation: a situation that doesn’t ticity, the rhetoric, utilizing a medium shot typical require a punch line or a joke, rather the contem- of an interview, and in the way the production deals plation of a situation that hovers between absurd with sound and silence. All of the previous quali- and ridiculous. Under such circumstances, the way ties and techniques function in service of generat- Mockumentaries and TV series. An analytical approach to the genre and its trends in Uruguayan TV fiction 65 ing those awkward, funny, moments that permeate Notes Uruguayan mockumentaries.

1 Being cautious in transferring concepts to the field of The reasons explaining the trend are unclear. We mass communication media, the framework applied to suggest the following tentative interpretations. All this analysis comes from the theory of genre proposed by the productions are created by young producers Tzvetan Todorov, Jean-Marie Schaeffer, Gerard Genette, and filmmakers in which one can recognize several Osvald Ducrot, or Christian Doelker with a backdrop television influences they share. This is one way in developed and re-reading Aristotle’s Poetics.. which one could explain the frequent appearance 2 Several authors on the aesthetic of reception, such of the fake documentary and odd humor, a humor as Wolfgang Iser (1987), have highlighted this focus. stemming from awkwardness and discomfort. The Umberto Eco (1979) also points out a paradigmatic shift. financing behind these productions is precarious. Public funding they can apply for has forced them 3 The made-for-TV movie follows the events of the to manage a small budget: therefore, the mocku- fictitious band The Rutles, which parodies The Beatles. The immediate precursor is A Hard Day’s Night (1964) mentary is an instrument with which to dissimulate with The Beatles as the leads. the lack of resources. The precarious nature of the production is far from hidden, rather it is put on 4 Since 2010, the drafting of a media law heated up display as an aesthetic feature. public debate in Uruguay. In its early draft, the bill required that 60% of television programming must be produced domestically and that included at least two One must also take into consideration the prestige hours per week of new television material. The bill and legitimization of cinema over television, par- was passed in December 2014, but later some of the ticularly so in the documentary form within the articles were contested and deemed unconstitutional. landscape of domestic audiovisual production. The The requirements of airing TV material domestically prestige of the documentary is evident in a myriad produced was ultimately erased from the regulation. of ways: independent production companies gen- 5 Personal interview to Gaston Armango, one of the erally tend to focus on these types of productions, screenwriters and directors, March 2016. and there are opportunities providing a more dynamic environment and that legitimize projects 6 Colloquial expression from Rio de la Plata indicating in this area, enterprises such as DocMontevideo, having no money. a Latin American, televised meet for documental- 7 Statements from Maíias Ganz (El Pais, 09/08/2012). ists held once every year in Montevideo since 2009. Ganza made further, similar, comments in personal Opportunities for national fictionalized television interviews conducted in November 2017. seem as yet uncertain, public funds promoting them have historically been scarce, and only quite recently available in specific calls to bid for funds. In late 2016, a fund was created called SeriesUY, specifically targeting projects for fictional television, a competitive fund.

In this adverse and uncertain context, producers of television fiction have been forced to experi- ment with genres and handle the scarceness of resources. Although it isn’t the only one, the fake documentary has been one way of dealing with it. In any case, these fictional productions are created in relation to a current system of genres and are subject to specific production conditions. They ex- press the tension between the constitutionality of the genre, and its dynamic nature. 66 Comunicación y Medios N°40 (2019) R. Sánchez-Vilela

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• About the author:

Rosario Sánchez Vilela has a PhD in Political Science (UDELAR), a Master in Social Com- munication (UCU), and she is Full Professor and Head of the Department of Communica- tion at the Catholic University of Uruguay. Member of the Uruguayan National Research- er’s System Level II. She is the national chair for the Iberian-American Observatory of Television Fiction (Obitel).

• How to cite? Sánchez Vilela R. (2019). Falso documental y series de televisión. El género y sus vertientes en la ficción televisiva uruguaya. Comunicación y Medios, (40), 56-67.