For my final project I chose a form of media that represents the poetic, essayistic, and participatory modes of documentary. As we learned from class and Nichols the poetic mode of documentary moves away from the objective representation and takes a subjective standpoint, stressing mood, tone, and affect. This mode requires the viewer to look more in depth at the film. An example of this mode is San Soleil a film created by Chris Marker. It is a collection of images from Japan, Europe, Africa, and America while a narrator reads letters written from a fictional traveler. This film takes a poetic look at time and memory.

The second mode that is used is essay which often has similarities tied to the poetic mode. Essay films are only partly defined by their subject matter. They tend not to follow linear structures; far less to buttonhole viewers in the style of PowerPoint rather in the spirit of Montaigne they are often digressive, associative, self- reflective.  An example of this form of documentary is Orson Welles F for Fake. This film looks at illusions that happen on and off the camera with its main subject, the greatest trickster known to the art world, Elmyr de Hory. The whole film is a play between fiction and non-fiction. For instance the interviews with Elmyr are not actually done by Welles but taken from an entirely different documentary.

The final mode is the participatory form. This mode brings the filmmaker into the film so that he/she becomes part of the film. Participates in shaping what happens before the camera. This type of documentary is commonly associated with interviews. An example of this is Photographic Memory by Ross McElwee. This film revolves around McElwee, his teenage son Adrian, and their strained relationship. McElwee uses clips from old films of his son, some clips his son has made, some old photos he took during his first trip to France, and present day clips of their conversations. Also in this film, while trying to understand his son better McElwee visits a French town he once stayed in when he was Adrian’s age. The whole film McElwee is the main social actor there are an abundant amount of shots of his attempts at communicating with his son, or just talking with French pedestrians.

This photo essay looks at Graffiti Park at Castle Hill found on the west side of downtown Austin. This park is not a normal playground for children but instead layers of concrete slabs that are covered with graffiti art. Just five years ago this area was condemned condo area. In 2011 Shepard Fairey, a local Austin graffiti artist, who created the OBEY giant and later the HOPE campaign for president Obama helped launch the graffiti park. This is now one of Austin’s top spots to visit.  It could take a full day to take in all the artwork because even when you think you have seen everything, you realize you are still on the first floor. If you went to visit the park next week it would be totally different walls. Artists are painting over the old pieces with new ideas constantly changing the park.

This is poetic because the art on the slab is always changing the same way life does. There is a rhythm or a pattern in the order of the pictures, every other picture has myself in it. The fact that I am in every other picture represents participatory mode. Also the entire project is on the beauty and hidden meaning that is found in this park which makes it an essay form.