Capturing Reality

An intellectually stimulating story for documentary practitioners and theoreticians. Both documentarians who were readily available and those who through years of practice have honed their method into a very satisfactory form (e.g. Michel Brault, among those not mentioned) weave an intricate documentary web. The basic areas of non-fiction filmmaking are progressively addressed in appropriately long thematic blocks that seamlessly follow on from each other (without inter-titles): the impetus to make a film; the importance of cinematography, lighting and sound; the ethics of documentary filmmaking; the meaning of the documentary film; the tenuous link between lived and filmed reality (the quoted Edgar Morin very aptly summarised this issue). Though the numerous opinions, some of which would probably be in conflict with each other (Herzog’s staging vs. maximum honesty with the viewer), eliminate the possibility of presenting a one-sided message, a certain ideal comes shining through between the lines due to the way the documentary was edited. It should be a documentary conceived as a story, based on people, harmonising rather than confrontational, morally correct (whatever that means), perhaps even attempting to make the world a better place, and not derisive toward its subject; in any case, it should be an original documentary, conveying reality as the director sees it. But perhaps that’s too “smooth” a definition. 75% (04.06.2012)