Five Modes of Documentary Representation The Expository Mode

Five Modes of Documentary Representation The Expository Mode of Documentary Representation

Table of Contents 1) General ideas of documentary films 2) Five modes of documentary films 3) Expository mode of documentary representation 4) Robert Flaherty and his documentaries 5) Flaherty and British documentaries

General Ideas of Documentary Films • Documentary = a factual film or television programme about an event, person, etc. , presenting the facts with little or no fiction. • Documentary = A film whose representation of its subjects that viewers are intended to accept primarily as factual. A documentary film may present a story or may not.

General Ideas of Documentary Films The positions being questioned: • Documentaries are non-fiction films which are sharply distinguished from fiction films. The world depicted in the documentary is real, not imaginary. • The documentary filmmaker simply observes and objectively record real events.

General Ideas of Documentary Films • Documentary films do not alter reality, add something to or subtract something from reality. - Consist of raw footage of real people, real events and real objects. • Truthful reflection of actuality.

General Ideas of Documentary Films • Are documentary films true to their subjects? • Joris Ivens (a controversial Dutch documentary filmmaker) says it is permissible to make up things in non-fiction movies.

General Ideas of Documentary Films • Filmed in selected mise-en-scène • Filmed events are ordered and reshaped in montage • NOT RECORDED BUT CONSTRUCTED REALITY

General Ideas of Documentary Films • Documentaries represent events, objects and people only in degrees more truthfully than other types of films. • Truthfulness and factuality – not absolute but only relative concepts • NEVERTHELESS: • Search for ways in which documentaries represent ‘actuality’ as it really is lead to: • Types and schools of documentary filmmaking

Five Modes of Documentary Films • Types of documentary films - - factual film, ethnographic film, films of exploration, propaganda film, cinéma vérité, direct cinema (Richard Barsama) • Expository, observational, interactive, reflective and performative mode of documentary representations (Bill Nichols)

Expository Mode of Documentary Films • ‘The expository text addresses to the viewer directly, with titles or voices that advance an argument about the historical world… Expository texts take shape around commentary directed toward the viewer; images serve as illustration or counterpoint. ’ Bill Nichols • Voiceover (or subtitles) ‘illustrate’ story and image

Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries • Robert Flaherty (18841951) • When he was a boy, he accompanied his family that moved to Canada and as he grew up, he explored and photographed its northern regions. • One of the founding fathers of documentary film

Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries • John Grierson, who had studied mass communication in the USA, began using the term, documentary film, adopting the French word, documentaire. • “of course, Moana, [1926] being a visual account of events in the daily life of a Polynesian youth and his family, has documentary value. ” John Grierson

Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries • Nanook of the North (1922) about the daily lives of an Eskimo called Nanook and his family in the Belcher Islands in arctic Canada

Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries • Flaherty, a prospector, took a movie camera in his expedition and recorded the unfamiliar wildlife and people that he encountered. • Lives of Inuits

Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries • TRUTH AND FICTION/ • RECORDING AND CONSTRUCTION a) Every scene was planned in advance. … Discussion between Flaherty and Inuits about the filming of the walrus hunt. They may have to give up the kill if it interferes with the film. The reply: “yes, the Aggie will come first, not a man will stir, not a harpoon will be thrown until you give the sign. ”

Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries b) Nanook made suggestions what to be included. c) ‘Reality’ was touched and modified during filming and editing processes. Traditional costumes specially made and worn; the traditional harpoon was used specially for the film

Robert Flaherty and Hid Documentaries ‘… the film is not a straightforward recording of their everyday life: they amiably enacted some of it for Flaherty’s cameras. Bus so honest and instinctive was their playing that it was undoubtedly truth of a sort. ’ Delek Malcolm, Guardian journalist

Flaherty and British Documentaries • John Grierson invited Flaherty to Britain • Flaherty laid the foundation for the British documentary-making in the 30 s • GPO film unit and the Empire Marketing Board • Grierson as leader and Flaherty as inspiration, young British filmmakers like Basil Wright, Harry Watts, Alberto Cavalcanti

Flaherty and British Documentaries • Industrial Britain (1931) • Survey of British industry with emphasis on craftsmanship. • Aestheticization of reality • film

Mixed Modes of Documentary Reproduction • In most of documentary films, multiple modes and styles are employed. • Expository (images and verbal explanation) • Observational (images and sound without verbal explanation) • Interactive (interviews and oral history)

Mixed Modes of Documentary Reproduction • Harlan County, USA (1976) – a documentary film by Barbara Kopple about striking miners and their families in Brookside Coal Mine in Harlan County, Kentucky. It combines images and inter-title commentary (expository), fly-on-the-wall footage (observational) and interviews (interactive). hcu

Mixed Modes of Documentary Representation • Darlan County, USA – a exposé of miners’ pain and sacrifice, and existences plagued by lung disease, insufficient wages, and squalid living condition. Crusading against the social justice. • Contrast is never clearer when it is watched side by side with Industrial Britain.