Documentary

Non-Narrative and Non-Fiction Film: Documentary and Experimental Films

Until now we have dealt primarily with narrative feature films. We turn now to two film types that are mainly--but almost never completely--non-narrative. Instead of shaping our responses through the power of stories, documentary and experimental films inspire us by "leading our intellectual and imaginative activities down new paths" ( FE 258). Through watching these films we can learn new information and expand our horizons of knowledge, and we have our senses and our mind opened up to new ways of experiencing the world.

We generally expect documentary films to be nonfiction. By this we mean that the events, people, and places depicted in a documentary are real, not created or altered for the sake of telling a story in a certain way. Often the distinction between fiction and nonfiction is nebulous. Narrative feature films may tell the story of real events or people, and yet be concerned mainly with telling an interesting story rather than presenting history and facts. CW give as an example the 1998 film Elizabeth , about the life of Queen Elizabeth I of England ( FE 260). Yet, if a film is based on historical information and does not alter the facts for the sake of the story, it may be considered nonfiction. In such a case, the genre distinction between an entertainment feature film versus a documentary film may be more sound than that between fiction/nonfiction.

To address the fine distinction between fiction/nonfiction from another angle, let's take the example of Leni Riefenstahl's 1934 documentary film of the Nazi Party Conference in Nuremberg, Triumph of the Will . CW point out that Germans in 1934 probably considered the film a purely nonfiction documentary. From the critical viewpoint of hindsight, however, the film may seem more like "a highly manipulative work of fictional propaganda" ( FE 261). While the events depicted indeed took place at the party conference in 1934, Riefenstahl "stages" them in ways that accentuate the fervor of the participants and the orderly precision of the events. The film is propaganda because it feigns to show the events exactly as they happened, but in actuality alters them to create a particular impression of the conference.

Now if we compare this with a new form of presentation in television news in our country, we may be surprised to find a parallel. Local television stations have begun to resort increasingly in their news telecasts to the use of "video news releases" that are produced by public relations firms. These one or two-minute film clips address items in the news but are slanted to represent the interests of the commercial company that sponsored them. Recently, federal agencies, including the Agriculture Department, the Census Bureau, and the Defense Department, have distributed video news releases to local TV stations. These segments appear as if they are the work of news reporters, but are in reality the work of public relations firms being paid by the federal agencies to "report" on government actions or policies from a certain perspective. They usually appear without any on-air acknowledgment of the government's role in their production. According to the same criterion applied to Triumph of the Will , these video news releases give the impression of objective news reporting, while in fact they are designed to promote a certain political position.

Just as the distinction between fiction/nonfiction is not always clear the role of narrative in documentary and experimental films also varies. While documentary films in general do not rely on a story as their main point of interest, they usually have at least traces of a story. And in some cases, documentaries are structured very much like narrative films in that they may depict real events happening to actual people in a chronological fashion that "reads" much like a story. The film may "tell" us about a part of reality unfamiliar to us, much like history books often tell us about the past in narrative form. Even many experimental films have traces of narrative as well. When we analyze Koyannisqaatsi for example, we will detect a broad storyline, one that traces developments in modern culture and their effects on human life.

Although documentary and experimental films often include narrative elements, they rely mainly on other formal strategies. CW distinguish between expositional practices and imaginative practices , both of which are found in most non-narrative films. Narrative feature films also often employ these strategies to complement the plot. They may serve to introduce thematic issues or philosophical questions associated with the story, or they may provide the film with an air of creative or artistic flair. CW discuss three types of each practice ( cumulative , contrastive and developmental forms of exposition, and metaphoric , symbolic and structural or abstract forms of imaginative strategies). As we discuss Bowling for Columbine and Koyannisqaatsi I will point to different examples of these various film practices.

In the last two weeks we saw how narration can organize the elements of the plot in a way that either provides a particular rhetorical position on the major questions raised by the film or, conversely, leaves those issues open. In documentary films, and to a lesser degree experimental films, such rhetorical positions are usually more clearly or explicitly delineated. CW describe two different non-narrative approaches to establishing a film's rhetorical position. One assumes a seemingly neutral position, approaching the film's subject from an interrogative or analytical standpoint. But as we will see, the filmmaker has many tools at his/her disposal for guiding the inquiry in ways that favor a particular rhetorical position. Among others, the expositional and imaginative strategies applied in documentaries and experimental films often serve this purpose. We will see these featured prominently for rhetorical purposes in Koyannisqaatsi .

Some documentaries have particular political or social objectives and take an expressive or persuasive position toward their subject. The films of Michael Moore are a good example of this. Roger and Me , his 1989 exposé of how General Motors had closed its plants and gutted the city of Flint, Michigan, shows how large corporations often take little social responsibility for their workers or the communities where they are located. The film does not offer any particular political or social solutions, but opens our eyes to some effects of corporate decision-making that we usually do not see. In fact, much of the movie is about precisely what steps General Motors takes to divert news and attention from the problems of Flint. In Bowling for Columbine (2002), Moore takes on the out-of-control gun culture in the U.S. Although the film does not specifically advocate for stricter gun control laws, the expressive and persuasive tactics of the film lead one clearly toward this conclusion. In Fahrenheit 9/11 he pursues an open political cause--the defeat of George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election. In the intense media coverage surrounding the film and the presidential campaign, Moore called the film "an op-ed piece" and expressly stated that his intention was to make a film that would influence the outcome of the election.

But documentaries and experimental films do not always have a particular rhetorical position. They may, for example, reveal new or ignored realities ( FE 276) or challenge and expand how we see, feel, and hear ( FE 277). As we will see, Koyannisqaatsi does both. In our discussion of the two films, we will pay particular attention to the strategies each director employs to open our eyes to new perspectives and suggest either alternative ways of understanding the world or changes in our social and political structures. The questions in the "Viewing Cues" box on page 275 of FE will help guide this analysis.

Roger F. Cook