Interview with Stella Domaleski

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            Stella Domaleski is not only my great grandmother, but one of the most inspiring individuals I have ever known. In 1916, Stella was born into a family of Polish immigrants and had ten brothers and sisters. Stella was asked to leave school before the end of fifth grade to begin work as a housekeeper to help support her family. When interviewed, Stella described the hardships of growing up in poverty as she spent most of her time walking barefoot, reserving one pair of shoes to wear to church on Sundays. Her father, Dominic, abandoned her family when Stella was young and started a life with another woman with whom he fathered nine children. After growing up and meeting her first husband, Stella moved away from home briefly only to be betrayed by her “womanizing” husband and forced to move back home with her mother. Spending most of her life working, from cleaning to making toothpaste tubes in a factory assembly line, Stella’s life was not an easy one. She explains that it wasn’t until she met Leo, her second husband that things began to look up for her. Never being one to take anything for granted, Stella looks back on her life of work seeing the adversity that came with it as a tool that allowed her to “build herself up.”

For these reasons, I decided to cut together an interview of Stella sharing some of her life stories. This interview was taken just a few months before she passed away at the age of 97 years old.  The poor quality of the image is a result of the rendering process of this footage and the original large file size. The interview was conducted with a series of conversational questioning by myself, but in the aim to allow the interview to flow and for Stella’s voice to resonate, I chose to cut out the audio of the questions being asked. The interview is done in a one-on-one fashion in two different locations. It is primarily a profile interview, with only a few moments of Stella looking directly at the camera. Without access to any lighting equipment, the setting is lit practically. In the first location, Stella is lit from the side by lamplight, which is fairly direct. The second location is perhaps more flat compositionally as there is more fill light and less dimension to the background. Both locations are areas in Stella’s personal home where she felt most comfortable.

The audio was recorded through use of the on-board camera microphone due to limited equipment resources. The camera used was a Canon EOS 400D.

Beginning with a brief exposition on screen, scrolling text reveals some information about Stella, her life, and the context of the interview. This is to make the viewing more relevant to an audience who did not know her personally.

There was no need for a pre-interview, and questions were inspired by my brief prior knowledge of Stella’s life. I was able to bring up topics to jog her memory and guide her into revealing more information about her life.

The raw footage of the interview contains over an hour of footage. The final short cut together selected the most poignant moments of the interview conversation and put them in a loosely chronological sequence in order to enhance viewer clarity and emphasis aspects of Stella’s life. Stella shares her life from childhood, through work, into her first marriage, dating again after her divorce, and finally ending with her happy marriage to her second husband, Leo. No information was manipulated, and the feelings Stella had and the manner in which she depicted her life was carefully left in tact through the editing process.

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact style of this interview. Perhaps the best definition would be as a participatory documentary because although you do not hear my voice asking the questions, I am the one leading the topics and guiding Stella’s answers for the purpose of capturing a sample of her life. Additionally, as aforementioned, this interview took shape upon editing where again, I was manipulating the information to convey a story. Throughout the process, my influence remained behind-the-scenes, but remained highly influential in the development of the project and the messages the audience will receive.

Stella’s passing soon after this interview was conducted makes it something more important that I ever intended. It is now a memoir of sorts, and is made up of information that I otherwise would not have in any permanent form. This interview has developed value in a way that is truly special. Stella’s life has a substance through the images and audio captured that lives on beyond the limitations of human memory, and beyond the lives of those who knew her directly. Now, even those who never had the opportunity to know her can achieve a brief glimpse into her incredible life and perhaps achieve some understanding of what an inspiration she was throughout her time.

Prior to this class, I had very little understanding of documentary filmmaking. My focus has always been towards narrative filmmaking, but I am now beginning to see that there is perhaps not such a hard line between the two as I had once thought.

One of my good friends and mentors, PJ Raval, is a filmmaker in the Austin community. He recently finished a documentary titled Before You Know It that explores three gay seniors as they navigate the challenges and surprises of life and love in their golden years.

This documentary is largely observational as Bill Nichols explains the mode to include the filmmaker “hidden behind the camera, ignored by the surrounding environment.” Although I know the topic of LGBT relationships to be one PJ feels strongly and personally about, his voice remains, for the most part, out of the documentary. Footage is woven to create parallel stories of men living in different parts of the country as they navigate a common time in their lives.

Most interestingly for me in my understanding of documentary filmmaking was the opportunity to see PJ’s process and gain insight into how much narrative understanding and creation has to be done to make sense of hundreds of hours of footage. Documentary is considered non-fiction as it depicts real events, but the line is blurred in the editing room when stories are crafted out of context and with a thematic goal in mind.

Another example of this story-crafting can be seen in the making of Agnes Varda’s The Gleaners and I . The footage gives people a space and time to talk, much like they are in PJ’s film. In both films, there are few questions and much empathy complimented by a feeling of mutual understanding. With this loose interview style, both films craft thematic relevance primarily through editing. As with PJ’s film, it is likely that Varda let hours upon hours of footage hit the cutting room floor, but still felt the documentary to be a truthful representation of her subjects despite the decision leave some documentation out of the final edit.

At the end of it all, the film medium is a story-based medium and there will never be a TRULY true form of filmmaking. The truth comes from the thematic messages and the heart behind the story rather than the unrestricted conveyance of filmic evidence to establish a message or point.

WATCH “PHOTOS IN TIME”

The idea for this project came when I was looking through old images I had on my computer and on my Facebook. Seeing these images made me realize the sort of loose timeline they had become of my life and the way my social circles have evolved. I could clearly see the evolution of my friends from my early elementary years, to high school, and through college. This seemed particularly significant to me due to my introverted nature and acute awareness of my own social standing throughout my life. To showcase some of the qualities of participatory documentary filmmaking, I decided to combine the best of these photos into a sort of slideshow, kind of like a casual photographic timeline. I am included in each of these photos, typical of the participatory mode. There is no separation between myself and my subjects – in this case, my various friends through time. Additionally, the narrative accompanying the photos and providing some context is entirely from my point of view. I am a part of the photographs themselves, as well as the most prominent voice explaining their significance to my audience.

The fact that I selected only specific images to include in this project is also an example of the participatory documentary mode. As Bill Nichols stated, “the filmmakers impact on the events being recorded is acknowledged, indeed, it is often celebrated.” This is certainly true in the case of my project as I not only had an impact on those around me when the photograph was taken, but I had an impact on the message to the audience of this project by only selecting a few photos from my past to convey my message, and I also impacted the worth of the photos themselves by providing my own personal reflections to accompany and add value the images.

I chose to make this project something very personal and unique to myself because, in my opinion, the participatory documentary mode is one of the most personal modes of filmmaking. It is this honest and intimate method of sharing narratives close to one’s own self that I wished to convey in my own participatory photographic timeline.

Participatory and reflexive modes of documentary filmmaking provide an interesting contrast and compliment in style as well as message and ultimate goal.

As it implies, participatory mode is designed to engage subjects as the filmmaker often becomes directly involved, and often present in voice or image within the documentary. In this mode, the influence of the filmmaker and his or her bias is not ignored or stifled, but instead acknowledged and sometimes encouraged. It seems that this style of filmmaking is very often something personal to the filmmaker. There is a reason that the story is being told, but there is a personal reason for the filmmaker to be so involved whether it is simply a strong feeling towards a topic, or a personal need to share a story for cathartic value.

One of the most famous participatory filmmakers is of course Michael Moore, but a more favored filmmaker of mine is Ross McElwee and his documentary Photographic Memory. This documentary is told almost completely from the perspective of McElwee. His voice is the strongest voice in the film as he interviews those around his and makes voiceover observations about his life. The film is more about McElwee’s perspective on his topic regarding his son and his past, than the topic itself making Photographic Memory a great example of true participatory mode.

While participatory encourages participation, the reflexive mode almost takes it a step further by acknowledging that the bias of the subjects and the filmmaker can make a story less true, but more emotional. It seems to me that this mode challenges the definition of truth and challenges it in the face of a film form that has previously claimed to portray events in a real, non-fabricated way. The audience in this mode becomes aware of the filmic qualities of the story. It is a more “meta” style of documentary as the craft of documentary filmmaking is incorporated into the story and message itself.

A powerful example of the reflexive mode was seen in the film Surname Viet Given Name Nam as stories were told by Vietnamese women. It is revealed throughout the film that the women on the screen are in fact immigrants living in the US and the stories belong to women in Vietnam, not the women on screen expressing the narratives. At this moment of realization, the audience becomes aware of the sets, props, lighting, and tone of delivery that all contributed to the true, but not completely true nature of the documentary.

As mentioned before, these two modes both contrast and compliment one another as they provide two different methods to express the truth and challenge the meaning of truth depending entirely on the perspective of the story teller and the manner in which the story is expressed.

I Am Not Afraid To Be Alone

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The poetic mode was introduced into documentaries in the 1920’s. As Bill Nichols stated, the poetic mode “moves away from the ‘objective’ reality of a given situation or people, to grasp at an “inner truth” that can only be grasped by poetical manipulation.” When considering which mode of documentary to develop a project for, a personal story immediately came to mind that I thought could only be told utilizing the poetic mode. I needed the freedom to join together images and ideas that do not intertwine in any way outside of the subjective interpretation of the poetic mode. Like Joris Iven’s Rain and George Antheil’s Ballet Mechanique, I wanted to create a strong tone and a visual story that did not depend on reality or narrative to convey.

During my years in high school, I had a dear friend by the last name of Stone. Our relationship went back and forth in a predicable pattern until a breaking point was reached in 2009. After an incident involving Stone self medicating and coming to school claiming that I was some sort of idol to him and displaying an unhealthy attachment to me, Stone was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His condition persists, and despite my attempts to distance myself from his destructive, obsessive, and intrusive behavior I still get the occasional harmless message from him. I suppose I always will.

This poetic documentary was made in the memory of our friendship and an effort to capture the conflict and emotional distress he caused to himself and his relationships. With accompaniment by a song from the band La Dispute titled A Broken Jar, the film begins rather slow and calm, and then progresses to be manic and jarring. This evolution is to convey the arch of my relationship with Stone. All of the video footage is footage taken and unwantedly sent to me in his attempts to reach out. The blurry, distorted nature of the documentary is a representation of Stone’s point of view on the world and his difficulty connecting to reality. Additionally, the quotes are all directly from text messages written to me from Stone as he desperately tried to make me understand the isolation and frustration in his own mind. The disjointed imagery and non-narrative quality is what I believe make my project an effective poetic documentary.

Consider the film Stranger with a Camera.  How does this film fit into Bill Nichols’ definition of the expository documentary mode? Compare it to other expository documentaries we’ve watched this semester.  (This can include the clip from the Corporation or not).  Last, discuss the five elements of rhetoric (invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery) in relation to Nichols’ idea of “voice” (pg. 77-93) vis-à-vis Stranger with a Camera.

Stranger with a Camera falls into Nichols’ definition of the expository documentary mode as expository mode emphasizes persuasion and rhetorical content. There is a strong narrative element in expository documentary, which certainly rings true in Stranger with a Camera, as the female narrator, director Elizabeth Barret, leads us along the footage and tells the story of the murder of Canadian filmmaker Hue O’Connor by Hobert Ison, with much information provided from her personal perspective. Also true of expository documentary, footage acts to strengthen the spoken narrative rather than being strictly aesthetic and subjective. The structure of expository documentary mirrors that of a well developed research paper in which every point is supported by evidence, and every point has a counterpoint, or as Nichols says images “illustrate, illuminate, evoke, or act as a counterpoint to what is said.” Stranger with a Camera does an excellent job of providing all sides of the story, with relatively little bias from the narrator.

The Corporation is another expositional documentary that I have seen multiple times in entirety. I think The Corporation provides an excellent alternative example of expositional documentary as it expresses a far more biased narrative voice. Although opinions are given both in favor and in judgement of big corporations, the voices in favor are far less powerful and the argument of the documentary is clearly against large corporations. This documentary has stronger use of rhetoric because of this bias. It is careful in the way is displays information, and does try to sway audiences to share the opinion of the filmmakers. Corporations are shown in an extremely negative light, whereas the shooter in Stranger with a Camera is not depicted as completely wrong, evil, or guilty. Because of this difference in narrative goals, the two documentaries show strong examples of the spectrum of expository filmmaking.

As mentioned before, rhetoric plays a strong role in expository filmmaking. These include invention (evidence supporting the narrative perspective), arrangement (organization of rhetoric), style (manner of communicating to audiences), memory (delivering the facts and depicting a historical story), and delivery (non-verbal understanding of narrative).

Considering these styles, Stranger with a Camera relies on testimonies from subjects for the invention of the narrative. It is arranged with equal arguments from both sides, complimented by the personal story of the director of the film. The style is neutral and unbiased, it is open to the interpretation of the audience with little motivation to sway the audience towards a specific belief. Memory of the events rely on testimonies of subjects as well as the personal memories of the filmmaker. The delivery throughout is understanding and non-aggressive. It complements the overall unbiased tone of the film.

The Corporation relies on documents, statistics, and testimonies for the invention of the narrative. It is arranged with information from both sides of the argument, but utilizes delivery to show corporations in a negative light. The style is serious and strongly anti-corporation. Memory relies on testimony and historical evidence, events, and statistics.

Expository documentary can be used to sway an audience, or open discussion. It is a strong creative method to open subjects of controversy and illuminate truth and perspectives regarding historical events or current events. The rhetorical aspects make expository filmmaking a flexible and useful tool in communication of narratives.

2. Explain and make sense of the painterly approach in documentary films we watched: Balet Mecanique, Rain, Berlin: Symphony of a City, etc.  How do you think these films made an impact on documentary film genres, form, and style in a broad sense?  How did the “documentary as painter” movement impact the filmmaking world?  What is unique about the style and why?

Viewing Ballet Mechanique almost demands following research on the work’s background and purpose. It is a whirring, ticking, swirling series of repetitive images and out of focus elements in frame as the camera swings like a pendulum. This work is a strong example of Dada style, making his characters not human dancers, but mechanical parts.

Ballet Mechanique, in my opinion stands out as more of a Dada statement than a truly painterly documentary like Rain, and Berlin: Symphony of a City. I think this is due to it’s total abstract quality. It seems less like an artistic portrayal within realistic means, and more of a complete creation to make a statement. This could be related to Renaissance painting versus modern art. Classical painting (like Rain and Berlin…) is a controlled, but realistic adaptation of reality to provide a new lens on commonly seen events or subjects while modern art (Ballet Mechanique) is a completely abstract representation of characters or events that is largely open to interpretation.

I think this style of documentary allowed room for art. Rather than being strictly informative or factual, Rain and Berlin have elements of designed beauty. Frames are thought out, camera positions invite interest, and there is a strong sense of craftsmanship. Particularly with Symphony of a City, the events of a day beginning with a sunrise are depicted with a particular sense artistic care.

In vein with Symphony of a City, Rain similarly captures real life through an artistic lens. The city is not only featured, but the beauty of film as a craft and the voice of the director is distinctive. The slow beginning of the rain, its impact on life, and the rhythm throughout the film is so much more than a basic documentation of the weather. It is a statement on life in the city and those who live in it.

It is the combination of art and truth that makes the painterly style of documentary unique.

When compared side-by-side, Dziga Vertov’s documentary Man with a Movie Camera (1929) and Robert Flaherty’s “Nanook of the North” provide examples of just how diverse the world of documentary filmmaking can be. Man with a Movie Camera is abstract in its purely observational nature, whereas Nanook of the North approaches defined subjects that are edited and manipulated in order to tell a story and create an illustration of a real lifestyle in a less-than-real manner. Flaherty was very aware of his manipulation and is quoted explaining to Nanook, “do you know that you and your men may have to give up making a kill if it interferes with my film? Will you remember that it is the picture of you hunting the walrus that I want, and not their meat?”(Silver, “Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North, One World Magazine).

Unless a documentary is entirely cimena verite, manipulation and adjustment from reality seems inevitable. The editing process itself is a manipulation of reality, as an editor sifts through hours of footage to uncover a story. Additionally, any time a subject is aware of themselves being filmed, they are prone to alter themselves from their natural behavior. Because of this, it is interesting to explore the actual meaning of documentary, and argue the line between documentary and narrative filmmaking.

Vertov holds an interesting perspective on the opposite side of this spectrum of documentary. He saw the camera as a sort of innocent machine that could record the world without bias or superfluous aesthetic considerations (Dawson, Senses of Cinema, Dziga Vertov). Vertov seemed to use a camera as a tool to find cohesiveness in an otherwise chaotic environment. Rather than manipulate his subjects, he allowed them to lead him to a form of visual truth.

It is impossible to say for certain which form of documentary filmmaking is more honest or pure, as manipulated documentary exposes an abstract truth, and the manipulation allows for greater creative control which compliments the art and craftsmanship of filmmaking, while observational documentary provides a more objective and pure lens into an untouched reality, pointing out facts of life that may otherwise be lost in daily chaos. This spectrum allows for such rich variety in film, and I believe it is this creative freedom that allows for fascinating perspectives to shine through a documentary in both an honest and artistic manner.

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