Direct Cinema

Direct Cinema is a documentary style that emerged in the late 1950s in North America.

History

The origin of the " direct cinema " is returned to the rule based on the invention more readily 16mm cameras and portable Synchrontongeräte, but this is also criticized as technological determinism. Film historian Claire Johnston found this type of documentation film even without synchronous devices much earlier possible: " the slight camera was actually [but not the portable Synchrontonmaschine ] already developed in Nazi Germany of the 30s for propaganda purposes; the reasons why it has been generally used only in the 50s, remain unclear. " the pioneers of " direct cinema ", however, kept the portability of the equipment, although crucial, but only the confidence and well-being of the people portrayed to the filmmakers would have them the quality allows their work.

A pioneering work of the new form was Raquetteurs Les (1958 ) (The Snowshoer ) of the Québecois Michel Brault and Gilles Groulx. Techniques of " direct cinema " were also used in early feminist cinema. In the U.S. Robert Drew founded Drew Associates, for Richard Leacock, Donn Alan Pennebaker, Terence Macartney - Filgate and Albert and David Maysles worked. 1960 produced this group for Time-Life Broadcast three films: Yanqui, No, Eddie ( On the Pole), and Primary! . Especially Primary deemed to be influential for the " direct cinema ". Primary documents the primary campaign between the Democratic Senators John F. Kennedy and Hubert H. Humphrey in 1960 in Wisconsin.

Direct Cinema and Cinéma vérité

Often a distinction is made between " Direct Cinema " Cinéma vérité and. Film historians have the direct cinema movement as a North American version of " Cinéma vérité ", an idea that crystallized in France with Jean Rouch's Chronicle of a Summer (1961 ) found displayed. Cinéma vérité used the power of the camera to provoke reactions and something to discover. " Direct Cinema " is strict on " pure observation " oriented. It is based on an agreement between the filmmakers, the subjects in the film and the audience, as if the presence of the camera would not ( substantially ) alter the filmed event. In the " direct cinema ", the filmmaker tries to be like a " fly on the wall ". However, the pursuit of neutrality by Claire Johnston was rated as illusory as well: "It is clear when the movie from the production of characters, then the idea of ​​non-intervention is a pure mystification. What the camera actually captures is the 'natural' world of the dominant ideology. "

In a 2003 interview, ( Zuber ) explained Robert Drew, as he saw the difference between " Cinéma vérité " and " Direct Cinema ": "I had Primary and some other films made ​​, then I took a Leacock to a conference in France [ meeting in 1963, which was sponsored by the Radio Television Française ]. I was surprised to see that the " Cinéma vérité " filmmakers responded people on the street with a microphone in his hand. My goal was to capture real life without interference. Between us there was a contradiction. It was useless. They had a cameraman, a sound engineer and six others - eight people who expressed themselves around. It was a bit like the Marx Brothers. My idea was to have one or two people that capture the moment unobtrusive. " ( Ellis, Chapter 14)

Jean Rouch claimed in 1963 that everything that happens in France in the " Cinéma vérité " come from the National Film Board of Canada ( NFB). On the other hand, today the " Cinéma vérité " be seen as a further development of the French " direct cinema " by Brault and his French-speaking colleagues in the NFB:

"Il faut le dire, tout ce que nous avons fait en France dans le domaine du cinéma vérité vient de l' ONF (Canada). C'est qui Brault a apports une nouvelle technique de que nous ne tournage connaissions et pas que nous tous copions depuis. D' ailleurs, vraiment, on a la " brauchite " ça, c'est sûr; même les gens qui que considèrent Brault est un emmerdeur ou qui sont étaient jaloux Forces de le reconnaître. "

" Translation: You have to admit, everything we have done in France in the area of ​​cinéma vérité, comes from the ONF ( National Film Board of Canada ). From Brault comes a new technique of revolution, we did not know and which we copy ever since. By the way, you really have to, Brault virus ', that's for sure; even the people who think Brault for a pain or who were jealous, are forced to admit it. "

As pioneers of Brault form used, Perrault and others never the term cinéma vérité to describe their work, because they found it too pretentious. They preferred " direct cinema ". And even if they sometimes acted as catalysts for various situations (eg by asking people to start again with the fish) it always worked in small crews who were close to the filmed people.

" Cinéma vérité " and " Direct Cinema " are both based on the primacy of film editing to give the recorded material a shape and structure. It was not unusual to work with a ratio between the finished film and cut material of 1:40 or even 1:100. For this reason, the editor of the filmmakers are often viewed as co-authors of the work.

Bibliography

• Mo Beyerle (Ed.): The American documentary of the 60s. Direct Cinema and Cinema Radical ( = campus. Research. Publication Series of the Center for North American Studies. Vol. 659 ). Campus -Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, among other things, 1991, ISBN 3-593-34413-0.
• Jean -Louis Comolli: The detour via the direct. In 1969. Eva Hohenberger (ed.): Pictures of the real. Literature on the theory of documentary film ( = texts of the documentary. Vol. 3). Vorwerk 8, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-930916-13-4, pp. 242-265.
• Jack Ellis: The Documentary Idea. A Critical History of English -Language Documentary Film and Video. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs NJ, 1989, ISBN 0-13-217142-2.
• Claire Johnston: Women 's Cinema as Counter- Cinema. 1975th In: Sue Thornham (ed.): Feminist film theory. A Reader. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1999, ISBN 0-7486-0959-8, pp. 31-40.
• Bill Nichols: Representing Reality. Issues and Concepts in Documentary. Indiana University Press, Bloomington IN, among other things, 1991, ISBN 0-253-34060-8.
• Dave Saunders: Direct Cinema. Observational Documentary and the Politics of the Sixties. Wallflower Press, London ua 2007, ISBN 978-1-905674-15-2.
• Sharon Zuber: Robert Drew, Telephone Interview, June 4, 2003, In: . Re - Shaping Documentary Expectations. New Journalism and Direct Cinema. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. The College of William and Mary in Virginia, Williamsburg, VA, 2004.