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| Module 11 | | Traditional versus Cinema Verite Documentary |
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Differences in versions of reality are also a function of film
technique. Traditional documentary employs techniques in which the
filmmaker adopts a clearly defined perspective or agenda as reflected
in deliberate selection an editing of material to communicate that
perspective or agenda. Michael
Moore, in his documentaries, Roger
and Me, the Academy-Award winning, Bowling
for Columbine [ click here
for trailer ], and the Palme d'Or for Fahrenheit 9/11 at
the Cannes Film Festivalselects the material that will best convey
his perspective on General Motors’s disregard for the automobile
workers of Flint, Michigan, as well as the National Rifle Association.
Events may also be staged simply for the sake of the documentary,
as, for example, when Moore attempts to interview Roger Smith, the
CEO of General Motors, or Charlton Heston, the President of the
NRA. |
Traditional documentary also makes extensive use of interviews or quoted material, selecting and editing those interview clips that will most clearly convey the intended message. It also employs voice-over commentary to convey its primary points consistent with its desired message. And, it frequently employs interviews with participants regarding their experiences or perspectives on the issues portrayed. The Ken Burns PBS documentaries:
| Mark Twain (2001)
Jazz (2001)
Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony (1999)
Frank Lloyd Wright (1998)
Thomas Jefferson (1997)
Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (1997)
Baseball (1994)
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1991)
The Civil War (1990)
make use of historical photos, quotes from documents, and interview clips in a carefully edited montage of information to re-create past historical worlds.
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In discussing the making of his award-winning The Civil War, Burns notes how he attempted to recapture the history: |
In making this documentary, co-produced with my brother Ric, we wanted to tell the story of the bloodiest war in American history through the voices of the men and women who actually lived through it. And, to the greatest extent possible, we wanted to show the war and the people who experienced it through a medium that was still in its infancy in the 1860s — photography.
A photograph of citizens scanning the casualty lists to learn which of their sons, fathers, and husbands would be coming home — and which would not — speaks volumes about the grief and horror that washed over our country, becoming part of domestic routine without ever quite being domesticated.
And yet, what better way to “see” a soldier’s life than through the simple, unvarnished sentences of Private Elisha Hunt Rhodes’s diary; what better way to “feel” the combination of anxiety and determination before a battle than through the moving words of Sullivan Ballou’s letter home to his wife, Sarah?
These “verbal and visual documents” of the past convey meaning and emotions and stories on their own, if they’re allowed to speak for themselves. They can make the past, present. They can breathe life into history. They can illuminate the dramatic sweep and the minute details of important American moments — make them more memorable, more understandable than a recitation of dry facts, dates, and names.
We visited more than 80 museums and libraries, where we filmed some 16,000 photographs, paintings, and newspapers of the period. With the help of an extraordinary group of scholars and consultants, we also examined countless written accounts — diaries, letters, reminiscences — to glean a stockpile of quotations to accompany our stockpile of images.
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The primary characteristic of traditional documentary is that it is highly edited. A documentary filmmaker may have many hours of footage, which is they edited down to a two-hour film. The filmmaker is then selecting the material that is most consistent with the intended positions or attitudes of the film. This selectivity can result in excluding or masking over alternative perspectives or complex treatment of an issue or topic. Students therefore need to focus on the question as to what material is included and what material is excluded in a documentary. They also need to discern the particular biases evident in the documentary as shaping the selection of material. |
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