Chapter 6 Recording and Presenting Reality 235this setting to fi lm Weapons of the Spirit (1987), which captures this moving
story and its full context of treachery contrasted with selfl ess sacrifi ce.
In 2008, acclaimed cinematographer Ellen Kuras completed her directorial
debut, Th e Betrayal, a chronicle of a Laotian immigrant family in the United
States. She had been shooting the movie for twenty-three years. It all began
when she sought lessons in Laotian and met Th avisouk Phrasavath. As she
started to record footage of the family’s experiences, she “wanted to be able
to use imagery to speak as loudly as words... I wanted the audience to
vicariously experience what was happening; I wanted the fi lm to feel as if
we were entering into Th avi’s memory.” Phrasavath, who ended up sharing
a co-directing credit with Kuras, comments, “I’ve been able to become a
fi lmmaker, the fi rst Laotian fi lmmaker. Now I’m a role model for the youth
and that’s because Ellen, as a good American, felt obligated to do something
because people would never know the truth.”
Filmmakers work to create visual and sonic experiences that build from
source material to construct a personal vision. Approaches to non-fi ction
subjects are most successful when the creative presentation of the material
refl ects or stems from the meanings and themes of the actual topic. At the heart
of the production of documentary motion pictures is the knowledge of and
respect for the subjects of the fi lm and a similar regard for the audience.Figure 6-25 Archival image
that helps to document
Thavisouk Phrasavath’s
extraordinary journey in
The Betrayal. (Courtesy Th e
Cinema Guild)Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).