Associating with Bill Nichols’s expansion on the treatment of ‘Performative’ Documentary, I aim to try and expand the documentary idea to be more than simply facial performance. Considering this, this leaves the potential for aesthetic inspiration in a multitude of areas of films created previously.
Film Noir Inspirtaion
Due to film Noirs association with crime and detective stories, I thought it might be a good idea to play into this and create a scene that is inspired by film noir. A name vital to the film noir scene is Louis Feudillade, whose “Crime films in the silent era are a productive venue to explore as the genre’s predecessor” (Pettey and Palmer, 2014, pp.16). Looking at the below episode of ‘Les Vampires’ (1915), there are many cuts to black screens to showcase the spoken word, and letters that showcase the plot visually. As Pettey and Palmer state in reference to Allan Sekula how “the photographic image has ling been at the centre of the crisis of bourgeois culture, which simultaneously claims that the world is a collection of visible, ‘knowable and possessable’ objects'”, which in their eyes “transform the alienating machine of science/ rationality and its economic handmaiden, capitalism” (2014, pp. 17). By acknowledging this and that imagery is associated with the middle class in film-noir history, it extends itself to a particular aesthetic. This includes particular associations with men in suits and heavy detective coats and hats which indicate wealth.
Considering this for my documentary, I would take aspects of the film noir culture, such as lighting, the faded look of real film and lower quality of voice recording, but transport it into the modern world. What I enjoy aesthetically about these films is due to the dated technology there is an ambiguity created by the overall black and white tonality which is still present in the genre today.
1980’s ‘Tone Poem” Documentary Films
An interesting documentary film that uses referential techniques and imagery to convey the effects of modern technology on the earth is Koyaanisqatsi (Reggio, 1982). It uses juxtaposing and contrasting imagery o create and set its tone that documents the world’s demise with only the use of a soundtrack. It provides an excellent example of Bill Nichols’s performative documentary’ in the way it “stresses subjective aspects of a classically objective discourse” (1994, pp.95). It is described as a visual tone poem that as it utilises moving images and sound to create the language of poetry in a visual format.
Aspects of this interpretation of representation I have considered for my own documentary are questioning people on various key objects that were vital to their experiences in lockdown and recreating and rendering these in a way that accentuates them over direct mimetic performance.
In a similar light, the documentary ‘Night Mail 2′ makes reference to the original “Night Mail” (1936) but with updated technological influences such as trains and planes. It appears to utilise music and sound in a similar way to Koyaanisquatsi (1982), in which it directly times with the imagery presented. This documentary behaves in a way that references the “expository documentary” (Nichols, 1994, pp. 95), however, utlising some artistic impression with the inclusion of Blake Morrisons’ poetry. This documentary is reminiscent of the works of Grierson in its focus on working-class society, who has important historical influence over the documentary movement within the UK (Hardy, 1946).
Considering this, it makes me think about which group of people should be highlighted within my film, as the different social classes and ethnicity will change the perspective and experience of lockdown. This coincides with the overall Bourgeois of film noir as its overall aesthetic creates a particularly visual implication of class standing.
References
Nichols, b. (1994). Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in Contemporary Culture. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Hardy, f. (eds) (1946) Grierson on Documentary. London: Collins
Pettey, H. B. and Palmer, R. B. (eds) (2014) Film Noir. Edinburgh University Press.