Screen Arts 21/7

Documentary Auteurs

Documentaries are films that re-tell Real Life events without changing the events or subjects for the camera. Selecting the topic, editing and sound are all classed as manipulations although how much of this is acceptable is still debatable. Documentaries were previously called "educationals", "actualities", "interest films" or "travel films" in the late 19th century. The term documentary is credited to John Grierson in 1926.

Objectivity vs Subjectivity

Nanook of the North(1922) is considered the first feature length documentary, following a year in the life of "Nanook", an inuit hunter. Filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty directed the inuit to pretend he knew nothing about modern times and to re-enact the traditional routines like hunting walrus with harpoons.

Dziga Vertov declared "cinema was poisonous and dying" and created the 1929 documentary Man with a Movie Camera.

Ken Burns is known for making historical, large miniseries docs that cover a single topic and creating a sense  of movement in still photographs by panning over and zooming in on the details. His style can come off stodgy and very stiff. He is a prolific documentary maker whose works include:

The West(1997)

The Civil War(1990)

Jazz(2001)

The Vietnam War(2017)

Michael Moore is known for making scathing/comic riffs on his subjects. He take son controversial topics, has a liberal political pov, and being a part of the story. He made Roger and Me in 1989 with a budget of $140,000, and it took in $7.7 million at the box office. It was only after news organisations questioned the documentary that he re-labeled it as a movie. He won the Best Documentary oscar in 2003 for Bowling for Columbine(2002). His documentary Fahrenheit 9/11(2004) cost $6mil to make, took in $222.4mil in the box office and examined President George Bush's response to the Twin Tower attacks in 2001. He was nominated for the Best Documentary Feature oscar for Sicko(2008).

Michael Apted is a film maker known for directing TV, movies and documentaries. Some works include Enigma(2001) and The World is Not Enough(1999).  In 1964 he filmed Seven Up! which examined the lives of 14 british children from various socio-economic classes. Every 7yrs he checks back in with them. He has made 9 episodes so far, and 63 Up was released in Jan 2019. They didnt anticipate a series so the subjects never signed contracts, which has meant over the years 2 participants have dropped out and 1 has died.