Moving Images, Understanding Media

226 Moving Images: Making Movies, Understanding Media

The Observer

On the other hand, documentarians can choose to be absent from the visual

and audio content of the fi lm. Th is was the choice of Robert Flaherty when

he made Nanook of the North. During the evolution of documentary formats,

many fi lmmakers have striven to follow an approach that reduces the tangible

presence of the fi lmmakers and maximizes the ability of the footage to capture

reality. Building on the new technical opportunities of the early 1960s just like

the cinéma vérité fi lmmakers, a number of documentary directors adopted a

similar attitude in terms of getting out into society and capturing authentic

human experiences. However, the approach that they employed removed the

presence of the director to focus on a direct depiction of events. Th ey were

out in the fi eld, recording events as they transpired, and adopting strategies

to present the fi lms in close relation to the reality of the events. Th is approach

to fi lmmaking has been labeled direct cinema.

A key aspect to the success of documentaries that attempt to show the

lives of their subjects as naturally and truthfully as possible is the ability of

fi lmmakers to work unnoticed. Movies that capture behavior and interactions

honestly and accurately are oft en the result of successful collaborative practices

and techniques in discretion on the part of the fi lmmakers. Filmmaker Nicolas

Philibert spent many hours in 2000 and 2001 with his crew fi lming To B e

and To Have in a one-classroom elementary school in a sparsely populated,

mountainous region of France. In order to make this documentary, it was

necessary for the fi lm crew to earn the comfort and trust of the students and

their teacher while they recorded footage of the class in action. Th ey needed the

cooperative and technical skills to be able to work so “unseen.” Th e resulting

motion picture is a remarkable view of the learning process and the unique

experience of a classroom with students aged four to twelve.

Figure 6-17 Teacher

Georges Lopez with students

in To Be and To Have.

(Courtesy New Yorker/Photofest)

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