Technorati:
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Documentary films
And while we're on the subject of films and ethics, here is an interesting article, called The Good, The Bad, and The Documentary, by Dutch cinema scholar and programmer Kees Bakker, about documentary films and their possible - and actual - role in culture. I really like how it includes a whole range of situations/people/functions into the film-creating process, way beyond the typical "directorial" approach. Another important point he makes is to recall the experimental roots of documentary cinema. Not many people know that the roots of documentary cinema are connected to European avant-garde experimentation. While most might associate documentaries with Michael Moore or Reality TV, this is certainly not the area of documentaries that seems the most stimulating (for an experimental, but no less fresh - or 'en vogue' - approach, try something like Tarnation).