Documentary Engagement, Origin, and Distinctions
Documentary film differentiates from its fiction film counter via distinguishing characteristics. However, the documentary and fiction film realms often converge creating combinations of genres. Hybrid genres still retain the ability to engage and persuade an audience and offer a beneficial, symbiotic relationship between genres. Though the topics of how documentary film started as well as how to differentiate between the different forms of itself come into play.
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| Citizenfour Movie Poster |
The triangle of communication references the intertwined stories of the filmmaker, the film, and the audience. The story of the filmmaker references how they explain their motives, the film’s story references the viewer’s understanding and interpretation of a film and the audience’s story of the audiences references their perspectives and motives based on previous experiences (Nichols, 2010). This method of communication is an element that assists in making a film engaging and persuasive. These stories manifest an awareness of a documentary film. The viewers become aware that the film came from somewhere and was made by someone (Nichols, 2010). This is evident in the film Citizenfour as we see the director and filmmaker Laura Poitras interact with the social actors such as Joseph Snowden and Glenn Greenwald. In addition, the formulation of a film’s style makes the audience aware of the camera. The audience was allowed to see where the cameras stood as well as to experience most events that occurred whether spontaneous or expected.
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| Edward Snowden (far left), David Miranda (second left), Glen Greenwald (first right), and Laura Poitras (far right). |
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| 13th Movie Poster |
The basis of the stylistic, rhetorical principles of making film compelling stems from documentaries often seeks to tap into the assumptions and expectations of the audience to establish rapport rather than revulsion or projection (Nichols, 2010). In addition, documentary film often appeals to the audience’s desire for information, explanations as well as government policy. The film 13th by Ava DuVernay dutifully captures these elements. DuVernay uses interviews from various credible sources such as Angela Davis—political activist— and Michelle Alexander—civil rights activist—among others to explain facts, statistics, and United States policies related to crime in the U.S. and how it has affected all stakeholders within the black culture. Many documentary films often rely heavily on commentary as a spoken language to replay oppressive themes to the audience. In combination with relevant archival or original footage, the value of documentary stems from the concepts of the spoken language as well as visual and audible representations (Nichols, 2010).
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| Statistics of the percentage of black men in U.S. prisons from the movie 13th. |
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| Origin of Documentary: Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory |
The voice of documentary—how a documentary offers a proposal or perspective. The desire for realism allowed for the establishment of documentary voice. The mythic origin of documentary manifested from the capacity of the photographic image and how a camera could capture reality. Documentary films give the audience a sense that they are looking beyond their world into an entirely new one. The origin of documentary and realism in the realm of fiction film started with the film Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory. The first myth states that the filmmaker was a hero who traveled far and wide to reveal hidden corners and remarkable occurrences that were part of our reality (Nichols, 2010). The filmmaker’s desire to record the accuracy of an image deals with the second myth. The second myth states that film images possessed the power to reproduce the world by dint of a photomechanical process in which light energy passed through a lens onto a photographic emulsion (Nichols, 2010). However, the problem with the mythic origin stems from what the camera records as well. The rigorous documentation of what the camera records diverges into paths that differ from documentary—science, and spectacle (Nichols, 2010). Though science and spectacle differ from documentary, they contribute to the development of documentary. The ability of the photographic image as well as the ability to record sound replicates source material creates the scientific modes of representation (Nichols, 2010). Spectacle came from the scientist use of imagery which was called “cinema of attractions.” This concept relied on the photographic image to present viewers with sensational sketches of the unusual depictions of everyday life (Nichols, 2010).
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| Snowden Movie Poster |
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| Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) being interviewed. |
The characteristics and classifications as documentary are still often debated. This is because documentary films often blur the line between genres, fiction, and nonfiction films, as well as documentary and non-documentary films. However, the modes and of documentary and models of nonfiction films play a significant role to prevent confusion. Snowden and Citizenfour are both films—one being a fiction film and the other documentary—that blur the line and use elements of more than one genre. Snowden dramatizes the events of Edward Snowden’s life surrounding the documentary Citizenfour. Thus, the audience sees Snowden, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and his internal moral turmoil, issues with epilepsy as well as the ups and downs with his girlfriend Lindsay Mills, played by Shailene Woodley. This fiction film mimics scenes from the documentary film Citizenfour and pretends to be a documentary in some scenes. Citizenfour is classified as a thriller documentary due to the high stakes consequences that Edward Snowden chooses to carry as his metaphorical cross (IMDb, 2014). One of the modes of documentary that could be used to classify this film would be the participatory mode due to the interactions between the director and her social actors. Snowden is classified as a drama/thriller as well as a mockumentary (IMDb, 2016).
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| Wild China Video Cover |
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| Rice Feilds featured in Wild China |
In conclusion, the stories of the filmmaker, film and audience help to make a film engaging as well as persuasive. In addition, the stylistic rhetorical choices made when presenting desired information also encapsulates an audience’s attention. The voice of documentary manifested from the appetite for realism via photographic images. The mythic origin of documentary voice also comes from the development of the nonsynonymous concepts of science and spectacle. Lastly, the scientific modes of documentary representation as well as the models of nonfiction films are a necessity when classifying the flexible nature of documentary films.
Sources:
IMDb. (2014, November 06). Citizenfour. Retrieved April 03, 2019, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4044364/
IMDb. (2016, September 15). Snowden. Retrieved April 03, 2019, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3774114/
Nichols, B. (2010). Introduction to documentary (2nd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
