Lesson 13:Lesson 13:DocumentaryDocumentary

Professor Aaron Baker

Nanook of the North Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1922)(Robert Flaherty, 1922)

Previous LecturePrevious Lecture

• Film Authorship• French Ideas of Auteurism

-Film as Art

-Director Unifies Film/Communicates Personality (World View)

-Uses Style and Theme

-Film Can Be Commercial and Meaningful

Mira NairMira Nair

• Global Auteur• Her Themes:

-Diasporic Indian Culture

-Gender Roles• Represented Through Mise-en-Scene (Color),

Sound (Music), and Characters Choosing Hybrid Identities, Strong Women Resisting Traditional Roles

• The Namesake (2006)

Today’s LectureToday’s Lecture

• Documentary

-Form

-History

-Economic Context• The New Documentary• Errol Morris, A Thin

Blue Line (1988)

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Part I: Documentary FormPart I: Documentary Form

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The River The River (Pare Lorentz, 1938)(Pare Lorentz, 1938)

Expectations Expectations

• Shows Reality• Voice Over• Interviews• Stock Images• Animation• Boring: Lack of

Drama, Excitement

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Errol Morris:Errol Morris:

• “People think of documentary . . . as a species of the news, or journalism . . . about reality.”

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All Films Have a PerspectiveAll Films Have a Perspective

• No Film Fully Objective

• Choices about Content, How to Interpret It

• Still Documentary makes “claims to truthfulness” – Pat Aufderheide

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When the Levees Broke When the Levees Broke (Spike Lee 2006)(Spike Lee 2006)

A Certain Kind of ViewerA Certain Kind of Viewer

• Already Knowledgeable

• Interested in Learning More

• Willingness to Act As Citizen Based on Information Learned from Documentary

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Wal-Mart: The High Cost Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (of Low Price (2005)2005)

Part II: History of Part II: History of DocumentaryDocumentary

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• Documentary Popular from Origins of Cinema

• 1890s Lumiere Brothers• Actualities• Travelogues/ “Scenics”• Flaherty, Nanook of the

North (1922)• Cooper, Schoedsack

Grass (1925)11

From the BeginningFrom the Beginning

Clip # 1: The Lumieres’ Clip # 1: The Lumieres’ ActualiteActualite

• Workers Leaving Photographic Factory in Lyon, France

• 1895/First Film• 46 seconds• Louis Lumiere• Cinematographe

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Flaherty: “Artistic Flaherty: “Artistic Representation of Actuality”Representation of Actuality”• Artistic License• Essential Truth• “A definition that has

proved durable because it is so flexible” --Aufderheide

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Cinema VeriteCinema Verite

• Direct Cinema• Location, Handheld

Camera, Synch Sound

• Observation • Minimal Director

Involvement

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Frederick Wiseman’s Frederick Wiseman’s High School High School (1968)(1968)

Political DocumentaryPolitical Documentary

• Harlan County 1976 Barbara Koppel

• Coal Miners’ Strike in Kentucky

• Their Own Words• 1976 Academy

Award

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Fahrenheit 9/11, Fahrenheit 9/11, 2004 2004

• Negative Portrayal Pres. George W. Bush

• Claims

-Inept Handling 9/11

Attacks

-Ties to Saudi Royal

Family• Clip # 2

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Angry, Controversial—Not Angry, Controversial—Not BoringBoring

• Fits New Documentary Style• Humor, Strong POV• Top Earner All Time for

Documentary

Propaganda?Propaganda?

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• Eternal Jew (1940)

Anti Semitism• Olympia (1938)

Nazi Superiority• The River (1938)

Support for New Deal

Oppositional Viewpoints Oppositional Viewpoints

• Inform Public of Views Don’t Often Here

• Freedom of Speech• Question Authority• Instigate Reform

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Emile de Antonio’s Emile de Antonio’s Point Point of Order of Order (1964)(1964)

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Wal-Mart The High Cost of Wal-Mart The High Cost of Low PriceLow Price, 2005, 2005

• Filmmaker Robert Greenwald• DVD Distribution• Impact on Small Business, Employees• Sought Legislative Pushback

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Reaction from Wal-MartReaction from Wal-Mart

• Attack Ads• Blogs• Mainstream Media

Coverage• Bill O’Reilly on Fox: “Greenwald . . . is a

ridiculous human being.”

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An Inconvenient TruthAn Inconvenient Truth, 2006, 2006

• Filmmaker, Davis Guggenheim

• Presentation by Al Gore

• Global Warming• Information on

Climate Change and a Definite POV

Jim Hansen, NASA:Jim Hansen, NASA:

“Al Gore may have done for global warming what Silent Spring (1962 book)

did for pesticides. He will be attacked, but the public will have information.”

--Quoted in Auferdeide, 8.

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Born Into Brothels, Born Into Brothels, 20042004

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Original Plan: Show Original Plan: Show Prostitutes Prostitutes

• Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman

• Calcutta Red Light District

• “An inherently abusive place”--Briski

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Their KidsTheir Kids

• Gave Cameras to Kids

• To “See this world through their eyes”

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Their PerspectiveTheir Perspective

• How do we get the kids point of view in this clip?

• Clip # 3

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Their Voices/ViewpointsTheir Voices/Viewpoints

• Kids are each introduced.

• Protagonists• We see them taking

pictures.• Briski’s Voice Over• Kids speak also.

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But Filmmakers’s But Filmmakers’s InvolvementInvolvement

• Briski and Kauffman tried to help kids.

• Avijit to Amsterdam• Boarding School • Still Documentary?• Involvement Typical of

“New Documentary”• Academy Award

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Token ImprovementToken Improvement

• Partha Banerjee• No Improvement for

Other Children• Social Context Too

Complicated

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Awareness Through Awareness Through Documentary DiscourseDocumentary Discourse

• Paolo Freire, Brazilian Scholar, Activist

• Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968)

• Everyone can be a human rights educator

• Raise awareness through cultural discourse.

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Part III: Economic ContextPart III: Economic Context

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Not Commercial?Not Commercial?

• Documentaries Teach

• No Entertainment? • Too Serious?

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Since 1990s, Popularity Since 1990s, Popularity GrowsGrows

Revenue in Millions:

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) $106.8

Bowling for Columbine (2002) $21.8

Super-Size Me (2004) $11.4

Winged Migration (2003) $10.8

Hoop Dreams (1994) $7.8

Spellbound (2003) $6.7

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Less Costly to MakeLess Costly to Make

• Fictional Films Avg. $100 million (MPAA)

• Docs Cheaper• Still Require

Business Model• Must Reach

Audience• Broadcasters (PBS,

HBO)35

The Secret History The Secret History of the Credit Cardof the Credit CardFrontline Frontline Documentary on Documentary on PBSPBS

Reality TV, Not Reality TV, Not DocumentaryDocumentary

• Unscripted• Non Professionals

(Usually)• But Artificial

Situations• Emphasis on Drama• “Docusoaps”

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TheThe Real World Real World MTV 1992MTV 1992

Sensationalism SellsSensationalism Sells

• Sex, violence, controversy sell.

• Aufderheide: Are Films with Those

Elements,

-Truthful?

-Informative?

-Challenge viewers to know more?

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Fahrenheit 9/11Fahrenheit 9/11: Selling : Selling Working-Class Rage?Working-Class Rage?

“He was encouraging viewers to look critically at the government’s words and actions. Potentially weakening this encouragement, however, was his calculated performance of working class rage, which can lead viewers to see themselves not as social actors but merely as disempowered victims.”

Aufderheide, 7

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Part IV: New Documentary Part IV: New Documentary and The Films of Errol and The Films of Errol

MorrisMorris

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New DocumentaryNew Documentary

• Ross McElwee Sherman’s March 1986

• Errol Morris The Thin Blue Line 1988

• Reenactments• Stylized Form• Personal and Objective

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Errol MorrisErrol Morris

• Eleven Films• 2004 Oscar for Fog

of War

As Interviewer:• Fewer Questions• Let Subjects Talk• Stream of

Conscious Interview

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InterrotronInterrotron

• Like Teleprompter• Subjects Speak

Directly to Viewers• No Filmmaker

Presence• Clip # 4 Using

Interrotron from The Thin Blue Line

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Film to VideoFilm to Video

• Changed from shooting film to HD Video

• Sony 24 P Camera• From 11 Mins. In

Film Magazine to Unlimited Shooting

• Marathon Interviews

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The Thin Blue Line, The Thin Blue Line, 19881988

• Argued Randall Adams wrongly convicted for murder of a police officer in Dallas County, Texas

• Initially avoided documentary label for better marketing

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Murder Case ReopenedMurder Case Reopened

• Adams served 11 years for murder.

• Chief witness, David Harris, confesses at end of Morris’s film.

• Adams’ conviction overturned. Thin Blue Line

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David HarrisDavid Harris

• Harris Committed Another Murder the Weekend Scheduled for Morris Interview

• After Adams acquittal film called “documentary”

• Harris Executed in Texas in 2005

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Worked as Private DetectiveWorked as Private Detective

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• Has called himself a "detective director”• Spent 30 months investigating Adams case

for The Thin Blue Line.• "Adams told me he was innocent," Morris

remembered. . . , "but everybody in prison tells you they are innocent. It was only after I met David Harris that I began to suspect that the wrong man had been convicted of murder."

New Documentary New Documentary StylizationStylization

• Dramatic Reenactments

• Staged Shots• Slow Motion• Clip # 5

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DreamscapesDreamscapes

“Part of what I love about documentary is this idea that you can reinvent the form every time you make one. And you can create visuals that are really strange. Oddly enough, that are severed from reality. They’re not reenactments, per se. . . . They’re dreamscapes that you’re creating to go with interview material.”

--Errol Morris

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Critic Linda Williams: Critic Linda Williams:

• The Thin Blue Line upsets traditional opposition truth vs. fiction

• Morris’s film instead shows more important choice between which strategies of fiction to use to reach relative truths.

Linda Williams, " iMirrors without Memories," in Barry Grant and Jeannette Sloniowski (eds), Documenting the Documentary, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1998.

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SummarySummary

• Documentary Informs Us About World

• But Always Presents A Perspective

• New Documentary • “Fictionalize to Reach

Truth”• Errol Morris, The Thin

Blue Line 198851

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