FILM 114 Lecutre 11 Notes PDF

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Documentary -Definitions, Genres, and form
Paris is burning film directed by Jennie Livingston (1990)
Professor Matt Connolly...

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Documentary- Definitions, Genres, and Forms Paris is Burning film by Jennie Livingston (1990) ● Documentary- Definitions ○ Documentary- a film that claims to be present factual information about the world ■ Different form fictional films “based on a true story” or biopics about the lives of real-life people ○ Why is a documentary different from a biopic or “based on a true story” film? ○ Documentary is claiming a direct connection to the real ■ Interviewing people ■ Filming footage of real places ■ Making claims about the world that are meant to be seen as factual ○ To be clear, a documentary: ■ Is not a completely “objective” document, as nothing produced by an individual is ever completely free of subjective influence ■ Tries (in most cases) to either makes its position clearly known OR to minimize subjective influence in the name of presenting aspects of reality ■ Subjective influence doesn’t mean a documentary is, therefore “not trustworthy” ■ All documentary films and media have subjectivity built in through choices in subject filming, editing, construction, etc. ■ Evaluate the films based on how these decisions produce a vision of a given subject or construct a certain argument ■ They contain (and often are a mixture of) different elements: ● Interviews ● Found/Pre-existing footage ● Footage shot “on the fly” ● Graphics/maps/charts/other visualizations ● Re-enactments of earlier events ● Documentary- Genres ○ Different types of documentary film can be sorted by either how much they rely upon a certain type of element or what their primary subject or focus is ○ Compilation Film- produced by assembling images and footage from archival sources ■ EXAMPLE: The Atomic Cafe (Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, and Pierce Rafferty, 1982) ■ What idea or point are they trying to convey through how they put together their archival footage? ○ Interview Film (I.R. “Talking Head” Film)- records testimony about events or social movements

■ EXAMPLE: Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives (Mariposa Flim Group, 1977) ■ What idea or experience is connecting the different interviews? ○ Direct Cinema (I.E. “Cinema Verite”)- characteristically records an on-going event as it happens, with minimal filmmaker influence ■ EXAMPLE: Grey Gardens (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer, 1975) ■ How do the filmmakers attempt to minimize their influence? ○ Nature Documentary- reconds (and often narrativizes) elements of the natural world ■ EXAMPLE: March of the Penguins (Luc Jacquet, 2005) ■ How does the film make a story out of nature footage? ○ Portrait Film- centers of aspects of the life of a compelling person ○ Synthetic Documentary- combines several genres and styles into one ■ EXAMPLE FOR BOTH: The Fog of War (Errol Morris, 2003) ■ About former defense secretary Robert McNamara; note the mixture of elements ● Documentary- Form ○ Like classical narratives, art-cinema narratives, and experimental films, documentaries have different formal strategies to organize their material into a coherent and compelling whole ○ Will frequently utilize elements of narrative: character journeys, etc. ○ Categorical Form- a type of form in which the parts treat distinct subsets of one topic ■ Exploring the film's chief subject by breaking it down into smaller parts and explaining those parts ■ EXAMPLE: Doc about the United Dates might be broken down into 50 parts, each covering one state ■ Has the potential to be boring (Here’s on state.. Here’s another state.. Here’s..) ○ Strategies for making it compelling ■ Exciting/unusual categories ■ Connecting subject to broader themes/issues ■ Visual interest/patterning ■ Connections to other kinds of form: character-based narrative, small-scale rhetorical argument, etc. ○ Rhetorical Form- a type of form in which the parts create and support an argument ■ About using different types of evidence and argumentation to convince the viewer of a particular viewpoint ■ EXAMPLE: a film about the U.S. that argues for the inclusion of

Washington, D.C. as the 51st state ■ Uses various types of evidence, including: ● Authority figures (experts, etc.) ● On-the-street interviews (examples of “popular” or “common” opinion) ● Vivid footage that illustrates the point ● Comparing and contrasting viewpoints via editing ● The filmmakers themselves- experiences, etc.

Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston, 1990) ● About the drag ball scene in Harlem, NYC, in the mid-to-late 1980s ● Has maintained a cultural relevance through the continued presence of drag within popular culture ○ RuPaul’s Drage Race ○ Pose ● Things to consider: ○ What documentary form does Paris is Burning fall into? ■ Primarily an example of categorical form ■ The film takes a topic -- the drag ball scene in mid-80s Harlem -- and breaks it down for the viewer ○ Who (if any) would you consider the “protagonists” or main characters of Paris is Burning? ■ Guides to the scene… ● Pepper Labeija ○ Provides overview of career ○ Offers insights into the history of the houses and the scene ● Dorian Corey ○ Defines & explains ball terms ○ Offers commentary on the nature of drag ○ A kind of drag ball philosopher ■ 2 main guides to the scene… ● Provide a lot of backgrounds, context, and personal history ● Have broad goals/ambitions, but more about translation ○ Who is the target audience for Paris is Burning? ■ Difficult to ever say a film has a sole or unified audience ■ BUT, the explanatory nature of the film seems to imply that the audience for the film is not those in the drag ball world, but those outside of it ■ Speaks to one of the controversies of the film ■ Livingston as a white woman of (relative) privilege going into the world of the drag balls -- spaces primarily for and by working-class and poor

people of color ■ Is there a voyeuristic aspect to this? An exploitative aspect to this? ■ On the other hand, the film evinces a certain level of awareness in how it connects the drag ball world to the “everyday” world of well-off white society ■ Everyone becomes implicated in drag’s view of clothes and appearance as costume ■ Some drag performers of the time dismissed the film as the work of an interloper ■ Yet, it has become a touchstone for many other drag queens, as well as a link to an earlier time and a generation of performers often lost to HIV/AIDS ● Paris is Burning as Categorical Doc - another category - girls with goals ○ Characters (often younger who have an explicit desire to succeed and transcend the ball scene ■ Venus Xtravaganza Goals: ● Love ● Financial contentment ● Domestic contentment ● Fame ● Gender confirmation surgery ■ Octavia Saint Laurent Goals: ● Fame ● Work within the fashion industry ● Financial security ● Glamour ● Gender confirmation surgery...