Five Modes of Documentary
Representation
The Expository Mode of
Documentary Representation
Table of Contents
1) General ideas of documentary films
2) Five modes of documentary films
3) Expository mode of documentary
representation
4) Robert Flaherty and his documentaries
5) Flaherty and British documentaries
General Ideas of Documentary Films
• Documentary = a factual film or television
programme about an event, person, etc.,
presenting the facts with little or no fiction.
• Documentary = A film whose representation
of its subjects that viewers are intended to
accept primarily as factual. A documentary
film may present a story or it may not.
General Ideas of Documentary Films
The positions being questioned:
• Documentaries are non-fiction films which
are sharply distinguished from fiction films.
The world depicted in the documentary is
real, not imaginary.
• The documentary filmmaker simply
observes and makes an objective record of
real events.
General Ideas of Documentary Films
• Documentary films do not create but record
reality.
- Consist of raw footage of real people, real
events and real objects.
• Truthful reflection of actuality.
General Ideas of Documentary Films
• Are Documentary Films True to Their
Subjects?
• Joris Ivens (a controversial Dutch
documentary filmmaker) says it is
permissible to make up things in non-fiction
movies.
General Ideas of Documentary Films
• Filmed in selected mise-en-scène
• Filmed events are ordered and reshaped in
particular montage
• NOT RECORDED BUT CONSTRUCTED
REALITY
General Ideas of Documentary Films
• Documentaries represent events, objects and
people only more truthfully than other
types of films.
• Truthfulness and factuality - only relative
concepts
• Search for ways in which documentaries
represent ‘actuality’ as it really is
• → types and schools of documentary
filmmaking
Five Modes of Documentary Films
• Types of documentary films - - factual film,
ethnographic film, films of exploration,
propaganda film, cinéma vérité, direct
cinema (Richard Barsama)
• Expository,
observational,
interactive,
reflective and performative mode of
documentary representations (Bill Nichols)
Expository Mode of Documentary Films
• ‘The expository text addresses the viewer
directly, with titles or voices that advance
an argument about the historical world…
Expository texts take shape around
commentary directed toward the viewer;
images serve as illustration or counterpoint.’
Bill Nichols
• Voiceover (or subtitles) ‘illustrate’ story and
image
Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries
• Robert Flaherty
(1884-1951)
• One of the
founding fathers of
documentary film
Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries
• “of course, Moana,
[1926] being a visual
account of events in the
daily life of a
Polynesian youth and
his family, has
documentary value.”
John Grierson
Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries
• Nanook of the
North (1922) about the daily
lives of an Eskimo
called Nanook and
his family in the
Belcher Islands in
arctic Canada
Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries
• Flaherty, a prospector, took a movie camera in his
expedition and recorded the unfamiliar wildlife
and people that he encountered.
• Lives of the Inuit people
Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries
• TRUTH AND FICTION/
• RECORDING AND CONSTRUCTION
a) Every scene was planned in advance.
… Discussion between Flaherty and Inuits
about the filming of the walrus hunt. They may
have to give up the kill if it interferes with the
film. The reply: “yes, yes, the Aggie will come
first, not a man will stir, not a harpoon will be
thrown until you give the sign.”
Robert Flaherty and His Documentaries
b) Nanook made suggestions
what to be included.
c) ‘Reality’ was touched and
modified during filming
and editing processes.
Traditional costumes
specially made and worn;
the traditional harpoon
was used specially for the
film
Film’s timeless feel
Robert Flaherty and Hid Documentaries
‘… the film is not a straightforward
recording of their everyday life: they
amiably enacted some of it for Flaherty‘s
cameras. But so honest and instinctive was
their playing that it was undoubtedly truth
of a sort.’ Delek Malcolm, Guardian
journalist
Flaherty and British Documentaries
• John Grierson invited Flaherty to Britain
• Flaherty laid the foundation for the British
documentary-making in the 30s
• GPO film unit and the Empire Marketing
Board
• Grierson as leader and Flaherty as
inspiration, young British filmmakers like
Basil Wright, Harry Watts, Alberto
Cavalcanti
Flaherty and British Documentaries
• Industrial Britain
(1931)
• Survey of British
industry with
emphasis on
craftsmanship.
• Aestheticization of
reality