If the observational mode seeks to conceal the presence of
the documentarian from its viewers, the goal of the reflexive mode of
documentary is not only remind the audience of the filmmaker’s presence but
force them to evaluate the transfer of cinematic power between subject,
filmmaker, and audience.
According to Barnouw, Dziga Vertov’s The Man With the Movie Camera
is a prime example of this technique. Shots of a filmmaker (Vertov,
perhaps?) are juxtaposed and interspersed with the film itself. As the clips shown vary from camera POV to
subject gazing back into the camera to third-party observer watching the
transaction take place, the audience is invited repeatedly the role of film in
documenting reality. Though highly stylized, The Man With the Movie Camera is in many respects the artistic
extension of Vertov’s established beliefs and practices that “the task of
Soviet films…was to document socialist reality (p. 54.)
In Harlan County, USA Barbara Kopple engages in filmmaking that could be described as participatory, but also as reflexive. Kopple’s unwavering willingness to immerse herself in situations leads to consequences that remind us of the film’s perspective. During one morning battle at the picket line when gunfire breaks out, Kopple’s camera is attacked by one bystander frustrated at its presence.
This footage would have been supremely easy to omit, but here it is deliberately left to remind us that Kopple is in fact filming, portraying, and influencing events.
In another instance, Kopple is interviewing the Brookside Mining Co. managers who burst through the picket line each morning. She has a tense conversation with the swarthy Basil Collins where she claims to be from the press before revealing she is actually just freelancing admitting she “must have lost [her] press card.” It favored the film’s perspective to include this interview in its entirety, but it would have been simple to portray it in a way that obscured Kopple’s presence, or even to leave it out of the final cut completely.
Kopple’s acknowledgement of the reflexivity of film urges the audience to reach their own conclusions about the people portrayed in the film, to examine their role in watching it and to the real-life circumstances to which they are now privy. To create a reflexive doc is to demand action from the audience and instill a sense of responsibility.
In Harlan County, USA Barbara Kopple engages in filmmaking that could be described as participatory, but also as reflexive. Kopple’s unwavering willingness to immerse herself in situations leads to consequences that remind us of the film’s perspective. During one morning battle at the picket line when gunfire breaks out, Kopple’s camera is attacked by one bystander frustrated at its presence.
This footage would have been supremely easy to omit, but here it is deliberately left to remind us that Kopple is in fact filming, portraying, and influencing events.
In another instance, Kopple is interviewing the Brookside Mining Co. managers who burst through the picket line each morning. She has a tense conversation with the swarthy Basil Collins where she claims to be from the press before revealing she is actually just freelancing admitting she “must have lost [her] press card.” It favored the film’s perspective to include this interview in its entirety, but it would have been simple to portray it in a way that obscured Kopple’s presence, or even to leave it out of the final cut completely.
Kopple’s acknowledgement of the reflexivity of film urges the audience to reach their own conclusions about the people portrayed in the film, to examine their role in watching it and to the real-life circumstances to which they are now privy. To create a reflexive doc is to demand action from the audience and instill a sense of responsibility.
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