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Documentary filmmaking history is not what I thought I’ll talk about When I started this documentary filmmaking course. I wanted to write articles without going through all the theoretical stuff. But I feel that to teach documentary filmmaking, I have to begin developing the documentary filmmaker’s mindset, and learning about documentary filmmaking history is an excellent way to start.
So here we go:
I am going to go through all the critical stages of documentary filmmaking history very fast. I recommend watching them and reading more about them.
The first documentations
Talking about documentary filmmaking history, you have to start at the beginning. It can be said that the first films created were documentary kinds of films. They weren’t fiction, anyway. The first films were a baby’s meal, and a train arrives, workers at the plant, etc. They documented specific segments of life. During World War I, from 1914 until 1918, the cameras kept filming the war area. The film has become an essential tool for the transfer of information and propaganda. These videos were delivered as “Newsreels,” and they were broadcast in theaters. Since they are only segments of scenes rather than one long film with a basic idea, it isn’t easy to treat them as classic documentaries.
Man With a Movie Camera
The first Documentary film
Talking about documentary filmmaking history, we have to start at the beginning. There is a debate between the Russians and Americans about what the first documentary film ever made:
for the Russians) begins with Dziga Vertov, a poet and a video editor in Russia. He started his way from producing educational News reels for raising people to the revolution in 1917. He is best known because of this film, taken much later in 1929.
A film that is kind of an experimental documentary. In some ways, it is considered advanced even for today’s films. The average shot length in the film was 11.2 seconds. You can imagine what the viewers felt when they saw such rapid editing for the first time. Dziga Vertov made the film after he felt that cinema was stuck and took advantage of his abilities. The film depicts 24 hours in the life of the city of Odesa and other Soviet cities throughout the day. The film is most famous for a variety of cinematic techniques: he uses double exposure (what is now called super impose), fast motion, slow motion, freeze frame, Jump cuts, split-screen and more. Because the editing and the effects are affecting the message of the film, there are those who refuse to accept it as the first documentary film.
Nanook of the North (1922 )
Officially (at least for the Americans) This film is considered to be the first documentary. The film was directed by Robert J. Flaherty And is a silent film that considers being an important milestone early film industry. It chronicles the struggle of Nanook and his family in the wild Eskimos. Beyond being an important film, the film is a historical document about a life form that disappeared already. As mentioned, the film is considered to be the first documentary Although Flaherty was accused of directing a lot of the scenes in the movie and even wanted the characters to recover customs they left a long time ago. You could say that this film is not only officially opens the documentary genre, but also the discussion about the genre. Is the documentary represents reality or shapes it?
If you really want to learn Documentary filmmaking, I recommend watching these films. Here are some more interesting documentaries from that period that I think every filmmaker that wants to get into the documentary filmmaking field, should know:
strike – 1924
Sergei Eisenstein, a director in Soviet Russia has never qualified as a documentary director, but his movies like this one certainly embody the characteristics of documentary films today. Strike describes the iron factory workers strike in Russia, where the workers were subjected to humiliation. Definitely one of the film’s most amazing period.
Battleship Potemkin 1925
The film contains the famous scene of “steps Odyssey” that won many gestures in films. To date, the film is considered one of the most influential films in the cinema. Here, too, his definition of documentary is a bit problematic, but it is highly recommended for viewing for anyone interested in the documentary genre.
Night Mail – 1936
Basil Wright and Harry Watt. A classic British film which follows the mail train moving at night from London to Scotland. Using this simple situation, the film certainly manages to capture the British life spirit of the time. The movie talk about the post office but ut also talk about the importance of working in harmony. Here also rise a debate about directing a documentary. In this case, the claims are that certain parts of the movie were filmed in the studio. Also in 1936 the political and economical situation wasn’t at it best in the British Empire, so the movie does not show the true feelings of the postal workers, but what the postal office vision was about that.
Olympia – 1938
At the Nazi regime there was no shortage of films in the genre. Leni Riefenstahl directed in 1938 a movie that presented the Olympics in Germany. The aim of the film was to glorify the Olympic games in Germany and the German athletes. The movie is considered to have much innovation in the composition style, camera angles, editing and more. Using 50 camera operators Riefenstai created great slow motion shots. THere is no The best thing about this movie is that if you take the context out of it, you will never guess it was propaganda.
Listen to Britain of Humphrey Jennings. The film came out in 1942 and it was a propaganda film designed to encourage support for the war. The film is considered to be a historical archive. There are criticizes about this movie being so strict and classic art style that it reminds fascist regimes movies, but one can not ignore the effectiveness it had during the war.
Fires Were Started 1943
Humphrey Jennings documented a night in London’s Fire Brigade unit.
Night & Fog directed by Alain Resnais. One of the more influential film documentary field if not the most influential. French film from 1955. The film depicts the life of prisoners in the camps of Auschwitz and Majdanek. It was the first film that dared to face the terror of the Jewish Holocaust. Alan visiting several concentration camps in Poland and Europe.
This is a very quick list of important films during the beginning of the documentary filmmaking history. Now, I will review in more detail the two genres that took a very significant part in the development of documentary film: the Direct Cinema and the Cinema Verite
The Direct Cinema and the Cinema Verity
After the second world war, the artists started to think about what they did that contribute to it. One of their realizations was that the obsession for esthetics had something to do with the rise of the Nazism regime. As a result, Many arts form in the after WW2 period started to focus more on the realism in their arts, and the film industry was no different. While the fiction films brought us the Italian neo-realism that used real locations and real people instead of actors, the documentary brought us two main sub-genres opposed the propaganda style of the older documentaries.
Direct cinema
The Direct cinema documentary filmmakers were a group of revolutionaries, who tried to interfere as little as possible in the shootings. These films were not mass production films. They were shot under the location’s natural lights and with no preparations. Their unique was in the presentations of life experiences in the most direct way possible. Sound like a documentary at it’s best, right? Well, Not so much – The thing is that when someone knows he is being watched, he will act differently, so are we documenting the reality without any intervention? People do not behave naturally when they know they are being filmed. It is difficult to say that these films have documented the reality as it is like they claimed they did.
A director that is very influential in the genre is Albert Maysles, An American director. He shot with his brother, David, films with the camera on their shoulder and Interviews with very little intervention on their part. They did wildly successful films like
- What’s Happening! The Beatles in the USA, which documents the band’s visit in the USA,
- Another movie was Salesman– about a Bibles sales agent,
- and Gimme Shelter about the Rolling Stones and the show that ended in the death of one of their fans.
Cinema verity
Cinema verity’s (‘cinema truth’) approach claimed that since we can’t document reality as it is, we can encourage participants to interact with the film director. The genre was provocative and not ashamed that the camera had the power to design the reality it documents. If members of the Direct cinema took the camera to location, hoping that something will happen, the cinema verity crew tried to create situations.
A famous film that can be a good example is The Titicut Follies from 1967 by Fred Wiseman. The film follows the life of the mentally ill and criminals institution.
The movie Chronicle of a Summer from 1961 of Jean Rouch is a good example as well. The film begins with a discussion of two directors on whether it is possible to behave naturally in front of a camera. The film’s creators take the question to the streets and ask people if they are happy. The goal is to see how people react when they are near the camera.
The most significant contribution of these two genres was that they freed the documentary films from the need to write a script. Both of them didn’t know what will happen, and the video editors had to deal with the mass of raw material.
The main reason I wanted to start this online documentary filmmaking course, was to start with demonstrating that right from the first film, arguments about whether documentary films should reflect reality have been asked all the time. I would recommend anyone who wants to direct documentaries to watch as many movies of the genres that are mentioned here to develop your documentary tools.
Here are some more recommended films:
- Land of Silence and Darkness of Werner Herzog 1971 – The film follows the lives of deafblind people and gives us an idea of the true meaning of loneliness.
- Best Boy of Ira Wohl from 1979 – The movie tells the story of a family crisis. Aging parents wonder what to do about their son, a disabled 50 years old man. This is a very moving film with long moments of so-called direct cinema.
- 28 Up in 1986 by Michael Apted –A TV series that lasted for 21 years and followed the number of children at the age of 6 and then coming back to them when they are mature.
That’s it. If you have any other good examples or other sub-genre in the evolution of documentary film’ that you want me to talk about, please let me know.
