Compare and Contrast the Reflexive and Performative modes of documentary. Use specific examples from the film we watched in class to support your ideas.

The Reflexive and Performative modes of documentary both have memorable films that we watched in class. The modes were a bit hard to distinguish at first because they were both very unique ways that a filmmaker could convey their message to the audience. However, after watching the Performative documentaries, the Reflexive mode became  clearer.

The Reflexive mode focuses the audience’s attention on how a documentary film is made, by showing how a scene is filmed and through possible discussions done by the director. The Performative mode can also bring attention to this film making process. However, the main distinction is how the director interacts with the film (Nichols 151-152). In the Reflexive modes, the filmmaker is heard talking about the process or letting the camera film unusual shots. The Performative mode will show the filmmaker interacting with subjects, walking around during the fieldwork, and even filming themselves as they go through the process of planning their scenes.

The Reflexive mode explores how certain documentary methodologies, such as interviews and fieldwork, can be presented in ways that break conventional means. In the film Sur Name Viet Given Name Nam, the interviews stand out as being unconventionally filmed, almost to the point where the audience loses focuses on what the subject is saying. The camera may start off being focused on the subject, but will often drift off of the face.

It is a method that calls attention to the act of interviewing because it makes the audience reflect on what expectations they had for how an interview should be done. There is not a rule for documentaries that states a camera must remain focused on a subject’s face, but it is expected nonetheless by the audience. The Performative mode can be a bit more conventional in this sense, as seen in the film The Gleaners and I. Though both modes utilize interviews, the Performative mode uses a more relaxed and informal method of interviewing that comes off as more spontaneous. The interviews are not inside with a white background, but outside and interactive with the environment. The camera may or may not be steady, but it tends to stay focused on the subject. The camera provides the audience with scenes as seen from the point of view of the film maker, with traveling shots and whimsical interactions that keep the film interesting and adventurous.

The Reflexive mode uses unique methods to break expectations in a refreshing way, but a potentially frustrating way if it is not expected. Along with filming methods, there is also an element of voice-overs, and to some extent an explanation of how the film process was developing. The Performative mode also goes explores the elements of unique film making but in a way that is interactive within the message that is being delivered to the audience. A personal tone can feel even more intimate in the Performative mode than the Reflexive mode due to the style that the scenes would be filmed in. Both modes produce unique and interesting films but with different intentions behind their messages. 

Night and Fog is a seminal work in documenting the Holocaust in its raw inhumanity. How does the filmmaker capture this? How does Resnais choose to represent war and the Holocaust in unique ways? Think about the visual and aural approaches.

Filmed in 1955, Night and Fog remains one of the most haunting pieces of war aftermath a person can see. To capture the aftereffects of the war, film director Alain Resnais used scenes of the abandoned Holocaust camps filmed in color to juxtapose the harsh black and white scenes of the camp during its active days of World War II (Barnouw 180). Though the scenes Resnais switches back and forth from are filmed in different time periods, the camp and the inhumanities that took place there still take center stage in Night and Fog. As a documentary, the movie takes its audience back in time by using scenes they were just introduced to and transitioning quickly to black and white film.

The style of the documentary is a particularly powerful way to show the inhumanity of the Holocaust. The color scenes show empty bunkers and rooms that hide their dark past through minute details. The scene in which the camera walks the audience through an empty gas chamber becomes even more disturbing when the shot focuses in on the fingernail scratches in the ceiling. The horrified audience is then shown black and white film of the gas chamber being used. It is a grotesque history lesson, but one with a purpose and message to send. The narration helps with this message, and becomes one of the most important features in Night and Fog.

The effects of the war and its aftermath are explained to the audience with the help of the unseen, but heard narrator. His voice carries authority, but maintains a neutral and emotionally distanced level of inflection. The images in the film are emotional enough to move the audience without the encouragement of the narrator, and Resnais decided well when choosing to have the narrator depend on facts about the Holocaust when explaining a scene. The emotions that Resnais conveys through the background music are not always the obvious one, but it still works within the film since the topic can be overwhelming at times. The music only encourages the pace of the scene, not the type of emotional response. It takes an untraditional approach, but it helps the audience refocus at times on what the narrator is saying. This encourages the audience to form their own opinions of the inhumanity within the scenes they are shown and come to their own conclusions about what is means to be valued as a living human being. Resnais shows the war and Holocaust as dehumanizing events for everyone involved, and effectively disturbs any romanticism that developed in the decade after its occurrence.