Session 2 5/2/12 Poetic Documentary

Documentary modes: • reassembling fragments of the world • a transformation of historical material into a more abstract lyrical form • usually associated with 1920s and modernist ideas How poetry is defined • Rhythm • Metaphor • emotion Definitions of the poetic mode Subjective interpretation of the material Forsakes traditional narrative content Tone and mood more important than story and character Editing style continuity is not a concern In my view Poetic documentary is the merging of the traditional modes of the genre, such as the portrayal of the real, with a more artistic form of expression. Rain Joris Iverns (1929)is a cinematic poem showing how his city chances in the rain. Rather than following the conventional documentary mode of say asking the public, he films what is happening and puts together a cinematic poem to describe what the city is like in the rain. A poetic documentary is a way of experiencing something, an evocation. Using movement Rhythm and feeling and capturing the moment-the now. Night Mail, basil Wright/ Harry Watt (1936). Part of the British Documentary movement and the GPO film unit, Night mail begins by following the conventions of a public information film. Portraying something but not in my opinion capturing the now. however the last three minutes, set to a poem by WH Auden and a score by Benjamin Britten really captures something about the movement, power and speed of the mail train as it thunders through the Towns, Cities and Countryside of early 20th century Scotland. Night and Fog, Alain Resnais (1955) One of the first films to show the horrific images from the holocaust there is something even more disturbing about it because of the calm, unsinister voice over which seems to be at odds with the images. It is even more hitting because of this I feel. The lack of Interviews of survivors and historians I think actually adds to the power of this film. There is something almost lyrical about the way the voiceover describes the camps and the environment 20 years later, transformed. Koyaanisqatsi (life out of balance) Godfrey Reggio (1983) I feel that the images in this film are allowed to speak for themselves which is where I feel the beauty in this piece lies. The lack of voice over lets the view draw their own conclusions about the story portrayed through the images of countryside and city. One encroaching on the other. This is a powerful notion and I think that the seeming simplicity of the film is something that makes it so powerful. From this session I have learned a lot about poetic documentary, a topic that was somewhat of a mystery to me. I didn’t have any strong ideas of how to create one before but after the information in this session I have been able to form stronger ideas.