Defining
"Documentary" Continued:
Nanook of the North
Review: What are the basic functions of documentary?
--represents
reality—records; provides evidence; asserts truth claims
In light of the Rodney King video, is it fair
to say that documentary films present facts?
1. Nanook as a "definitive"
documentary
--first influential doc.—why?
--first doc. w/a recognizable doc.
Style
--first that has an important,
extended relationship to the reality that it represents—the “real world” is the
film’s primary subject
--“timelessness”—why? What is the
source of this sense of timelessness in the film?
--exemplifies a “romantic tradition”
in documentary (emphasis on nature)—what are the film’s arguments about nature?
2. Flaherty and Nanook
--Flaherty
(a Michigander)—son of mine owner/manager—raised close to nature
--went
on 4 expeditions to east Hudson Bay
3.
--modes
of presentation:
--"documentary"
characteristics: subjects; viewpoint;
purpose; form; production approach; audience response
--Flaherty
and the "romantic tradition"
--Flaherty
compared to Grierson?
--sources
(traditions) for documentary?
Ellis,
Chapt. 2
--Nanook
as a sponsored film—effect?
--structure
in Nanook?
--conflict(s)
in the film?
--arguments
in the film?
Nichols,
“Introduction”
--why
is the distinction important between “the world” and “a world”?
--Nichols
uses the word “fidelity” here—what is at stake?
Has
Flaherty been true to “the world” that he set out to document?