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The Political Function of Documentary
There is an article, titled "Made in Taiwan", talking about the women in Taiwan who worked for family-run-factories without any security, such as labor insurance, pension, and etc.. (Marie Claire, UK Press, Oct. 1994) The article suggests that the outstanding achievement of Taiwan's economy is based on exploitation of women. However, what the article ignores is that the owners of these family-run-factories are the women labors themselves. And this kind of family business is absolutely different from the sweatshops that exploited women, children, and foreign labors; in that the labors of the family-run-factories are the owners themselves. In addition, this kind of family-run-factory exactly represents the vitality of Taiwan's medium-sized businesses that distinguish Taiwan's economic power from the economies of capitalistic countries that rely on big companies. Coincidentally, the same kind of prejudice that criticizes Third World's society is also found in many film festivals. That is why most of the Third World films that won prizes in the film festivals of the First/Second world, are all politically critical films. And this popularity of Third World's political films, thus encourages the Third World countries to make more politically critical films for the film festivals in First/Second World. On the other hand, being politically critical became an obligation for Third World films to enter film festivals of First/Second World.
This is now the era in which everything is involved with politics. However, is political propaganda the ultimate goal of film art? I would now like to talk about the artistic value and the political function of some film genres.
DOCUMENTARY
There are two major differences between documentary and fiction film. First, documentary tells only true stories instead of fictional ones. Because the purpose of documentary is to witness true events. It even created different aesthetics from traditional films, so as to fight against the illusion that traditional films offer the audience. The Cinéma Vérit?(1), for example, claims that the first step for presenting truth is to make the audience conscious of the many things that go on beyond the camera; and what the audience can see on the screen are just some manipulated fragments selected by the camera but not the whole event that really happens. And by the means of this dialectic concept, such as reflexive shots and estrangement effects, the audience are more likely to receive an unmanipulated truth from the film. Secondly, in terms of ideology, documentary is really a kind of propaganda. It pursues ultimate truth in order to be of advocacy; because truth is evidence, truth is believing, truth can bring up the most instigating power. And this ability to convince audience that its message is true, makes documentary a powerful medium for propaganda. Therefore, the most important requirement of documentary is the authenticity of its contents. The technique and quality of its camera, editing, or sound are not as important as its contents. On the contrary, a poor image/sound makes it look more like a news reel, and thus makes it more convincing. For example, a shaky and blurry shot of a riot scene looks more real than a carefully photographed shot; because no one would believe that it is possible to set up a tripod to record any real violence in a turbulent situation. In another words, an ugly documentary is more convincing than a beautiful one.
According to the convincing truth and propaganda that documentary is pursuing, we can easily tell that the spirit of documentary is to fulfill its political function instead of its artistic value. Documentary does not have to be an eternal beauty that expects to be admired from one generation to another. Its existence is temporary because its mission is to solve temporary social problems in a certain place, within a certain moment. That is to say, documentary should care about only its political function, but not its artistic value. For instance, the National Film Bureau of Canada made a series of documentaries in the 60' with the title, "Challenge for Change". The goal of the series of documentaries was to deal with the problems between the government and the society. The problems were caused by the anti-war movements, and people's rights that were affected by the big change of the prevailing European and American thoughts. The documentary series served certain social issues. It conveyed people's opinions to society and bridged the gap between the government and society. As a result, the documentary series successfully accomplished its political function.
THIRD CINEMA
Speaking of political function, we should never ignore Third Cinema. Third Cinema does not include all films from the Third World countries. It is a film genres for the films that promote anti-colonialism, social revolution, and etc.. On the other hand, Third Cinema also abandons the aesthetics of First Cinema and Second Cinema. (2) Most of Third Cinema are produced in the countries that are under unstable political situation. Those countries need the most powerful propaganda to promote their policies, to oppose the government, and to instigate people to fight against it. And cinema is the most powerful propaganda. That is to say, Third Cinema is a weapon for their revolution. In addition, the way they distribute Third Cinema is completely different from the way people distribute traditional films. Third Cinema does not wait in theaters for audience to come to see it. Third Cinema aggressively reaches its audience by playing in any open spaces in small villages, in factories, etc.. Usually, they have discussions with the audience before, after, or even during the film's screening. And this makes Third Cinema really propaganda. The same as regular documentary, Third Cinema does not care for the artistic value of the film. It cares only for its content and ideology. As a matter of fact, some films of Third Cinema even intentionally make their images and sound bad. There is a theory, Imperfect Cinema, created by a Cuban director, Julio Garcia Espinosa. Imperfect Cinema considers revolution is the greatest performance of culture. Radically, it regards real art as the art that can carry political function into effect. On the other hand, the art that belongs to the intellectuals or the bourgeois should be abandoned. Imperfect Cinema ignores film-critics' reviews. They do not make films for art. They pursue only temporary value of propaganda. In fact, the fundamental concept of Imperfect Cinema is to vanish; such as a flower blossoms only for a short period of time and then vanishes quietly. As mentioned before, the most powerful propaganda is the film that can show audience the truth. No matter how great a fiction film's artistic achievement can be, it is never more affecting than a true story. For this reason, in order to affect its audience, Third Cinema tries to use the style of documentary, or based on true events, especially the events that are hidden from public. Accordingly, like documentary, Third Cinema also cares only for the political function but not the artistic value.
FILMS OF JEAN-LUC GODARD
To talk about film's artistic value and political function, we cannot ignore Godard's films. Yes, Godard, a master of both documentary and fictional films, kept coming up with cinematic dialectics in his films. His films are almost all political. And what I would like to point out is that all the innovative and experimental treatments Godard used for his films are making his films more and more like documentaries. In fact, it is not difficult to give some examples to support my opinion. Such as the use of lots of mottoes, newsreel-like voice-over, reflexive shots, estrangement effects, impromptu performance, etc., are all the special treatments Godard used to free his films from the artificial illusion of traditional films as well as retrieve the authentic reality of his films. Among all of Godard's special treatments, reflexive shots and estrangement effects that both remind audience of the existence of camera, are two important characteristics of documentary. Also, Godard once said that he is so deeply influenced by Dziga Vertov who is regarded as the father of documentary by the world. Godard even created an association, Commune of Vertov, to promote Vertov's theory, Kino-Eye. (3) Godard, as a king of Second Cinema that is highly considered as the cinema with the best artistic value, enthusiastically embraces the esthetics of documentary in order to practice his films' political function. Godard once said: "Beauty - the splendor of truth, has two poles. There are directors who seek the truth, which, if they find it, will necessarily be beautiful; others seek beauty, which, if they find it, will also be true, one finds these two poles in documentary and fiction." (Louis Giannetti, Understanding Movies, Prentice-Hall press, 1982, P. 336)
THE ARTISTIC VALUE vs. THE POLITICAL FUNCTION
According to documentary, Third Cinema, and Godard's films that we have discussed above, we can tell that the films made for political purpose focus only on the contents, though they propagate through various ways of presenting authentic reality. Therefore, it seems that it should not be necessary for any critic to make comments on films that care about only contents and political functions; in that artistic value comes from how a film conveys its message, not what message a film conveys. However, artistic value should transcend any different politic attitudes or morality. We should try to read how a political film propagates in order to value its artistic achievement, but not only judge its political or moral attitude. We should be able to appreciate a film that is against our political attitude. That is why the films, "Triumph of The Will", and "Olympia", two propaganda films for Nazi, could transcend the political and moral judgment, and still enjoy high admiration for their artistic achievements. On the other hand, a film that has only simple and ordinary contents can also earn compliments if it is made with beautiful treatments.
However, beautiful political films seems to be made only by the dominant political power; and countries of First World and Second World are expecting Third World countries to produce ugly political films. It seems that making beautiful films is a proprietary privilege of First World and Second World; and Third World should only makes political films to provoke political revolutions. This prejudice might be discrimination as well. First World and Second World countries cannot wait to rescue the Third World countries, or they just want to feel superior to the Third World? Here comes another example, some film critics compared Taiwan New Cinema's common subject of nostalgia to the Second Stage of Frantz Fanon's provocative Three Stages. (4) Three Stages describes the cultural development of anti-imperialism or anti-colonialism. The film critics expected Taiwan New Cinema could go to the Third Stage - "the fighting period". However, Taiwan New Cinema got over its nostalgic subjects, but did not step to the "fighting period". On the contrary, Taiwan is making many beautiful films that cannot be ignored.
by Tung-Wang Wu
October, 1986
*Your feedback is very much appreciated!
Notes
(1) Cinéma Vérit?is a kind of documentary that emphasizes the interaction between the one who photographs and the one who is photographed. "Chronicle of Summer" (directed by Jean Rouch, 1961) is a famous example of documentary ?la Cinéma Vérit?
(2) First Cinema: Hollywood's commercial films that represent Capitalist ideology with fluent cinematic language.
Second Cinema: European art films, such as films of the French New Waves.
(3) The declaration of Kino-Eye: to utilize camera as our eyes. Camera is even more perfect than our eyes to search in the chaos of universe.
(4) The First Stage: to completely receive the colonial culture without any selection.
The Second Stage: to devote attention to childhood or history.
The Third Stage: the fighting period, a mature moment to liberate independently.
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