Session 1

‘Documentary is the creative treatment of actuality’.

John Grierson

In the initial session, we looked at Documentary on the whole – with a brief look at what is actually is, the history of it, and some key typical conventions of the genre. Previously to this course, I had looked at documentary quite a bit in my A Level Film Studies, and am familiar with the six modes of documentary.

1. Expository – ‘voice of god’ usually present, educational and informative, typically highly factual rather than opinion based. most commonly seen/popular mode of documentary
2. Observational – aka cinema verité, ‘fly-on-the-wall’ aspect, filming the subjects with little intervention or intrusion, tries to create a sense of natural actuality
3. Performative – emotionally and personally driven by the filmmaker themselves, showing a subjective truth or perspective, typically they are heavily influenced by the filmmaker, direct politcal or historical motivation behind it
4. Poetic – non-linear and lacking clear narrative, subjective interpretation based on the inner truth
5. Participatory – filmmaker plays an active, on-screen role, involving themselves directly with the subject matter, they play an important, intergral part to the documentary
6. Reflexive – explores how documentary is constructed, and the actuality of truth in the medium, with acknowledgement that it is a film, breaks the fourth wall.

I have a brief knowledge of the history of Documentary as well.

The 1922 short ‘Nanook of the North’ by Robert Flaherty is considered to be the first official documentary. It openly observes and showcases the simplistic lifestyle of Eskimos he had made friends with, which he wanted to show to people from back home. This defined the ‘observation of actuality’ associated with the genre. However, people have argued that perhaps some of the first moving image films by The Lumière brothers (such as ‘Train Arriving into a Station’) could be considered documentaries. As they are purely a recording of a thing that happened, making them what the Luminere’s called ‘actualities’.

I am looking forward to exploring documentary at a focused level, as I have always been interested in the genre. A few of my favourites include Blackfish and , which both changed the way I view certain aspects in my everyday life and values and morals I have. I think Documentary is a very powerful media, with the four tendencies I know being to record, reveal or preserve, to persuade or promote, to analyse or interrogate, and to express. I am excited to see where my group’s project ends up going and which route we decide to take with our documentary.