PRINTMerging mediums
The marriage of pop culture & documentary film
COURTESY OF TRUEFALSE.ORG
The Armstrongs is one of three reality television shows that will be shown at True/False this year.
March 1, 2007 | 12:00 a.m. CST
During the past decade, documentaries have evolved from good-for-you educational footage to “it” films. Watching a documentary used to be viewed as an intellectual experience, i.e. boring and weird. Fast forward to the present, where going to see an indie film, especially a documentary, has become just as common as $5 coffee. Something happened. Political documentaries hit at just the right time. They were entertaining and informative, and Americans fell in love with watching nonfiction. All of this helped push documentaries from obscure to mainstream, from Ragtag to Hollywood Theaters. According to box-office figures, seven of the all-time Top-10 grossing documentaries were released in 2003 and 2004.
“It was like medicine,” says Michael Renov, associate dean of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, in reference to the documentaries of yore. “You just kind of held your nose and took it.”
Eyeing a true vision
The True Vision Award is the sole award presented at True/False. The recipients have shown dedication to the craft of nonfiction filmmaking, and their creative endeavors have helped to advance the field. Last year’s recipient, Kirby Dick (This Film is Not Yet Rated), says that his award has a special place in his heart — and at his mother’s home. “Awards are bullshit, but this is the least bullshit award of all,” says Dick, who won accolades at Sundance for the film as well.
“True/False is unique as a festival because of how it acknowledges the essential role of the false in the creation of truth,” Dick says. “You cannot have one without the other. Filmmakers, especially documentary filmmakers, know this very well and feel a kinship with a festival like True/False that acknowledges this.”
Each statue is handcrafted in the Columbia studio of nationally recognized sculptor Larry Young. Young uses a wax casting system that takes approximately two weeks from casting to finishing. The design came from an existing cast, but Young keeps the smaller 17” size special for True/False. The sculpture is abstract. Young says that the symbolism coincided with David Wilson’s concept for the award.
“As I was creating it, it had this symbol on top that looks like an eye,” Young says, “and there’s a spiral shape that rolls around spheres, which represents the cosmos. It relates to man’s vision of the future.”
--BRIANNE SANCHEZ
THE POLITICS OF DOCUMENTARY FILMS
It was no coincidence that documentaries hit it big in this decade. With the century in its infancy, America experienced an ominous wake-up call on Sept. 11, 2001. Not even President Bush could provide the answers that America craved. Brad Prager, MU film studies professor, attributes the first real buzz of documentaries to the release of Michael Moore’s films Bowling for Columbine (2002) and Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004). The American public discovered just how much documentaries offered by way of a multiplicity of voices. Moore’s films emerged at a moment when all the public wanted was a candid glimpse into American politics, says Renov.
When Fahrenheit 9/11 hit theaters, it left Americans wanting more. In 2004 several more documentaries flooded the big screen such as Outfoxed, Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War, Supersize Me and Bush’s Brain. These movies changed the way mainstream audiences viewed documentaries. Film distributors, such as Lions Gate and IFC Films, caught on to the trend and saw that nonfiction was pulling in millions at the box office. To cash in, distributors gradually added more documentaries to the movie lineup.
Take True/False. The number of ticket buyers over the past four years tells a compelling story and not just of a supportive community. According to the co-director of True/False, David Wilson, there were 10,600 tickets sold in 2006. That is 4,000 more seats sold than the previous year and more than double the 4,400 seats sold in the festival’s first year.
GETTING THEIR OWN STYLE
Other than insight into American politics and social issues, the biggest thing that documentaries such as Bowling for Columbine and Supersize Me offer is pure and simple entertainment. These documentaries look more like Hollywood movies than nonfiction films with special effects, mood music and humor. They are a new breed of documentary. In Paul Arthur’s essay from Cineaste magazine, “Extreme Makeover: The Changing Face of Documentary,” he discusses the new emerging style of documentaries that resemble fictional cinema.
“The acceptance by audiences and critics alike of relaxed protocols for the presentation of actuality is reinforced by increasingly permeable boundaries separating cutting-edge fiction and nonfiction genres,” Arthur writes.
In other words, the adopted style has made them more appealing to the masses. Now audiences enjoy mood music, unchronological edits and lighting effects in documentaries. Director Vanessa Roth of The Third Monday in October, a True/False documentary following middle school student council elections at the time of the 2004 presidential election, says these edits do not compromise a documentary’s authenticity.
“In the greatest documentary, the substance speaks for itself,” Roth says. “But if you can make it more moving for an audience, it’s even better.”
Another important factor that changed the style of documentaries and pushed them into the mainstream is technology. Untrained people have an opportunity to capture reality with small and now affordable cameras. Just about anyone can make a documentary though Roth says there’s more to making one than just having the equipment. “It’s not just having a camera and an idea,” she says, “but having the skills to get to the core of whatever truth you’re trying to tell.”
Although the criteria for submitting a clip to YouTube and a film festival are quite different, the fact that technology is available to everyone causes some documentary gurus to worry. “It would be a shame if the art of feature filmmaking was lost if everyone was going around with their own cameras filming what they ate for breakfast,” Prager says.
REALITY TV COMES TO TRUE/FALSE
This new attempt to make documentaries similar to Hollywood blockbusters ties closely into America’s other entertainment obsession: reality television. Reality TV has been accused of killing brain cells and contributing to a culture of couch potatoes, but overall, watching reality TV has become America’s dirty little secret.
Even Prager admits to enjoying The (White) Rapper Show on VH1. He says that not all television has to be bad for us in the way that most people think it is.
Organizers of True/False must agree to a certain extent because they’ve chosen a handful of reality segments to show this year. This will be reality TV’s debut at the four-year-old festival. Wilson, who does not even get cable television, says he was inspired to include reality TV in True/False this year because it has obvious connections to documentaries.
“Reality TV has long been the bastard child of documentaries,” Wilson says. “To kick it in the corner and say it isn’t any good is a missed opportunity.”
Smart takes on pop culture, such as VH1 and MTV, are what Wilson considers respectable reality TV (Real World and Date My Mom not included). In his eyes, there will always be room for capturing unscripted, raw human emotion, whether in the form of a reality TV show or documentary.
In honor of America’s love affair with reality TV, True/False is going to show three reality clips this year: Nimrod Nation, The Armstrongs and Joe No Love.
Nimrod Nation is a Sundance Channel original series following the unfortunately named (well, not really, since ESPN used them for an ad campaign) Nimrod basketball team from a small town in northern Michigan.
The Armstrongs is a BBC series turned film and follows the ups and downs of the married owners of a double-glazing company in Coventry, England. Wilson says the show is so over-the-top that it almost seems made up.
The third reality TV clip will play along with the film Zoo. Joe No Love is a segment from the new TV show This American Life and tells the story of a 14-year-old boy who doesn’t believe in love.
Although these reality TV shows are part of True/False for the first time, their fate for next year’s festival is unknown. From an outsider’s point of view, Renov is excited to hear of a documentary festival including reality TV in the mix with other nonfiction works.
“Reality TV is a part of why people have accepted nonfiction,” he says. “If that’s what happens at True/False, I think that’s interesting and a good thing.”
DOCS & REALITY TV FEED OUR DESIRES
Documentaries and reality TV have grabbed America’s attention with their ability to both provide answers and entertain. Wilson believes the documentaries and reality TV are linked because they stem from the same cultural desires.
“There’s a level of interest in ourselves and other individuals,” he says. “Things like surfing MySpace, it comes with the same impulse. There’s a sense of voyeurism.”
People like to feel connected to other people, and today there are many tools to choose from. That’s why Roth is passionate about being a documentary filmmaker.
“To be able to let people speak for themselves,” Roth says, “I thought was a beautiful way to show how people live and their relationships.”
From exposing a social wrong to capturing a multitude of voices to appealing to the desire to watch others, documentaries reach an emotional core that fiction can’t. With a documentary, the viewer can’t dismiss uncomfortable scenes by saying “it’s just a movie; it didn’t happen.” The documentary often exposes some form of truth, but the best documentaries are the ones that make the audience think.
“I think that’s why many people like documentary,” Renov says. “Because it’s emotional. You can see it and feel it in your bones what people are going through.”
