The secret lives of documentaries
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Date
2024
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Publisher
Univeristy of the Western Cape
Abstract
This research is an inquiry into the documentary form and the impact of editorial choices. It asks how suited this form is to the telling of movement stories. It does so by examining the editorial decisions made in one particular film, An Unsettling Force, a film about a diverse anti-poverty movement launched in the United States in 2018 called the Poor People’s Campaign. By comparing the completed 50-minute film to the interviews from which it was compiled, this study seeks to illuminate and complicate the form of the conventional documentary film, and invite questions about alternative ways to tell movement stories on film. This study focuses on two key themes. Firstly, it explores the theme of leadership by examining how An Unsettling Force deals with stories from movement leaders and foot soldiers. I interrogate the types of stories and ideas that got left out, and reflect on the implications for films about poverty and social movements, drawing on the work of documentary, visual history and oral history scholars. I argue that both external pressure from the film industry as well as internalised prejudices caused the filmmaker to focus on central characters—by necessity mostly excluding the foot soldiers from this film—and I ask whether this may have had the unintended impact of undermining the objectives of the movement itself. The findings make the case for a more expansive view of documentaries, one which sees them as incomplete works in need of supplementation through footnotes, non-linear innovative media forms, or poetry. By examining the lacunae in An Unsettling Force and asking which particular material was omitted and why, this thesis aims to bridge the study of social movements and activism with documentary film theory.Campaign
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Keywords
Foot Soldiers, Bibliography, Footnotes, Documentary, Campaign