Cross-pollinator Documentaries - Reflection on the 20th edition of IDFA

Kookie Habtegaber is an Eritrean born journalist now studying in Amsterdam. She covered the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) for MediaChannel.org

What makes IDFA so big is not only the fantastic documentaries being screened, but also its function as a market hub of buying and selling documentaries, its master classes and various innovative educational programmes. IDFA has also managed to successfully combine film screening with space to discuss the content of these films through numerous periphery activities such as debates, lectures and special screenings on current issues.

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda – the responsibility of documentaries

The tension between aesthetics and content was clearly felt during one of these debates on Dictorshifts- a debate on the role of documentaries in informing or forming public opinion. This particular debate was somewhat lacking debate as the host asked most of the questions and had the panelists answer them, with the public barely participating. A brave participant however, dared interrupt a few times asking political questions. Clearly talking about dictators, by definition, leads to a political discussion. Although the host made it clear this was a film festival and not a political debate, this very situation highlights some of the fundamental questions regarding the role of documentaries.

So, is documentary making an artistic way of storytelling, or is documentary a tool to get people take action on important societal issues? Is showing what is going on (describing the scene) enough? In other words, to what extent does and should a documentary inform and/or form public opinion?

Can advocacy and storytelling go hand in hand and how objective, if at all possible, would documentaries need to be in this respect? Can we consider ‘advocacy journalism’ is the flipside of socially engaged documentary?

During many of the debates and lectures, some filmmakers and invited speakers have argued films do not change the world; movements or actions of people do and the responsibility to act lies within each individual. The role of the filmmaker is to show the story in its completeness and let the viewer judge. Others tended to stress the important role of advocacy and the responsibility of documentaries with a clear purpose of intending to initiate action by viewers. One of the competition award programmes at IDFA is the ‘movies-that-matter award’ that is co-hosted by Amnesty International focusing on human-right issues.

So what should happen after the films have been screened? Where does this leave the public? At times the viewer is left to deal with the images – some of which are very hard to digest. In fact there is a certain surrealism of watching heart wrenching situations in one of the most beautiful buildings in Amsterdam- the Tuschinski cinema; reminiscent of art deco’s glorious days.

But to my delight, after watching the world primer of Triage: the Dilemma of Dr. James Orbinski the director handed out a sheet with information for those who want to do something on what they just saw. This film I found was one of the most visually and morally strong and soulful films at this year’s IDFA edition. It is a film about former president of Doctors without Borders (MSF), Dr. James Orbinski, who re-visits Rwanda where he stayed as one of the few foreigners during the genocide, and Somalia, his first MSF post, during which Somalia was collapsing into anarchy in the early 90’s. The film shows the most extremes epitome of humanity: excessive violence and negligence, in the midst of absolute empathy and compassion. It clearly showed the consequence and interconnectedness of politics, humanitarianism, and wars.

Where is the boundary between fact and fiction?

Human rights, fair trade, economic rights, environmental issues are all part of global multiple reality filled with various values, norms, ideologies, and paradigms. Often viewers expect the filmmaker to record the ‘truth’ – what really transpired (a verity documentary).

Yet documentaries are many things- amongst of which, the translation of the artist, in this case of the filmmaker, of the reality he/she has gotten to understand either through own experience or through the experience of the protagonists. Even just choosing those who will be part of a documentary or who will be left out already sets the tone of the documentary in a certain direction.

Hence I would argue that documentaries cannot strictly be a visual documentation of reality. The same discussion of objectivity that rages within the news media also applies here. Some argue there is a difference between advocacy journalism and news reporting, but is there? Or is it a matter of degree in how explicit the author (newspaper, TV channel, magazine, and filmmaker) makes the underlying assumptions, paradigms, experiences and views that shape him and indirectly the storyline. In other words the degree of acknowledgment on how and in what way the information that is being received is processed. As such a good documentary would manage to go deeper into the issue and create more understanding and clarity about the topic.

For the 20th anniversary of IDFA the public was invited to vote the top 20 films ever. It voted Darwin’s Nightmare as the best film in 20 years of IDFA. During this occasion the director Hubert Sauper was present as a panelist in one of the debates. His film has created a barrage of controversies worldwide one of them being the representation of reality and the degree of manipulation undertaken by a film maker. For instance, one scene from the film where the protagonist reads a newspaper to his son in the middle of the night was criticized on the level of manipulation. The director explains that ‘yes, he did give the newspaper and asked the protagonist to read it, but he did not manipulate or write the contents of the newspaper. In the same line of thought, he also filmed the homeless kids in a certain context, but these kids were there already in their homelessness’.

What it comes down to is that the viewer is not aware, or perhaps as a result of the media’s overemphasis on objectivism, has forgotten, that there is a whole of lot editorial work: omitted footage, years of filming and (re) direction of storyline that go on before the film is completed to be screened. The director might ask participants to re-enact past events or might set the stage to provoke certain things to emerge.

Somehow I am reminded of how each time people in this part of the world where people do not slaughter their animals themselves to consume get shocked when they see how their yummy looking chicken wings at the supermarket is produced. The distance between consumers and how food is produced has become so big that we forget how it all got there in the first place. We are then confronted with the editorial work of mass production which we have a hard time to digest.

So while documentaries tell stories in a cinematographic manner, what we see on screen is not necessarily always the sequential filming and reproduction of events unfolding. Documentaries contain processed information. The ethical question is how far the documentaries tell a balanced story in making clear the context of multiple reality, how honestly do they communicate to the viewer the objectives of the film. There seems to be a thin line between propaganda and advocacy because even that is one reflection of reality. It is impossible to recreate reality as it is, at best, one can only give a reflection or interpretation.

Going back to the debate on Dictatorshifts, this particular point was illustrated by the mere definition of who is a dictator or not. Three films were discussed: the Putin System, Shadow of the Holy Book, and Milosevic on Trail.

While many would not associate Mercedes Benz or Siemens, household names in our consumer world, as being dictators, one may indeed call them the faceless dictators after seeing the documentary by Arno Halonen titled The shadow of the Holy Book -a film about those multinationals who translated some sort of spiritual guidance book (Ruhnama) written by the late leader of Turkmenistan to their respective languages (English, German, French, Turkish etc). According to the film, translating the Ruhnama meant the multinationals secured lucrative business deals in construction, and oil and gas industry. But these same companies refused to give information on the issue or account for their presence in Turkmenistan which is considered a dictatorship. The argument is income generated from their business maybe used to continue suppressing the people Turkmenistan.

On the other hand, in the film about Putin’s Russia, the concentration was on the individual person who is considered a dictator. In the debate it came out that many in Russia celebrate Putin because they see him restoring the glory of Russia, while others see him as ruthless dictator. Yet, when there are important economic deals to be made (witness last month’s visit of the Dutch Prime Minister to Russia during which he personally signed a gas deal), Russia becomes a young democracy.

The question is also whether an elected dictator is better that self appointed dictator or the faceless dictators… Often labels and definitions have their own dynamics and supporters and opponents. Hopefully documentaries will not fail to show these if they are to complement or replace much of the superficially objective news reporting in the main stream media. Will documentary disarm the news media? Is documentary replacing news reporting as the new form of journalism of the future where youtube and virtual film festivals play ever prominent role?

Perhaps the role of documentaries is as multifaceted as the world we live in, sometimes to inform, sometime to advocate, educate, raise awareness, implicate, share a story, connect humanity, or just a way for the filmmaker to deal with hers/his reality. Whatever the motivation, the most political act is to speak as Dr. James Orbinski reminded us, regardless of the form used.

http://www.idfa.nl

http://www.whitepinepictures.com/triage/index.htm

http://www.darwinsnightmare.com/

http://www.shadowoftheholybook.com/

http://www.idfa.nl/industry/festival/films-a-z/film.aspx?id=15638

http://www.idfa.nl/industry/festival/films-a-z/film.aspx?id=29029

For the editorial work in the food industry

http://www.we-feed-the-world.at/en/film.htm

http://www.ourdailybread.at/jart/projects/utb/website.jart?rel=en&content-id=1130864824947

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