Vision of Documentaries

A documentary can be defined as something which is short, which conveys a message and exudes authenticity. It can also be called the vision of reality or mirror of life as it is based on factual information. Its generally a composition of historical records which has a political base and covers personal stories. It deals with the query of complexity with which we approach our relationship in real life. Voice is disembodied from the face and makes use of images and sounds in an interesting way. It raises ethical issues but the consent to show such issues is incalculably essential.

A documentary can be as short as ten minutes but it needs a lot of pain and effort to think about a social issue and expose it. The way of tackling the question is more important than the question itself. Nobody should feel offended after watching it. Documentaries do not need words; it can convey an idea through gestures. Even big stories can be told without words. One example of this would be Anita Balachandran’s film “He Ram” which focuses on the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. The way in which the whole thing is shown, is simply incredible. The very famous adage “Time Flies” is demonstrated to be true. The hands of the clock are shown to appear like that of a bird and at that very moment Gandhiji is killed; the bird is shown to have flown away from the clock bleeding all over. This movie has a lot of evocative imagery with birds, houses, footsteps, falling leaves with the background song, “Ud Jayega Hans Akela”.

In 1949, a movie called “Blood of the Beast” showed how animals were mercilessly slaughtered in the abattoir. Jean Rouch, a filmmaker in the history of documentary film making once said that ‘direct cinema is the counterfeit of journalism.’ In 1961, the camera was used as a psychoanalytical stimulant in the movie ‘A Chronicle of Summer.’ The concept of realism is very important in documentary film making. Realism is basically a style used to create an illusion for reality. Chris Marker addressed documentary film making as ‘something that leaves boredom in the end amongst the audience.’ There are very few people who enjoy a documentary because they show reality and not fiction. A documentary is an interpretation of a document and the idea is imperative.