Introduction to Factual programmes and documentary formats

 Studying Documentary Forms 

The popular success of television shows such as Big Brother (Channel 5) suggests that we are as 

keen on watching real lives for entertainment today as audiences were at the beginning of the last century, when short films of people doing everyday tasks were popular side shows. 

 

Documentary is an umbrella term that covers a multitude of different forms (both in film and 

television) and styles, all of which have at their heart some element of the presentation, or a visual document or record, of reality. 

 

The controversy that surrounds recent programmes also suggests that we are not entirely comfortable with this mixture of real life and entertainment. Questions about the authenticity of documentary products, their purposes and their relationship to the audience have been asked for as long as we have recognised the form of documentary. One of the key points of debate has been about reaching an agreed definition of the documentary form. 

 

In 1936 John Grierson, a highly influential early maker of documentaries, proposed that documentaries were ‘… the creative treatment of actuality’. 

 

Conventionally, documentary is associated with objectivity, authenticity and truthfulness. However, Grierson’s definition seems to suggest an element to documentary that is almost the opposite of these ideas - creativity. 

Clark, V.; Baker, J.; Lewis, E. (2002) Key Concepts & Skills for Media Studies: Hodder & Stoughton 

 

Grierson coined the term documentary in the 1930’s and it was his belief that documentary should be an instrument for information, education and propaganda as well as a creative treatment of 

reality. Grierson wanted, like other members of the British establishment, to use film as a method of educating people, particularly those who could vote, and he used documentaries to do this. In the 1930’s he was the producer of forty-two documentaries for GPO, which focussed on presenting aspects of British life, institutions, governmental agencies and social problems – all with the 

intention of involving citizens in their society. Coalface (1935), about the miners and their labour, and Night Mail (1936), about the Post Office workers are exemplary films in this regard. 

 

Documentaries can, however, be traced back to the earliest days of cinema. In the 1890’s, the Lumière brothers were making films which appeared to simply capture or follow events as they occurred. One of the most famous examples would be La sortie des Usines Lumière (Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory) from 1895. 

We are the Lambeth Boys (Karel Reisz, 1957) A nostalgic look at London life in the 1950's. B&W 

 

Director 

Karel Reisz 

Production Co. Graphic Films Sponsor 

Ford Motor Company Producer 

Leon Clore 

Photography Walter Lassally Editor 

John Fletcher 

 

Members of Alford House Youth Club in Kennington, London, are seen at school, at work, and taking part in the club's activities. 

 

Sociologist Richard Hoggart talked of it as a 'film essay' rather than a documentary, because, as he claimed, "it sets out to show, not the whole truth, but some aspects of the truth, 

wholly". The film suffers similar drawbacks to Every Day Except Christmas: the unnecessary voice-over commentary gives it a paternalist tone which undermines the sensitivity of Reisz's images and natural sound, and seems obsolete to today's spectator. The film also loses some of its 'poetic authenticity' by trying too hard to show how nice these youngsters are. 

 

 

Q. How real did you find We Are the Lambeth Boys? 

I found it to be quite real. It showed them interacting as they normally would, and nothing seemed staged. 

 

 

Q. What do you think detracted from the authenticity of the text? 

 

I think the constant cutting detracted from the authenticity it just made it seem jumpy and unnatural. 

Louis and the Nazis (Stewart Cabb, 2003) 

A look at modern day Nazis and white supremacists in America. 

 

Cast & credits 

Director & producer Stewart Cabb 

Writer 

Louis Theroux 

 

Louis travels to California to meet the man dubbed "the most dangerous racist in America", Tom Metzger. Louis meets him, his family and his publicity manager as well as 

following him to skinhead rallies and on a visit to Mexico. He also encounters the Nazi-pop folk duo ‘Prussian Blue’ and their mother and maternal grandfather. 

 

The Louis Theroux Method is probably already being taught on media studies courses in our newer universities; if it's not, it should be. The armoury of tricks - the rumpled sexiness, the pregnant silences, all that disarming business with mugs of tea - is the most effective in the business right now, eliciting confidences from the most reluctant subjects. 

 

[In Louis and the Nazis] Theroux was rightly disappointed that these hateful people were so ineffectual because it made them difficult to hate. Without power or influence, they were only hurting themselves and their families, and we were forced to consider the human cost of their delusions. 

 

There were some hairy moments along the way, most memorably when Theroux's skinhead hosts turned nasty over his dogged refusal to tell them whether or not he was a Jew. We saw a lot of Sieg-Heiling and other posing, which was about as threatening as a two-year-old 

playing with his willy. Theroux resisted the temptation to revel in the comedy of it all, and left California in a sober mood, wondering what it all meant. By refusing to provide any answers - to his anti-Semitic tormentors, or to his audience - Theroux sowed instead the seeds of doubt. 

Smith, R (2003) Reich and Wrong from The Guardian: Guardian News and Media Ltd. 

 

 

Q. How real did you find Louis and the Nazis? 

Overall, I found Louis and the Nazis to be real. There didn’t seem to be any elements that were staged and the responses from the subjects seemed authentic and their true opinion. Louis also seemed real with his responses to the subject’s comments and truly seemed upset by their opinions and his questioning of them seemed real not just like he had to because it was being filmed. 

 

Q. What do you think detracted from the authenticity of the text? 

I think the response of the first subject detracted from the authenticity of the text. She seemed to get animated very quickly which may lead some audiences to question the authenticity of the editing. 

Powaqqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1988) 

An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernisation has had on them. 

 

Director 

Godfrey Reggio Executive Producer Francis Ford Coppola 

 

Powaqqatsi is a Hopi word meaning "parasitic way of life" or 

"life in transition". While Koyaanisqatsi focused on modern life in industrial countries, Powaqqatsi, which similarly has no 

dialogue, focuses more on the conflict in third world countries between traditional ways of life and the new ways of life 

introduced with industrialisation. As with Koyaanisqatsi and 

the third and final part of the 'Qatsi' trilogy, Naqoyqatsi, the film is strongly related to its soundtrack, written by Philip Glass. Here, human voices (especially children's and mainly from 

South America and Africa) appear more than in Koyaanisqatsi, in harmony with the film's message and images. IMDB 

 

There are images of astonishing beauty in Godfrey Reggio's Powaqqatsi, sequences when we marvel at the sights of the Earth, and yet when the film is over there is the feeling that we 

are still waiting for it to begin. The film is not so much a sequel as a continuation of 

Koyaanisqatsi, the 1983 film in which Reggio drew contrasts between the world of nature and the world of man. 

 

In that film, he used speeded-up film to show us clouds climbing the sides of mountains, and then thousands of cars speeding crazily up and down the canyons of Manhattan. The message, I think, was that man has taken the beauty of the world and turned it into an 

overcrowded, environmentally insane travesty. The logical flaw in the film was that Reggio's images of beauty were always found in a world entirely without man - without even the Hopi Indians whose word for "life out of balance" provided the title for his film. Reggio seemed to think that man himself is some kind of virus infecting the planet - that we would enjoy Earth more, in other words, if we weren't here. 

Roger Ebert (http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/powaqqatsi-1988) 

 

Q. How real did you find Powaqqatsi? 

 

I found it to be quite real because it accurately portrays a day in the life of people from across the globe. 

 

Q. What do you think detracted from the authenticity of the text? 

 

I think the sound contradicted what they were doing. It was quite upbeat and jovial and almost seemed to build to a crescendo, which juxtaposes what they were doing as they’re probably on a dismal wage and are passing out yet the music was upbeat. 

Night Mail - Music seems quite chaotic almost seems to build to a crescendo. The filming from all angles makes it seem planned and thought out rather than being spontaneous and just filming people working.

Workers leaving the Lumiere factory - May be unplanned and spontaneous as people leaving work seem to pay no notice to the camera and instead seem focused on what they're doing. However, this may have been on purpose and the film maker may have asked them to purposefully ignore the camera in order to make the film seem more natural.

Documentary Mini Task

A documentary is a factual piece of film. It provides insights into situations occurring around the globe and raises awareness about certain situations. Alternatively a documentary may also contain factual evidence for example a missing person documentary may provide clues and evidence in the hope that a viewer will see these and may know something.

Expository documentaries set up a specific point of view or argument about a subject and a narrator often speaks directly to the viewer, emphasizing the relationship between the images presented on-screen and offering verbal commentary. They essentially create an argument or debate by provoking cast members or audience members. An example of an expository documentary is 'David Attenborough's Blue Planet' (2001), it essentially makes the audience feel guilty as it's hinting that they've ruined the lives of sea creatures and marine life.

Observational documentaries are a type of documentary filmmaking that aims to record realistic, everyday life without intrusion. It's essentially like a reality tv show and focusses on realism rather than anti-realism. An example of an observational 'Frederick Wiseman’s High School' (1968) that captures the everyday life of students in Philadelphia.

Interactive documentaries are documentary production that differs from the more traditional forms—video, audio, photographic—by applying a full complement of multimedia tools. The filmmakers presence is evident and they are a participant of the documentary. There's also interaction between the interviewees, the presenter and the audience with arguments usually present in these interactions. An example of an interactive documentary Shane Dawson's YouTube documentary 'The Secret World of Jeffree Star' it shows the life of Jeffree Star meaning it could also be observational to a certain extent however it creates arguments and misinterpretation and manipulation is present throughout. Furthermore, Shane Dawson features throughout the whole documentary who is also the filmmaker.

Reflexive documentaries document fictional events comically. They focus on the relationship between the filmmaker and the audience, pushing viewers to reflect on their perceptions and re-analyze their notions of truth. The filmmaker attempts to expose typical conventions of a documentary to the audience through the construction of documentary texts. The documentary also typically tends to consist of shots that capture 'everyday life' however they then use those shots as bricks in building an experimental film. An example of a reflexive documentary is Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends (1998)  which showcases documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux traveling to different places while chronicling his experiences encountering “weird” events—interactions with subcultures or groups that some viewers may not typically encounter in their everyday lives.

Performative documentaries are essentially a performance for the documentary maker. It represents the world indirectly and emphasizes presentation rather than the content being provided to the audience. It uses re-enactments and soundtracks in order to help submerge the audience into the film and aims to present the subject matter in an expressive and subjective manner. An example of a performative documentary is Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) which features a blend of factual analysis with powerful emotion, where filmmaker Michael Moore constructs a narrative using outrage and horror to evoke a strong emotional response from his viewers.

In conclusion my favourite type of documentary is an expository documentary as they're transparent in their representation of the event and they often provide detailed arguments and counter arguments to points helping the audience to come to their own conclusion. The format that provides information in the most unbiased way is observational documentaries as the record of the event is transparent and is often portrayed as being non-judgmental and neutral. I feel that documentary filmmakers have to be relatively unbiased with information they provide as their opinion may potentially sway viewers opinions however they can be somewhat biased as some people just watch documentaries as a form of entertainment and to learn and gain insight about certain topics and situations, therefore their opinion wouldn't sway audiences to change their minds as they're just watching to be entertained.