Who is This Film About?
While we cut our films in a contemporary style my wife and I are fairly traditional when it comes to documentary films. We?｢どｨび｢ve noticed a trend in many current films that we find ourselves discussing lately and I just had to put it down on some electronic paper here in the interverse.
Who are these films about? So many current documentary films feature the filmmaker on camera as much as the subject supposedly being documented. Michael Moore may be the worst offender of this. Is he making a documentary or just putting a film together in order to get on screen and make us laugh?
Now, personal documentaries where the filmmaker is covering a story about his family, friends, or someone otherwise a part of his/her life will often get a pass because the filmmaker plays an integral part in the story. A good example that comes to mind is Stevie. In this film the filmmaker had mentored a young boy as part of the Big Brother program. The filmmaker left the young boy in the lurch and had always felt bad about that since the kid was fairly troubled. So, the filmmaker documents the reunion he has with the now grown man and the story of his life since they last met. If I had to be completely honest I feel like an objective unbiased filmmaker should have covered the story. As it is the film feels very exploitative, but that idea is broached in the film. That may be getting off topic too.
Some filmmakers will say that they are a part of the issue they are covering because it?｢どｨび｢s important to them. I understand the point but as a filmmaker they are making a film to share a story, or information, that they have already heard or know, so let the story be told to those who haven?｢どｨび｢t heard it! When I see Michael Moore shove himself in front of the camera I can?｢どｨび｢t help but feel his message is less credible than it should be. If the subject is so important, why not let it do the talking? Also, if you?｢どｨび｢re a good interviewer, and you keep that camera running, you?｢どｨび｢ll find those moments of humor without trying to manufacture them. Now, I liked this format in Moore?｢どｨび｢s TV series that followed him and some comedians as they did some pretty outlandish things to make a point. That series was never touted as a documentary series, but his films are sold as documentary films.
The one film that really sets Suzie and I both off is called Telling Nicolas. This film tells the story of a family that is struggling with telling a young child that his mother has died in the World Trade Center disaster. Now, this is that family?｢どｨび｢s story, so why do we see the filmmaker in the film? The worst scene in the film happens when the family actually sits down to tell Nicolas about his mother. The family asked that no cameras be in the room at that time, but they could have microphones. The scene was initially quiet brilliantly done featuring the audio of the conversation with cross fading exterior images of the house where the conversation was taking place. Then we suddenly get ripped from the drama by a shot of the filmmaker crying. Why? I know it?｢どｨび｢s emotional, you can?｢どｨび｢t help but be affected emotionally, but why do we see a shot of the filmmaker crying?
In our previous feature Fans and Freaks: The Culture of Comics and Conventions and in all of our short films including the one we are currently working on A Cheaper Way to Go, not only will you not see us, but we also ask our questions and edit our films in a manner that will keep you from even hearing us. Good documentary films are about the subject being filmed, not the one doing the filming.
I?｢どｨび｢ll get off my soap box now and get back to editing A Cheaper Way to Go.
-Stephen Lackey
www.captain-pixel.com
