Aitken, Mark. 2019. Emotional truths in documentary making. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, Uni- versity of London [Thesis] https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/27688/ The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Goldsmiths, University of London via the following email address: [email protected]. The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. For more information, please contact the GRO team: [email protected] Emotional truths in documentary making Mark Aitken - 22228387 PhD by Publication Media and Communications Goldsmiths, University of London 30.08.19. i Declaration of Authorship I (Mark Aitken) hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: Date: 30.08.19 ii Mark Aitken Media and Communications Goldsmiths, University of London PhD by Publication Supervisors: Prof Tony Dowmunt, Dr Gareth Stanton Abstract Emotional truths in documentary making The abundance of documentary making and instability of ‘truths’ in the current ‘post-truth’ era suggests a need to reconsider past and present epistemological claims by non-fiction. Burdens of documentary ‘truth’ were shed in favour of subjective ‘truths’ advocated by film makers and subjects. Documentary ‘truths’ are defined as performative but we should accept the possibility of ‘untrue’ performance. Audience interpretation of performative ‘truths’ also proves to be relative to belief and emotions. This unstable plurality of ‘truths’ calls for renewed trust in film makers, subjects and audiences. My thesis offers coherence to a ten-year body of work where I sought to understand trauma in subjects. I emphasise often overlooked film maker/subject dynamics and posit this as a location for developing trust. ‘Emotional truths’ may result from feeling the subject’s trauma while acknowledging filters of pain on memory. The process requires a creative exchange based on an empathetic, non-hierarchical encounter. I examine how these ‘truths’ are constructed through ‘performative collaboration’ and how they manifest in the work - following consensus between subject and film maker. Apart from my own practice, I cite similar, contrasting, past and recent examples of ‘emotional truths’ while being critical of films and film makers refusing empathy towards subjects. Finally, catharsis may occur variably for the subject, film maker and audience as trauma is re-contextualised through performed emotions in the film. Ideally, ‘emotional truths’ might be experienced by the audience as they feel - rather than merely gain knowledge about - trauma. iii Contents Declaration of Authorship i Abstract ii Contents iii Table of figures iv Introduction 1 Part One How did it feel? 5 Summary 22 Part Two Emotional truths in documentary making 25 Dead when I got here 28 Forest of Crocodiles 83 Until when you die 119 Sanctum Ephemeral 151 Part Three Conclusion 162 Impact overview of published works and research 168 Bibliography 172 iv Table of figures 1 Josué attempting to engender remorse from a violent patient. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 37 2 Josué utilising empathy while speaking with a patient. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 39 3 A patient listening to Josué describe past tribulations. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 39 4 Josué taking authority over inquisitive police. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 41 5 A patient drawing a long-lost home as described by the woman who lived there. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 42 6 Josué performing his internal monologue. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 46 7 Josué consciously working with the camera while not speaking. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 47 8 Performance as a hybrid of the presentational and representational. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 48 9 Josué re-enacting his near-death experience with Memo who struggles to remember coherently. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 50 10 Josué conjuring evidence from the ruins of his past. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 54 11 Josué considering how much he’s changed while visiting old friends. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 55 12 Josué recognising the loss of his brother. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 56 13 Josué hearing confirmation of his brother not wanting to see him. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 57 v 14 Josué coming to terms with the loss of his family. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 57 15 Psychiatric patients publicly exorcising the devil of Juárez. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 61 16 Josué presenting his elation for the camera as he plans to present himself to his estranged daughter. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 68 17 Josué sharing his joy while holding a bus ticket that will end 25 years of estrangement from his daughter. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 69 18 Josué taking direction on how to present himself to his daughter. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 73 19 A reunion constructed for the camera. (Still, Dead when I got here, 2015.) 75 20 Audience engagement was both moving and mysterious. (Mark Aitken, 2015.) 79 21 Mark Aitken and Josué Rosales after viewing the film. (Molly Molloy, 2015.) 85 22 Margaretha describing being attacked in her home. (Still, Forest of Crocodiles, 2009.) 97 23 Living behind bars and trapped in fear. (Still, Forest of Crocodiles, 2009.) 101 24 Using voiceover to interpret images. (Still, Forest of Crocodiles, 2009.) 102 25 Performing trauma as therapy – sequence. (Still, Forest of Crocodiles, 2009.) 105 26 Performing trauma as therapy – sequence. (Still, Forest of Crocodiles, 2009.) 105 27 Performing trauma as therapy – sequence. (Still, Forest of Crocodiles, 2009.) 105 28 Counterpointing irrational fears. (Still, Forest of Crocodiles, 2009.) 110 vi 29 Offering tension between voiceover and image. (Still, Forest of Crocodiles, 2009.) 113 30 Expressing feelings in prayer. (Still, Forest of Crocodiles, 2009.) 117 31 Changing history. (Still, Until when you die, 2007.) 131 32 Auntie visiting friends she made when first arriving as a refugee. (Still, Until when you die, 2007.) 133 33 Present day associations with the past - sequence. (Still, Until when you die, 2007.) 137 34 Present day associations with the past - sequence. (Still, Until when you die, 2007.) 138 35 Present day associations with the past - sequence. (Still, Until when you die, 2007.) 140 36 Present day associations with the past - sequence. (Still, Until when you die, 2007.) 142 37 The banal acting as metaphor for history. (Still, Until when you die, 2007.) 145 38 Interpreting impressions of refugees in transit – sequence. (Still, Until when you die, 2007.) 146 39 Interpreting impressions of refugees in transit – sequence. (Still, Until when you die, 2007.) 147 40 Interpreting impressions of refugees in transit – sequence. (Still, Until when you die, 2007.) 148 41 Interpreting impressions of refugees in transit – sequence. (Still, Until when you die, 2007.) 148 42 Phylis. (Mark Aitken, Sanctum Ephemeral, 2017.) 155 43 Danny. (Mark Aitken, Sanctum Ephemeral, 2017.) 158 44 John. (Mark Aitken, Sanctum Ephemeral, 2017.) 160 45 John. (Mark Aitken, Sanctum Ephemeral, 2017.) 162 1 Introduction In Jean Rouch’s and Edgar Morin’s Chronicle of a Summer (1961), Marceline Loridan walks across Place de la Concorde into a deserted Les Halles. 1 Marceline’s sombre tone recalls trauma of incarceration in a concentration camp with her father: he places an onion in her hand; an SS guard hits her; she passes out. Then and now, the scene is a radical documentary construct: a character recording and directing their own performance while negotiating traumatic memories. As French film critic Jean-Louis Comolli comments, ‘The body, the word, the text, the character – up to that point, separated elements – became joined’. 2 Bill Nichols assesses, ‘If they had waited for the event to occur on its own so they could observe it, it would never have occurred’. 3 Nichols misses the intervention of the subject. The scene was proposed by Marceline and it was her idea to conceal the microphone and recorder under her coat. A process of collaboration that Rouch was beginning to develop - inspiring Marceline to claim, ‘I understood how one could act 1 Chronicle of a Summer, Directed by Jean Rouch, Edgar Morin. London: Criterion, 2013. DVD, @ 00:57:12 – 01:00:47. 2 Jean-Louis Comolli, ‘L’oral et l’oracle, séparation du corps et de la voix,’ Images documentaries, La voix no. 55-6 (Winter 2006), pp.36-7. 3 Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2001), 118. 2 oneself. I understood how one could use emotion and look good on film’. 4 At the end of Chronicle, Rouch and Morin assess how ‘truthful’ the work is. Morin suggests Marceline performed ‘her most authentic side’ 5 while Rouch claims she wasn’t acting. They considered their work to be a failure in terms of it not being, ‘true to life’. 6 Winston, Vanstone and Chi disagree with Rouch and recognise the element of performance here, ’What the participants lived was not their lives but their lives while being filmed’. 7 Performative ‘lives while being filmed’ are located by Stella Bruzzi within a ‘collision between apparatus and subject’. 8 I introduce Rouch’s film to illustrate that awareness of this ‘collision’ between film maker and subject isn’t new. Marceline’s scene and our knowledge of its construction offers key insights and evidence of what I’m proposing as ‘emotional truths in 4 Brian Winston, Gail Vanstone, Wang Chi, The Act of Documenting (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 101.