Lauren Documentary Theory Final

For my final documentary assignment I have made a short documentary implementing both the autobiographical mode and the poetic mode of film making. For this documentary project, I have created an abstract retelling of my life using some video shot by me or of me throughout my life and also some archival footage from Texas Archive of the Moving Image. TAMI is a non-profit organization, which preserves home footage shot in Texas and puts it on an online archive (Texasarchive.org). By using these two sources of video, I have put together a broad re-telling of my life and juxtaposed it with a spoken poem by Sarah Kay called “Should I have a Daughter.” By weaving in the poetry, music, and images I have been able to create a sort of conceptual retelling of my life thus far.  This documentary implements these modes because I am, using the images to provide a non-chronological version of my life, but also poetic sue to the fact that the poem used frames the content in a way. This, coupled with the music and the archival footage, makes the short more abstract and poetic rather than just an observational autobiographical documentary.

While my film uses many of the modes of documentary film making. The one that is the most prominent is the poetic mode. According to Bill Nichols “the poetic mode is particularly adept at opening up the possibility of alternative forms of knowledge to the straightforward transfer of information, the prosecution of a particular argument or point of view, or the presentation of reasoned proportions about problems in need of solution.” My goal, in my short documentary was to give an alternative to the simple transfer of information by making my short 22 years of existence into something more abstract. Worthy of learning from. The poetic mode is characterized by the “stress of visual and acoustic rhythm, patterns and the overall pattern of the film.” My documentary does this by using music and jump cuts to create a sense of nostalgia, rather than concrete memory. I used archival footage with my own home movies and personally shot footage to continue this sense of nostalgia and memory. Because it is non- chronological and nonlinear, the film is not edited with continuity editing, another characteristic of the poetic mode.

My film is also very participatory and Performative in many ways. While I am not interviewing people, I am featured in the film. The short documentary goes from my life as a child to today in a non-chronological fashion. It is meant to use the music an poem and images to create a sense of my life thus far. Because of this, I am in many of the home videos and the personally shot footage. In this way I am personally participating in the way that the film is being shaped and how people view it, due to the fact that I am in the film itself.

Additionally, Because It is a personal recounting of my life; it can be seen as many of the personal modes of documentary film making. Personally, I like to say that it is mostly autobiographical. I say this because; Bill Nichols states that the autobiography mode is “a personal account of someone’s experience, maturation, or outlook on life.” I use this mode to explain my documentary because it is meant to use all of these aspects (images, music, poetry) to create a sense of nostalgia for me personally but also to show a point of perception. I wanted the audience to see an outlook on my life. This outlook being that no matter how many times you fall down, you can always get back up. This outlook is hopefully, exemplified by the mixing of the images, music, and poem. My film can also be seen as a first person essay or diary/journal mode of documentary. First person essays are “a personal account of some aspect of the author/filmmaker’s experience or point of view” and the diary mode is “daily impressions that may begin and end somewhat arbitrarily.” Clearly, the first person essay is more likely than the diary mode, but I put this one in as well because the film is nonlinear and begins and ends arbitrarily.

The final mode that my short documentary can be seen as is reflexive. The Reflexive mode of documentary is a mode that “calls attention to the conventions of documentary film making and sometimes of methodologies such as fieldwork or the interview.” My film is somewhat reflexive because I use archival footage. In the film, I mix both, archival footage with my own footage. Because of this, It may become unclear what is my actual family footage and what is archival. This lack of clarity is intentional as it shows a sense of the subjectivity of memory and nostalgia.