Documentary Filmmaking FACULTY: MEERA SHIRODKAR (ASST. PROF.)

Based on the clip/video seen answer the following: 1.Title of the film 2.Topic / Theme of the Film 3.What techniques do you notice? A) Who are the subjects of the film? INTERVIEWS With subject(s) of film? Interviews With experts? B) STORYTELLING TECHNIQUES Any use of Stock footage, historical or archival footage ? Re-enactment? Narrator / voice-over (Who is telling the story?) Conversational dialogues or scripted dialogues ?

C ) PURPOSE/AGENDA Were there attempts to persuade? What did the filmmaker(s) want viewers to think? Were factual claims made? D) INFORMATION SOURCES: Could you tell what were the information sources? List the sources you could identify. E) Anything else that you noticed?

Documentary Non- Fiction Factual Documents Record Reveal Preserve Purpose / Agenda Persuade Promote Analyse Interrogate Express Research Point of view Treatment Structure

DOCUMENTARY BEGINNINGS  Lumiere Brothers: developed small hand cranked camera – Filmed any spontaneous event. - Feeding of the Baby, Arrival of a Train at the Station, Workers Leaving from the Lumiere Factory  1922 – Nanook of the North – first full length documentary by Robert Flaherty.

 John Grierson: reviewed Robert Flaherty’s film and defined it as “ A non-fiction text using ‘actuality’ footage, which may include the live recording of events and relevant research material (i.e. interviews, statistics etc). Usually has a particular point of view and seeks to add a particular sociological issue which is related to and potentially effects the audience.”

Aspects of Documentaries  “Documentary as the “creative treatment of actuality.”  Documentary and Time: past, present and future  Documentary as socially critical  Individuality and point of view  Documentary is an organised story  Documentary’s range of forms: can be controlled, premeditated, spontaneous, unpredictable, lyrical or observational. Use of words, images, music, painting, songs and so on.  Unfolding evidence

OBJECTIVE DOCUMENTARY: Less intrusion on the part of the filmmaker. Audience left to make judgement about the meaning, argument and characters. SUBJECTIVE DOCUMENTARY: More intrusion on the part of the filmmaker. Presents a very specific point of view and seeks to persuade or evoke specific emotions in the audience.

Modes of Documentaries  Poetic Documentary: organized images of the material world by means of associations and patterns, both in terms of time and space: abstract. The films were fragmentary, impressionistic, lyrical.  Expository Documentary: (voice of God): speak directly to the viewer, often in the form of an authoritative commentary employing voiceover or titles, proposing a strong argument and point of view. uses a narrator, emphasises verbal commentary – assumes a logical argument- Eg: TV News Programming, Nature Documentaries

 Observational Documentary: observes things as they happen- without using re-enactment, ‘fly on the wall’ technique. Attempt to simply and spontaneously observe lived life with a minimum of intervention.  Participatory Documentary: Interviews or direct interactions between filmmaker and its subjects.