Chapter 10

Documentary, Experimental, and Animated Films

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Documentary

• Presents facts in a trustworthy manner.• Events can be staged.• Can be misleading, inaccurate, or partisan.

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Boundaries Between Documentary and Fiction

• Fictional films are assumed to be imaginary, although they may refer and comment on actual events.

• Fiction film are typically staged, rehearsed, filmed, and re-filmed.

• Some films seek to blur the lines between documentary and fiction films.

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Genres of Documentary

• Compilation films assemble images from archival sources.

• Interview or talking-heads documentaries record testimony about events or social movements.

• Direct-cinema records an ongoing event as it happens with little directorial interference.

• Nature documentaries explore nature.• Portrait documentaries center around a compelling

person.• Often documentaries use several of these options.

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Types of Documentary Form: Categorical

• Categories are groups that organize knowledge and can be formal or not.

• Categorical documentaries show all the categories and subcategories of a subject.

• Development is usually simple.• Exciting or broad categories, patterned film

techniques and mini-narratives can keep the subject interesting.

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An Example of Categorical Form: Gap-Toothed Women

• Consists of interviews with women with gaps in their front teeth.

• The theme is that society has a narrow view of beauty.

• The explicit meaning is the broad reaction to the way the women feel about their gaps.

• The implicit meaning is that gaps are attractive and natural.

• The symptomatic meaning could be a reaction to the shift of the radical ideas of the 1960s to the mainstream 1980s, when it was made.

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Rhetorical Form

• The goal is to persuade the audience to adopt or act on an opinion.

• Addresses viewer openly, trying to move the viewer.

• Subject is usually a matter of opinion.• Often appeals to our emotions rather than

facts.

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Three Types of Rhetorical Arguments

• Arguments from source: arguments will come from reliable sources of information.

• Subject-centered: employs arguments about it’s subject matter, using examples, enthymemes, and common beliefs.

• Viewer-centered: arguments that appeal to emotions.

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An Example of Rhetorical Form: The River

• Persuades the audience that the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) is the answer to the region’s problems with flooding, agricultural depletion, and electrification.

• Was controversial at the time.• Has eleven segments that on the surface seem

to just inform about the Mississippi, but through repetition, variation, and development are very persuasive.

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Experimental Film

• Willfully nonconformist, challenging notions of what a movie can show and how it can show it.

• Frequently explores self-expression and experimentation outside mainstream cinema.

• Can use narrative, abstract, or associational form.

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Abstract Form

• Organized around colors, shapes, sizes, or movements of the images.

• Often uses theme and variations.• Goal is to make the viewer notice relationships

and elements they wouldn’t normally notice.

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An Example of Abstract Form: Ballet Mécanique

• Draws a comparison between the human body and machines by turning human action into mechanical gestures.

• Stresses the geometric qualities of ordinary things.

• Uses theme and variations by introducing motifs in rapid succession, then bringing them back in different combinations later.

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Associational Form

• Ideas and expressive qualities group images that may not have any logical connection.

• Like metaphor and simile used in poetry.• Images are typically grouped into larger sets,

each which is a distinct, unified part of the larger film.

• Repeated motifs reinforce associational connections.

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An Example of Associational Form: Koyaanisqatsi

• Juxtaposes found footage to communicate a range of emotionally charged ideas and qualities.

• The music has distinct segments, each with its own tone, which corresponds to the film.

• Constantly shifting associations convey many implicit meanings without any explicit meaning.

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The Animated Film

• Not filmed in real time.• Spans all types of films: narrative,

documentary and experimental.• Types include drawn, cut outs, clay, model,

pixilation, and computer imaging.• Can be mixed with live action.

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An Example of Traditional Animation: Duck Amuck

• Has an experimental feel because it asks the audience to explore cel animation techniques.

• Draws attention to painted backgrounds, framing, sound effects, music, onscreen and offscreen space, and time.

• Capitalizes on the character traits of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.

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An Experimental Animation: Dimensions of Dialogue

• Displays aggressive alchemy.• Contains three categories that display

aggression via dialogue.• Each category displays theme and variation.• Each category displays conversation as

annihilation.

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