The Future of Documentary?
- Posted: 29th Jul 2011
- Category: Articles
- Tags: independent documentary, branded entertainment, reality tv, wonderland
by Kate Garner
at the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival 2011 | Monday 25th July, 5pm | Applestore Regent Street
Located to the rear of a very lively Apple Store on Regent Street, DFG’s The Future of Documentary debate – held in collaboration with the fantastic Rushes Soho Shorts Festival 2011 - sought to discuss some of the current issues facing documentary filmmakers today. Do hard-hitting docs with serious content still hold a place in our rapidly changing media landscape? Or will they be overtaken by ‘constructed reality’ and ‘mockumentary’? How will independent documentary find a home amongst branded entertainment? And what can documentary filmmakers learn about engaging audiences from their entertainment-led competitors?
First to be questioned was Chloe Ruthven, an independent filmmaker who divides her time between making documentaries and working with children at risk of social exclusion. Focusing on her new film, Death of a Hedge Fund Salesman – which earned her the title of Best Emerging Director at Open City Film Festival – she spoke of the personal and professional difficulties tied to her filming process. Following her close friend Tom shortly before his death, she not only had to confront a physical and emotional loss, but also how to deal with the artistic and financial ramifications it evidently had upon her film; with hours of footage and no opportunity to reshoot, the editing process significantly challenged her intentions as a director. Despite this - and the overwhelming sense that she was merely “practising” her documentary filmmaking talents - Ruthven ensured that she “oversaw the product from start to finish”, believing that her film did ultimately portray her visions as an “artist”; something she wished to defend at all stages. For Ruthven, her creative style as an independent filmmaker was of the upmost importance.
Zara Hayes, the Grierson-nominated director of The Seven Ages of Love and the recent Travels With My Family for BBC Two's Wonderland strand, was next in focus. Asked how one negotiates the creative vision of the director and the need to get audiences, she argued that although there were indeed downsides to the partnerships forged between filmmakers and commissioning editors, great opportunities could also be found. Although some decisions (a film’s title, for instance) tend to be controlled by commissioners, making documentaries for television audiences can still involve a substantial share of the director’s own unique input. In fact, if we are to learn and fully appreciate the industry, documentary filmmakers need to respect and accept all genres and styles, albeit independent features to mainstream factual television. For Haynes, the experiences she acquired from working in television have provided an invaluable training in her development as a documentary filmmaker.
Next: Orlando von Einsiedel, whose film Skateistan - the only British short doc to ever be selected for screening at Sundance - showed as part of the Rushes festival. Asked whether branded documentary surrendered the artistic integrity traditionally upheld by the medium, he argued that although there were clear commercial gains from such docs, they could still be viewed as powerful and more efficient ways to tell a brand's story, without conventional advertising. The artistic vision of a director could still be communicated through their film. Introducing a short clip from his upcoming short for Nike, he described the various influences upon his film, from the inspirational accounts of the female workers in Africa, to the “audio visual mash-up” of the sounds associated with their culture and natural surrounding. Creative inspiration in film can be found in any situation, regardless of whether it has been commissioned or not.
For Claire Faragher - producer of many fantastic docs but perhaps best known as Series Producer and Executive Producer of BAFTA award-winning The Only Way Is Essex [read her fantastic article on her experiences] – her experience as a documentary filmmaker absolutely informed her more recent work. One of the new brand of “structured reality” show, Claire spoke of the various elements used to influence TOWIE; its form, content, and narrative progression all taken from common formulas found in traditional documentary. Not dissimilar to the thoughts of Zara and Orlando, she believed that docs would greatly benefit by drawing inspiration from all styles of filmmaking; likewise, the medium could have a positive effect on any genre, even reality shows.
After a comment from a member of the audience criticized the harmful “pseudo-celebrity” focus of the series, Zara added that TOWIE simply could not be likened to the documentary form, chiefly because the drama had been manipulated by its producers: both contributors and content had been “materially shoehorned” into the direction that they alone wished to show. Perhaps surprisingly, Chloe countered Zara’s argument by stating that many directors for indie or “high-art” documentaries are equally ruthless – verging on “psychopathic” – when it comes to getting what they need for their final edit, while Claire argued that her team needed to “engineer” certain situations to engage and satisfy their “emotionally-invested” viewers: “the backdrop might be constructed but the emotion has to be real – a foot in reality”.
The level of intervention from directors clearly divided opinion at the session… For Zara, it ultimately depends on the motivations behind the making of a film; whether it be attracting high audience ratings, satisfying commissioning editors, or fulfilling creative visions. Personally, she loves the more traditional approach to documentary filmmaking, and more specifically, the natural “bonds” that occur between makers and contributors. “Formulaic engineering” simply does not interest her work; she’d prefer to use contributors who don’t even desire the attentions of the camera. When dealing with real people, filmmakers need to maintain their sense of “humanity,” otherwise contributors become mere “caricatures”; something that conventional documentary would naturally reject.
As the session drew to a close, DFG asked the audience to contribute their own thoughts to the panel. When asked about the transforming media landscape – the rise of online and digital sources particularly – and how documentary can keep up with such rapid changes, Orlando revisited a recurrent theme from the debate; that is, that “documentaries could really borrow from other genres” to develop and “help push the medium forward”. He claimed that documentary filmmakers – from indie to mainstream - grow to need their audiences more and more over time, commonly for financial reasons. Claire agreed, believing that if one is to sustain a career in film, then they “naturally” need to think of ways to engage with greater audiences. Regardless of whether one’s work is an independent, branded or commissioned feature – or even a television series employing certain elements from the medium – all styles play a key role in the general advancement of documentary today. At what point does the machine take over the individual? Well, that’s for the filmmaker to decide.