The Civil War (Ken Burns, 1990)

The Civil War (Ken Burns, 1990) • Know Your Enemy: Japan (Frank Capra, Joris Ivens, 1945) • Are You Popular? (1950?) • What Happened on 23rd Street (Edison, 1901) • Mechanical Universe and Beyond (PBS, 1987) • Faces (John Casavetes, 1968) • Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966) • Grey Gardens (Albert and David Maysles, 1976) • North Sea (Harry Watt, 1938) • Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1983) 11.March of Time (1945) 12.Shark Callers of Kontu (Dennis O'Rourke, 1987) 13.Sink or Swim (Su Friedrich, 1990) 14.Family Gathering (Lise Yasui, 1990) 15.Fear of a Black Hat (Rusty Cundieff, 1992) 16.All the President’s Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976) 17.Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

Docu…what?: Class Definitions “Documentary film refers to a genre that has or has the appearance of conveying themes or subjects in an objective manner. It does or appears to use unscripted "reality"as raw material. It is often used to inform the public about a particular event, group, or time period and gives the impression (often) of objectivity. “ “A representation that consciously tries to present reality as it exists in the familiar world. A reconstruction of reality.”

Docu…what?: Class Definitions “1. Film or television program presenting facts objectively without editorializing or inserting fictional matter as in a book or a film. 2. A work such as a film or television program presenting political, social, or historical subject matter in a factual and informitive manner. “ “A study of a subject by capturing unrehearsed events, interviews, and primary sources, using some technical apparatus, used to inform an audience.” “A creative treatment or representation of our reality (people, places, events, anything that constitutes our environment). “

Docu…what?: Class Definitions “An intended objective display of any particular person, place, or thing that exists in reality in order to inform or present to others. “A documentary is a non-fiction film whose intention is to articulate a true story, a historical event or a biography. Within the genre there are various levels of documentary truths. Some choose to follow facts while others incorporate re-enactments, scripted moments and manipulative editing.” “Documentaries are films that start with subjective point of view with a objective goal of presenting the reality of social and political situation.”

Docu…what?: Class Definitions “The subjectiveview of one person's or group of peoples documentation of a particular matter or issue. “ “A documentary is a film that answers a question or poses an issue using footage, documents and other forms of information to prove its point. “ “A non-fiction filmic representation of reality in which actuality is portrayed through creative means, typically, though not always, with the intent of educating or persuading the viewer.”

Docu…what?: Class Definitions “A rendering of nonfictional event, story, or topic, not a written or fabricated story. This can be represented in tons of ways, including re-enactments, interviews, voice-over, animation, etc. “ “A film that is meant to reflect reality. It is a non-fiction work that is meant to be non-subjective in telling a story or facts on any given issue. It has its own language and target audience.” “A film that does not contain an explicitly fictional narrative and in some way tries to recount a version of reality or history as seen by the director.”

Docu…what?: Class Definitions “An interpretation of real events or things. intends to explain the nature of something, or to simply recreate the subject. two chief aims: to inform or to persuade (a visual essay). both aim to influence the viewer. “ “Documentary is a type of media including film, television, mini-series, etc. whose main focus is to present a subjective viewpoint, aspect, or segment of "real" life. Typically this involves education and propaganda to sway the audience versus fiction films whose main purpose is usually to offer escape for the audience.”

Docu…what?: Class Definitions • Unscripted "reality" as raw material; Unrehearsed events • Others incorporate re-enactments, scripted moments and manipulative editing • Creative treatment of our reality • Political, social, or historical subject matter • Impression of objectivity (Presenting facts objectively without editorializing) • Main focus is to present a subjective viewpoint, aspect, or segment of "real" life. • Answers a question or poses an issue • Intends to explain the nature of something, or to simply recreate; to inform or to persuade • Uses footage, documents and other forms of information to prove its point • Has its own language and target audience

“An information program that is not designed to be purely entertainment and which may include drama or variety techniques in achieving its information goal” – ACTRA “'Documentary film belongs to a class of social discourses - juridical or historical - that seek to account for actual occurrences in the phenomenal world. They take as their reference events that are perceptible, have been observed, and can be specifically located in time and space. Documentary films are constituted of documents, in the sense by which this word obtains in the human science: faithful representations (here, filmed rather than written) of events that exist outside the consciousness of the documentarist.' --William Guynn, A Cinema of Nonfiction Docu…what?

Docu…what? “Pictoral accounts that would bring to the fore otherwise hidden aspects of nature” --Siegfried Kracauer “Documentary defines not subject or style, but approach…Documentary differs from that of story-film not in its disregard for craftsmanship, but in the purpose to which that craftsman is put.” --Paul Rotha, Cinema Quarterly

Docu…what? “Any film practice that has as its subject persons, events, or situations that exist outside of the film in the real world.” --Film Studies Dictionary “Unlike most fiction films, documentaries deal with facts—real people, places, and events rather than invented ones. Documentaries believe that they’re not creating a world so much as reporting on the one that actually exists.” --Understanding Movies

“"All methods of recording on celluloid any aspect of reality interpreted either by factual shooting or by sincere and justifiable reconstruction, so as to appeal either to reason or emotion, for the purpose of stimulating the desire for, and the widening of human knowledge and understanding, and of truthfully posing problems and their solutions in the sphere of economics, culture,and human relations.“ --1948 definition (as quoted in Brian Winston: “Documentary: I Think We are in Trouble”)

Docu…what? "Of course Moana, being a visual account of events in the daily life of a Polynesian youth, has documentary value. But that, I believe, is secondary to its value as a soft breath from a sunlit island, washed by a marvelous sea, as warm as the balmy air. “ --John Grierson, Review of Robert Flaherty’s 1926 film, Moana. New York Sun.

“The creative interpretation of reality” – John Grierson Docu…what?

"Documentary's essence lies in the dramatization of actual materials.” --Paul Rotha Docu…what?

Documentaries of Wish Fulfillment Documentaries of Social Representation

Documentaries of Wish Fulfillment • Deal with imagined realities • Reflections and shapers of culture (fantasies, prejudices, hopes and fears) • Requires that the viewer suspend disbelief • Ultimate Goal: to entertain

Imaginative representation of historical or personal reality • Lay claims to representing the “Truth” (unlike films of wish fulfillment) • Make arguments/claims about the world outside of the theatre • Use of evidence drawn from the “real” world • Goal: to have the viewer believe in what is being represented; to act on those beliefs Documentaries of Social Representation

“We don’t like to use the D word…” --Errol Morris How can [all these diverse films] be in one class? I think they all exhibit a common defining trait: inherent in their stance toward the audience is the claim not so much to educate as to edify. So I call this huge class of films ‘films of edification,’ or “edifiers. At least the label avoids the classic truth claims of documentary and acknowledges the intention to persuade…to raise up the audience to a more sophisticated or refined notion of what is.” --Jill Godmillow

So? What Did We Learn Last Week? • Definition of “Documentary” = Like nailing jelly to a tree • Varies with viewer, the times, viewing context, etc. • Doc not a genre in a formal sense • The R [Reality] Word: Definitions based on claims of “truth and reality” fall apart under scrutiny • Every Film in Some Sense Fiction • Doc is a social and artistic construct • Reality is in many ways subjective • Presence of camera changes everything • Every Film in Some Sense a Documentary • Documentaries of Wish Fulfillment • Recording of the “indexical image” • Act as social or cultural “texts” • Documentaries of Social Representation

So? What Did We Learn Last Week? • Docs of Social Representation = Discourse of Sobriety • Not receptive to make-believe or the wholly imaginary • Claim direct and privileged knowledge about the world • Use arguments, claims about the historical world based on evidence drawn from that world • Want us to believe (rather than to suspend our disbelief) • Power to move audiences to action based on this argument/evidence • Another Way of Thinking About Documentaries • A Corpus of Text • A Community of Practitioners • An Institutional Framework • A Constituency of Viewers

Bill Nichols: A Corpus of Texts • A body of works characterized by common conventions and norms, e.g., • Voice-of-God narration • Interviews • (general heavy reliance on spoken word) • Historical footage • Location shooting • Reliance on social actors – people in their everyday roles • Certain technological features and cues (e.g., handheld camera)

Bill Nichols: A Corpus of Texts • Organizational and structural logic in relation to subject (the historical world), e.g., • Problem/solution • Social activism / speaking for or about • Organizational logic (editing, sound, etc.) that supports or presents evidence for claims/arguments being made (often different from narrative fictional film’s continuity editing) • Evidentiary vs Continuity Editing

Bill Nichols: A Community of Practitioners • Shared sense of purpose: a common, self-chosen mandate to represent the historical rather than imaginary world. • Often committed to social action: the use of film as an agent for social or cultural change. • Move in the same circles…share common audiences and exhibitions venues (and funding sources) • (…but what about those who straddle the line? (e.g. Werner Herzog)

Bill Nichols: An Institutional Framework • “Documentaries are what organizations and institutions that produce them make.” • Production and exhibition context as cue to documentary status. • Context establishes audience expectations and assumptions.

Bill Nichols: An Institutional Framework • Institutional framework imposes institutional agendas: ways of representing the world, filming conventions, points of view. • Independent doc distributors – distribute documentaries outside of Hollywood mainstream • Institutions that support doc may also support other types of film

Bill Nichols: A Constituency of Viewers • Sense of a films documentary status lies in the mind of the viewer. • Audience assumptions and expectations about the relationship of the images on the screen to the historical world: • The primary assumptions: • The events represented possess a historical basis, something we can point to as actually happening or having had happened down the street or across the sea. • Images and sounds are accurate recordings of this historical world with minimal manipulation. • Expectation that the film will make an argument, raise questions, provide unique insights into the historical world…Edify and educate. • These expectations are based on previous experience, both with life and with other films; context in which film is viewed. • Do we (the audience) expect OBJECTIVITY from docs??????

Poetic • Expository • Observational • Participatory • Reflexive • Performative Bill Nichols Documentary Modes

Bill Nichols Documentary Modes • Poetic • Style first developed in late teens and 1920s • Images from the real world shaped into subjective impressions • Emphasis on texture, rhythm, mood, visual associations (often fragmented or multiperspective) • Less emphasis on time/space continuity • Bears relationship to other modernist arts (e.g., cubism)

Expository (Griersonian Documentary) • Represent the world in terms of arguments and rhetorical stances. • Make arguments/tell history using visual evidence drawn from the historical world • Heavy reliance on the spoken word to make arguments • Address the viewer directly • Voice-of-God • Voice-of-authority • Emphasizes the impression of objectivity or authority Bill Nichols: Documentary Modes

Documentary Modes • Observational (“Fly on the wall“ filmmaking ) • Came of age in the 1960's with movements known variously as Cinema Verité or Direct Cinema. • Reaction to the earlier expository styles • Response to new technological developments (portable cameras and synchronous sound) • Concentration on • Direct engagement with the subject • Minimum directorial intervention or editorial manipulation • Spontaneity...no scripts, voice-over, no music, no interviews, no second-takes

Documentary Modes • Participatory (Interactive) • Filmmaker as social actor in his/her own film • Direct and obvious engagement/interaction with film subject • Filmmaker’s voice or physical presence is part of the subject • Presence of filmmaker may reveal “truths” which would have not existed otherwise. • Interviews – another, more formal, form of filmmaker interaction with subject

Documentary Modes • Reflexive • Acknowledge the problems and issues of representing the historical world on film. • Call into question traditional documentary evidence.(question the “transparent window” demands of traditional doc) • Make the filmmaking process a focus of attention: self-conscious and self-questioning. • Call into question relationship between filmmaker and film subject • Attempt to readjust audience assumptions and expectations about the documentary, about historical truths and the representation of reality in general

Documentary Modes • Performative • Recognize that knowledge about the world is built on more than objective fact & visible evidence: meaning is often personal and subjective. • Stress emotional complexity of experience from the perspective of the filmmaker • Can include combination of actual and imagined images and event to convey sense of subject • Poetic liberty, unconventional narrative structure (rather than realist representation) • Mix of methods to convey texture and depth of experience.

The Pre-history of Movies, The Pre-history of Documentary Film Etienne-Jules Marey: Photo gun and sequence photographs Eadweard Muybridge: sequence photography

The Pre-history of Documentary Film Thomas A. Edison Black Maria

The Pre-history of Movies, The Pre-history of Documentary Film Auguste and Louis Lumière

Films of Travel and Exploration Edward S. Curtis Robert J. Flaherty

Films of Travel and Exploration Herbert Ponting

Origins of Soviet Documentary Sergei Eisenstein Dziga Vertov

1920’s Experimentation: Dada and Surrealism • A Young girl commits suicide. Because of What? DADAThe spirits are telephoned. • Who invented it? DADASomeone walks on your feet. It's DADAIf you have serious ideas about life,If you make artistic discoveriesand if all of a sudden your head begins to crackle with laughter,If you find all your ideas useless and ridiculous, know that • IT IS DADA BEGINNING TO SPEAK TO YOU

1920’s Experimentation

British Documentary Movement John Grierson

The Great Depression Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange Walker Evans Ben Shahn

The Civil War (Ken Burns, 1990)

The Civil War (Ken Burns, 1990)

Presentation Transcript

The Civil War

The Civil War

The Civil War

PowerPoint Tutorial

The Cold War 1945-1990

Lebanese Civil War 1975-1990

The Nicaraguan Civil War and the CIA

The civil war 1861-1865

The civil war 1861-1865

The Civil War

The Civil War

The Civil War

The Civil War

The Civil War

Dimensions of Leadership: Comprehensive Exam Preparation

Burns - Resuscitation, Referral and Retrieval

THE CIVIL WAR

Two Fun Things to do with Nuclei

The Civil War Civil War intro

Brutality in the Vietnam War

Ken Wargo Chairman of the Delavan Civil War Monument Restoration Project

Ken Burns Civil War Series, Beyond the Documentary - Washington DC Video Production