The essayistic mode of documentaries is a fairly new concept to the documentary world and has become more popular with the modern day culture that has adapted it. This style of film is not fully defined by its subject matter but also the way that the subject is portrayed and shown to the audience. They do not follow a linear pattern rather a digressive and more self-reflective.

An example of this style of film is F for Fake which we watched in class by Orson Welles. Known to be one of his only documentaries shows a well known artist conman who made money for years on his copies of art masterpieces. Welles then tells the viewers a very believable story at the end of the film which he then reminds us that he said in the beginning he would only tell the truth for one hour and that the entire story was just something he made up. This film showed us that there are displays of what we think is real everywhere not just in an artist but in a director as well. I also think that it was very ironic that Welles did a film about such a conman when he himself is something of a conman when he did his performance of The War of the Worlds on National Radio which had the country in such an uproar.

I chose to do my photo essay on Graffiti Park at Castle Hill which is an abandoned condominium project that has now been turned into stories of concrete covered in street art. This is one of the most talked about places in Austin and in a way portrays the city better than any other museum in the city. This park is sorts of a local museum it shows the thoughts of the people of Austin. It is also Ironic that something that is supposed to be illegal is so accepted by the city of Austin where as in most towns this would be frowned upon. As you climb up the levels of this artistic world you getting all kinds of compelling views and you turn around and see a whole new view which is the city itself (which in my opinion is one of the best views of downtown).

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.

“The Word ‘maelstrom’ originally referred to a whirlpool off the coast of Norway, a whirlpool so powerful that it could draw down boats from miles around.”

The Maelstrom is a film that chronicles the Peerebooms through their home movies. The Peerebooms were a Jewish family whom lived in the Netherlands before and during WWII. The film follows the Peerebooms from 1933 to 1939 we watch them develop families and lives. The film follows them until they are preparing to leave for the concentration camps in the winter of 1940. Throughout the film the Peerebooms are compared to those of the (Austrian) family of Reich Commissioner for The Netherlands Arthur Seyss-Inquart. This film has no voice-over it is only a troubling jazz score sometimes cut off by a radio broadcast. The first we see of the Peerebooms archives is in 1933, which is when Max and Annie get married. 1933 is also when Hitlor becomes chancellor of Germany. The film also cuts to historical footage, which in the beginning is Nazi soliders and training children for the Nazi regime. Later in the film it is shots of Jewish families being taken out of their homes.The end of the film tells us that the only survivior of the Peereboom family was the youngest simon.

The Holocaust is a constant reminder of the capability of evil and ignorance. I have viewed several holocaust films but none were anything like this film. This film didn’t show the horrors of the concentration camp, it didn’t show the gruesome graphics that are normally shown in these films. Instead this filmmaker showed blissful family movies, giving the viewer enough information to figure out the inevitability of this family. I believe that this film is extremely powerful film on the holocaust. It gives the viewer a whole different perspective on this subject. It showed real people going about their normal lives. It showed the “before” shots of a Jewish as opposed to “after” shots. When you see other holocaust films you see what happens after they have been at the camps and you feel gut-wrenching awful for anyone who had to endure that kind of torture. The Peerebooms, on the other hand, are a relatable family and that is what makes this film worse than any other film. This film makes you sit on all the information you know and just watch this family continue to grow and wait for the inevitable.

The Reflexive mode of documentary is unique because it breaks the fourth wall between filmmaker and viewer. This mode acknowledges how it is made, to portray to the viewer that this is merely a representation of truth. This form shows the viewer the world and the struggles with recreating it. As Nichols puts it, “Instead of seeing through documentaries to the world beyond them, reflexive documentaries ask us to see documentary for what it is: a construct or representation”.

Surname Viet Given Name Nam is an example of this mode. This film interviews five Vietnamese women about the oppression they suffered for being a woman in Vietnam. Eventually the viewer discovers that the women being interviewed are not the women who experienced these things, but are actually Vietnamese immigrants reading scripts from an interview done years before. This film shows the viewer that what they thought was real was really just a representation of what was once real.

Participatory mode of documentary is also an unique form because it breaks down the fourth wall between the filmmaker and the social actors. In this form the filmmaker engages directly with his/her subject in front of the camera, he/she becomes part of the film and in a sense morphs into a social actor. This mode stands out from the rest because while other modes have a distinct separation between filmmaker and social actors, Participatory strives on the interaction between the two on camera.

An example of participatory mode 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 talking with French pedestrians.

Another example of participatory mode is Kurt & Courtney is a documentary filmed by Nick Broomfield. In this documentary Broomfield takes a look at one of the most infamous death in rock and brings a new perspective on the death of Kurt Cobain through his investigation on those closest to Cobain. Broomfield interviews friends, family and lovers of Cobain and his widow, Courtney Love, he even interviews the private investigator on Cobain’s case. Broomfield integrates himself well into his film as a interviewer/social actor.

Both participatory and reflexive modes have a very unique quality that make them stand out from the other modes of documentation. This quality is that both of these modes break down some kind of wall that exists in other forms of film. These forms not only show the audience a critical look at the social world but a critical look at the documentary world as well.

“The expository mode is the most prominent of all the modes” (Nichols).

This specific mode of documentary forms an argument using rhetorical devices. The main focus of these films is to show images of reality which are used as evidence and logical commentary which is the argument in order to successfully prove their point. Most of these films are going to use sound devices such as Voice-of-God commentary or  Voice-of-Authority commentary in order to strengthen their argument. The filmmakers of these types of films are generally un-biased on the subject of their film in order to be more objective and logical.

Stranger with a Camera is a documentary by filmmaker Elizabeth Barret whom grew up in a middle-class town in Kentucky. Her film focuses on two individuals: Canadian filmmaker Hugh O’Conner and Appalachian resident Hobart Ison and the events that took place following their encounter. She looks at how cultural misunderstandings between these two men ultimately led to the unfortunate death of Hugh O’ Conner. Stranger with a Camera explores the relationship between those who make films for social change and the people whose lives are represented. Barret brings a unique perspective to this film, since she was raised in this community, she is not only the filmmaker but also a subject in her own film. This documentary is a prime example of the expository mode. It poses a rhetorical argument on a social problem that has lasted and been debated in her community for decades. Barret does an excellent job of setting up, and supporting her argument while remaining objective throughout the whole film. She makes good use of interview clips as well as historical film fragments from the town. This film also narrates in a way that directly speaks to the viewer in a logical voice.

The five rhetorical devices used in this mode of documentary are invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. These elements have been used in rhetoric forms of writing for centuries but recently Nichols has tied them into film more specifically the expository form of documentary. Invention is the form of argument that the filmmaker chooses to use, normally being one of the persuasions method (ethos, pathos, and logos). Arrangement organizes the film in the order that most effectively achieves the films rhetorical goal. Style uses arrangement of images and word choice. Memory is important because it allows the speaker to talk  about facts without the need to refer to notes. Finally, the element of delivery allows for visuals to be the message instead of words.

Most of the more popular films that are viewed in theaters today are scripted stories meant for audience entertainment. These films are based on actors and their fictional stories in their fictional worlds. Documentaries on the other hand are about reality. The films are about what actually happened to real people in the real world. Since there is this difference, documentaries have their own selection of genres which differ from fictional films. As Nichols puts it, “they are made with different assumptions about purpose, they involve a different quality of relationship between filmmaker and subject, and they prompt different sorts of expectations from audiences”. Despite these differences fictional and documentary films do share some similarities. For instance some documentaries use some fictional tools of film making such as scripted performances.

While many people believe “Nanook of the North” to be the first documentary, there are many who are skeptical of this assumption. The reason that this is questioned is because many of the scenes from this film were set-up by the director. For instance the seal scene did not actually happen they had people off the shot pulling at the other end of the string and the seal they claimed to catch was already dead. Nichols describes documentaries as “These films challange assumptions and alter perceptions. They see the world anew and do so in inventive ways”. He goes on to say that this story is a way of life that the Eskimo, Nanook, takes on  even if this is no longer his way of life. Because of this, the film can be portrayed as fictional or documentary. There are two ways to identify this as a documentary, the first is that even those these are no longer the ways of the Inuit they do closely relate to the way they used to live. The second is that the spirit of the character Nanook is in Allakariallak whom has lived the life of an Inuit and therefor can embody the character as if he were the character.

Poetry has been around for many centuries. The Greeks first used it to tell stories since then it has evolved as a creative way to display thoughts. Every piece of poetry requires one to look at the poem as more than just words because within that lays so much more. In several ways poetry itself and the poetic mode of documentary are very similar; both require a flow of rhythm, both have more depth than what you see, and both have a specific pattern that is seen through the work. The poetic mode of documentaries is used to stress mood tone, and affect. (Nichols 162). In the same manner as poems this mode of documentaries require more thought than what is just seen on the screen.

In my representation of the poetic mode I have chose a walk with my niece. In most poetic modes of documentary there is no focus on social actors. She is a character but since I don’t want to distract the viewer I won’t give her name. This is supposed to be a walk I took with her and in the first frame she is the only thing of color in a black and white world. The second frame is her stopping to inspect a plant and as she touches it the plant starts to get its color back. In the third frame as she walks away the whole garden regains its color. Finally in the fourth frame she has brought color back to the whole world.

I was trying to show what it feels like to experience the world in a particular, poetic way (Nichols 162). In this case it was what is like to have a walk with her. One of the points I was trying to portray is what it is like to have her innocence in your life and how because of this innocence her whole world is in color. The poetic mode stress visual and acoustic rhythms, patterns and the overall form of the film. (Nichols 162). I used these 4 specific frames to give the image as a whole a smoother flow. One of the patterns used in this piece is that the more color that is added to the picture she has moved closer to the camera. This is also a representation of how the closer she is the more color that is brought into life.

History is very significant to education, because without learning it, we are doomed to repeat ourselves. One of the scariest and most vital pieces of history is the holocaust. This subject is repeatedly taught in schools so that students understand just how horrific it is. Since this tragedy there have been several films that tried to represent the inhumanity that the victims suffered. Although Night and Fog was not the first of its kind, it was and still is one of the most gripping.

Night and Fog, as a whole, is a very powerful film. Resnais uses several different tools in order to convey his message. He starts out the film by looking at the abandoned camps through the barbed-wire fences. Even though grass has taken over the once desolate land, it is hard to escape the eerie feeling. As Resnais puts it, “the blood has dried, the tongues have fallen silent”. The film then cuts back into 1933 Germany, just before the start of World War II. The marching of German soldiers brings out the crowds of people to hail their fierce new government. We also take a look at the different styles of concentration camps that were designed as if they were houses. Along with these pictures are the words, “Architects calmly design the gates meant to be passed through only once”. Resnais uses words and pictures in a very articulate way that is meant to pull in the audiences attention. This is an excellent way to introduce such a strong subject because he shows the liberated camps and the before the prisoners arrived. Even when you see what the camps look like now, you are transported back in time and Resnais then does take us back in time.

Resnais uses this back and forth pattern of what happened to what is now throughout the film. This is a very effective tool, he advances this with the use of switching from black and white to color. As Barnouw puts it, “frequent shifts between black-and-white archive footage of the extermination camps, and sequences in warm color filmed…”(Barnouw 180). An example of this is with the train that the captives took to their camps. He shows film of massive amounts of people getting on the train and arriving to one of the camps. Then jumps forward to what the tracks look like now, where the gruesomeness of their arrival no longer exist.

Resnais then takes the viewer into the camp. As we go through their day to day life the only theme is that there was no hope. First of all they were barely fed not only that what they were fed was not real food. He shows pictures of what the Nazi’s had turned them into which was skeletons with skin. Then he shows in detail the many ways that they were executed. Taking the viewer into the gas chambers where you can still see the claw marks. Pictures of charred skeletons and bodies thrown in with wood. There are rooms filled with billions of their possessions and hair, never ending mountains of hair. One of the most horrifying images of the whole film is the human heads in a basket next to what was once their bodies. Then we see hundreds of thousands of corpses being thrown and bulldozed into giant pits on top of one another. All of this film Resnais probably got from footage that was captured and originally put into Gustav Garvin and Kosta Hlavaty’s film Jasenovac. 

This documentary is stomach churning but it is important to show so that people can know the inhumanity of this travesty. The message you leave the film with is that this is awful and disgusting and that this is not the first or the last genocide.