VM100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Working Poor, Narrative Structure, Basil Wright
1 Jul 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
VM100
Semester #1 Lecture #10
Professor Michael Selig
Documentary Film in the 1920s and 1930s
-Documentaries are not objective, truthful, unbiased…
-Even though they are ‘non-fiction’, not always a more adequate representation of the world
-Term ‘documentary’ applied to motion pictures around 1926- ‘poetic record with documentary
value’- in “Moana” as example
Moana= Robert Flaherty’s second film
John Grierson as Critic: “Creative treatment of actuality” !
!
Documentary ‘impulse’!
Prior to 1926: Lumiere’s ‘actualites’, Dziga Vertov newsreels, Robert Flaherty’s “Nanook of the
North”
Flaherty= “Father of documentary”, Nanook ‘first of its type’ taking equipment into non-industrial
location to view people
Comedic value sensationalizes ethnic groups- ‘clowns out of clown cars’, marveling over
gramophones
-Flaherty tries to approach subject matter ‘without preconceptions’
Romantic bias- Romantic age bias presented by Flaherty, Nanook is figure of the ‘noble
savage’- figure of exoticism
!
Nanook has great financial success…
-Distributed by Pathé
-Paramount finances next film…Moana (1926)
-Theme of fictional characters playing themselves in contrived environment
Berlin- The City Symphony !
-Walter Ruttman’s Berlin: The Symphony of a City (1927)
-Aesthetic perspective on urban environment
-Montage style, deriving art from actual scenery, no ‘moral purpose’ to film. No political
content- interwar years
John Grierson (1898-1972)- Critic…then documentary ‘producer’. “I look on cinema as a pulpit,
and use is as a propagandist”
-Research fellowship in US…propaganda as subject of study
-New York Sun Critic (Moana review)- admired Flaherty but critical of exotic subjects
Propaganda- Government’s financing of documentary supposed to EDUCATE citizens (term
eventually carried meaning of having citizens act against their interests) !
!
Drifters (1929)- Made for Empire Marketing Board
1927: Grierson heads film unit of Empire Marketing Board
-EMB abolished in 1933
-1934- Film unit moved to General Post Office
Night Mail (1936)- Best known of British documentary movement, about how post office works
hard and travels to get mail to you
Document Summary
Even though they are non- ction", not always a more adequate representation of the world. Term documentary" applied to motion pictures around 1926- poetic record with documentary value"- in moana as example. John grierson as critic: creative treatment of actuality . Prior to 1926: lumiere"s actualites", dziga vertov newsreels, robert flaherty"s nanook of the. Flaherty= father of documentary , nanook rst of its type" taking equipment into non-industrial location to view people. Comedic value sensationalizes ethnic groups- clowns out of clown cars", marveling over gramophones. Flaherty tries to approach subject matter without preconceptions". Romantic bias- romantic age bias presented by flaherty, nanook is gure of the noble savage"- gure of exoticism. Theme of ctional characters playing themselves in contrived environment. Walter ruttman"s berlin: the symphony of a city (1927) Montage style, deriving art from actual scenery, no moral purpose" to lm. I look on cinema as a pulpit, and use is as a propagandist .
