Blog Entry#2

Keiran McCann
Videography 002
Gorker

Blog Entry#2: Documentary Forms

According to Bill Nichols, there are six different forms of documentary: expository, reflexive, poetic, participant, observational, or performative. All of these forms of documentary are similar in that the subject(s) is/are often intimately portrayed by the filmmaker and that each form of documentary is based on reality and captured in real time but edited to suit the needs of the viewer. Bill Nichols explores these documentary forms as well as the subjects within documentary itself in his article The Voice of Documentary.

Expository documentary often uses the “voice of god” technique, which addresses the viewers directly and conveys are particular side to the story the filmmaker is trying to tell. Reflexive documentary involves the filmmaker and the audience. It is the most self-aware mode and challenges the more traditional documentary aesthetics of the filmmaker’s absence. Poetic documentaries are often an ode to a particular subject, for instance the film Helvetica can be considered a poetic documentary about fonts and typeface. Observational documentary is an exploration and depiction of everyday human life and is often described as direct cinema or cinema verité. Participant documentary involves the filmmaker and the subject. Performative documentary raises questions about the subject and “tries to demonstrate how understanding such personal knowledge can help us understand more general processes of society.”

Some documentaries employ only one form throughout the entire art piece, but some documentaries employ multiple forms. One such documentary is Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 by Kazuo Hara. This film is particularly unique in its documentary styles in that it employs participant, observational, and poetic forms into one piece. Not only is it unique in its documentary forms but it is unique in its subject. It documents the life of a one of a kind Japanese woman in the early 1970s. This woman personified the sexual and cultural revolutions that were occurring in the world at the time, which is particularly important due her race and gender.

The director Hara films this woman, his ex-love Takeda Miyuki, for approximately three years and employs his various documentary aesthetics and forms into his documented healing process. His participant mode is utilized in the form of him crying onscreen, both a moving and terrifying portion of this film because it shows the filmmaker, a man, in a most distraught and vulnerable state, something which is not accepted in most masculine cultures today. The film is observational in Hara’s careful study of his ex’s everyday life, sex life, and even captures the birthing of a baby through the lens of his camera. One unique aspect of this documentary that the filmmaker employs is that of voiceover. He doesn’t always layer the correct sound with its corresponding image, creating a complex artistic manipulation to his documentary style. With his combination of voiceover narration and strategic jump-cuts, the film has a home-video style to it only disproven by its various editing techniques and subject matter.

I found that one of the most important aspects that Bill Nichols was trying to convey in his article was that of capturing the essence of a time or a person. It is a way to capture the present, reconstruct the past, or send a message to the future. Overall, Hara was able to accomplish these things. He created a timeless piece that captures the spirit of a woman rebelling against her own culture, the frustration and sadness of a man rejected by love, and the raw power of everyday human life being lived. Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 is a great example of the variety one can find in documentary aesthetics and is true to the number one rule of documentary filmmaking: honesty. Whether Takeda was berating him in front of other people or documenting the gory birth of an infant that is not his own, Hara was honest with the documentation and presentation of his film content.