Documentaries About the Arts and Culture
Within the very expansive art of film, documentaries often deal with the real world of culture and the arts, elucidating specific subjects ranging from In Search of Mozart (2007) to The Hip Hop Project (2007), from Merce Cunningham to Mad Hot Ballroom, (2005) from Vermeer to Mondrian, or from Manufactured Landscapes (2007) to Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (1994).
Documentary film directors' approaches to culture and the arts are, quite understandably, dictated by the subjects they're covering.
Dance films, for example, require camera movements to be fluid and rhythmic when capturing the images of performers as they execute intricate choreography.
Painting, on the other hand, is a still, two-dimensional medium which the camera brings to life by entering the space of the painting, exploring its environment and discovering details the viewer might otherwise miss. The Great Artists: The Dutch Masters: Vermeer (2000) is about the artist's life and times, but the film’s feeling of authenticity comes from the camera’s ability to capture the quality of light found in Vermeer's paintings. This key factor is also in play in the narrative feature based on Vermeer’s famous painting, The Girl With the Pearl Earring (2003).
Often, the real lives of literary figures are every bit as interesting as their fiction, and they make wonderful documentary subjects. For example, Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit, has been the subject of documentaries and a narrative feature.
Just for fun, compare the documentaries, Beatrix Potter: A Private World (1973) and Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller and Countrywomen (1993) with the charming fictional biopic Miss Potter (2006). You will come away with a good sense of the differences between documentaries and truth-based fiction features, and a new appreciation for the personal achievements of a woman who created not only your favorite (and nearly mythical) animal characters, but was also one of the founders of England’s National Trust.
Using audio enhancements to engage or manipulate audience response is commonplace in narrative features--where certain kinds of music and subsonic vibrations are used to move viewers to feel a certain way. This sort of audio manipulation doesn't really belong in documentary filmmaking, but some directors who make both narrative features and docs might find themselves slipping into enhancement mode for some nonfiction subjects.
Through focusing on an individual or group that is making art, many art documentaries come to address broad and pressing social issues. The Cats of Mirikitani (2006) introduces us to the wonderful drawings of felines by an artist who happens to be a homeless, elderly, proud and exquisitely talented Japanese gentleman who speaks very little English. Director Linda Hattendorf found her subject sketching on the streets, got to know him and decided to help--and to document his situation in this film. The result is a powerful statement about the strength the artist derives from his work, and it forces viewers to examine their own attitudes--often dismissive and disrespectful--towards homeless people who seem to be invisible.
Jennifer Baichwal’s Manufactured Landscapes (2007) follows photographer Edward Burtynsky to China to document the environmental effects of industrialization. Baichwal uses the camera to explore the photographer's monumental stills and then turns to the actual spaces captured in them, resulting in a provocation for viewers to explore their own relationship to art--the beautiful photographs, in this case--and the real world--the disturbingly destroyed environment, in this case--as passive observers.
Or, as in La Belle Époque (1983), they may interview those who have witnessed a bygone era-- in this case, elderly artists and socialites who had ruled in Europe’s flourishing cultural salons, galleries and theatres during the period from 1880 to 1914, when the outbreak of the First World War turned their optimism to despair and forever changed society as they had known it. Using period paintings, artifacts, architecture, attire, photography and archival footage, music of the day and eyewitness accounts of events and descriptions of the milieu, directors Suzanne Bauman and Jim Burroughs take you on a trip to a time and to places that now only exist in their remarkable documentary film.
The films of Abigail Child (beginning with Mayhem, 1987) are fine examples of deliberately personal and expressionistic documentaries that are a form of performance art in their own right. Child's films are collected by and screened in art museums around the globe.
Art documentaries may also serve as inspiring instruction for people who want to learn to paint or sculpt, to play the violin or record music, to write sonnets or publish a memoir.
Or, with documentaries like Mio Viaggio In Italia (My Voyage to Italy, 1999), Martin Scorcese’s entertaining and instructional primer on the great Italian film directors and their work, learn to be better informed, more appreciative moviegoers.
Subject and Style
Documentary film directors' approaches to culture and the arts are, quite understandably, dictated by the subjects they're covering.
Dance films, for example, require camera movements to be fluid and rhythmic when capturing the images of performers as they execute intricate choreography.
Painting, on the other hand, is a still, two-dimensional medium which the camera brings to life by entering the space of the painting, exploring its environment and discovering details the viewer might otherwise miss. The Great Artists: The Dutch Masters: Vermeer (2000) is about the artist's life and times, but the film’s feeling of authenticity comes from the camera’s ability to capture the quality of light found in Vermeer's paintings. This key factor is also in play in the narrative feature based on Vermeer’s famous painting, The Girl With the Pearl Earring (2003).
Real Life and Fiction
Often, the real lives of literary figures are every bit as interesting as their fiction, and they make wonderful documentary subjects. For example, Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit, has been the subject of documentaries and a narrative feature.
Just for fun, compare the documentaries, Beatrix Potter: A Private World (1973) and Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller and Countrywomen (1993) with the charming fictional biopic Miss Potter (2006). You will come away with a good sense of the differences between documentaries and truth-based fiction features, and a new appreciation for the personal achievements of a woman who created not only your favorite (and nearly mythical) animal characters, but was also one of the founders of England’s National Trust.
Sound Matters
Documentaries about music, like those covering dance, call for moving cameras to emphasize timing, rhythm and phrasing. But because the nature of music is primarily audio rather than visual, filmmakers may concentrate more intensely on the quality of sound--perhaps even enhancing natural sounds--to make stronger impressions on audiences. Pay special attention to sound tracks on films about music.Using audio enhancements to engage or manipulate audience response is commonplace in narrative features--where certain kinds of music and subsonic vibrations are used to move viewers to feel a certain way. This sort of audio manipulation doesn't really belong in documentary filmmaking, but some directors who make both narrative features and docs might find themselves slipping into enhancement mode for some nonfiction subjects.
Art as Social Commentary
Through focusing on an individual or group that is making art, many art documentaries come to address broad and pressing social issues. The Cats of Mirikitani (2006) introduces us to the wonderful drawings of felines by an artist who happens to be a homeless, elderly, proud and exquisitely talented Japanese gentleman who speaks very little English. Director Linda Hattendorf found her subject sketching on the streets, got to know him and decided to help--and to document his situation in this film. The result is a powerful statement about the strength the artist derives from his work, and it forces viewers to examine their own attitudes--often dismissive and disrespectful--towards homeless people who seem to be invisible.
Jennifer Baichwal’s Manufactured Landscapes (2007) follows photographer Edward Burtynsky to China to document the environmental effects of industrialization. Baichwal uses the camera to explore the photographer's monumental stills and then turns to the actual spaces captured in them, resulting in a provocation for viewers to explore their own relationship to art--the beautiful photographs, in this case--and the real world--the disturbingly destroyed environment, in this case--as passive observers.
Entertaining Insights
Documentaries about the arts may also be counted as travelogues or history lessons, or studies about different world cultures. Through portraiture, they may explore a family tree or give us an insightful glimpse into the lifestyles of our forebears.Or, as in La Belle Époque (1983), they may interview those who have witnessed a bygone era-- in this case, elderly artists and socialites who had ruled in Europe’s flourishing cultural salons, galleries and theatres during the period from 1880 to 1914, when the outbreak of the First World War turned their optimism to despair and forever changed society as they had known it. Using period paintings, artifacts, architecture, attire, photography and archival footage, music of the day and eyewitness accounts of events and descriptions of the milieu, directors Suzanne Bauman and Jim Burroughs take you on a trip to a time and to places that now only exist in their remarkable documentary film.
Documentaries as Art
The films of Abigail Child (beginning with Mayhem, 1987) are fine examples of deliberately personal and expressionistic documentaries that are a form of performance art in their own right. Child's films are collected by and screened in art museums around the globe.
Inspiring Instruction
Art documentaries may also serve as inspiring instruction for people who want to learn to paint or sculpt, to play the violin or record music, to write sonnets or publish a memoir.
Or, with documentaries like Mio Viaggio In Italia (My Voyage to Italy, 1999), Martin Scorcese’s entertaining and instructional primer on the great Italian film directors and their work, learn to be better informed, more appreciative moviegoers.
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