Documenting Life – Turning Reality into Narrative

‘We use stories to make sense of the world’

Out of the entire lecture I think this sentence stood out the most for me. Whilst it was only uttered once, its weight was spread across the entire lecture and reading, and pushed my mind into the volatile space in which ‘reality’ and narrative coincide.

This weeks reading was notably far more structured and methodical than the others. Its structure was that of a recipe to correctly perform interviews and I noticed that each and every one of these tips alluded to a single skill more imperative than simply asking the right questions. The readings methodology attempted to draw a narrative out of the interviewee. It took to the task of interviewing as a way of forming memories and opinions into an on-screen narrative. It looked to break the narrative from its binds within reality and turn it into something consumable, something with a message, something that has meaning.

All good narratives must have relatable aspects, either within the journey or the characters, so that they resonate with the audience… but an equal necessity for the concept of narrative is that of meaning and purpose. All narratives achieve something and have a message that the story as a whole seeks to display… in essence we create stories of ourselves (or perhaps shadows of ourselves) in order to give our ‘narratives’ meaning. The binding notion of these two building blocks of narrative practices is the concept of self-reflection and the principle of allocating meaning. Where narrative comes into play with interviews, therefore, is incredibly enlightening as to the inception of narrative. Anyone who seeks to find pure reality within a story, of any kind, is unfamiliar with both media and the practice of story telling; and that is because, whilst narrative relies on reference to reality, it does not exist within it. It is not within reality, but within people, that narrative is born.

This conclusion came to me as we watched exerts of Mistaken for Strangers, a documentary made by Tom Berninger who followed his brother, the lead singer of The National, on their 2010 tour. The narrative of the film was not the events that unfolded, they were simply the base. What was interesting was the dynamic between Tom and his brother, and how Tom saw the world, his brother, and perhaps most importantly, himself. It wasn’t the reality of the situation but Toms perspective of it that gives the film its narrative. Here is where the documentary genre establishes itself as a narrative form and brings to light exactly what makes a story. Whilst one might see documentary as one of many narrative genres, it could also be claimed that documentary represents the beginning of narrative as a human creation.

Promotional Poster for Mistaken for Strangers

I must attempt now to clarify myself, if I stand any hope of truely conveying my reflection on this weeks reading and the genre of documentary as a whole. I have focused on ‘reality’ and its relationship with narrative yet haven’t entirely defined the term. It is cold scientific reality that documentaries and narratives of all varieties distance themselves from, however in this process a new sort of reality is formed; a human reality. Human beings created narrative because we created meaning and so documentaries harness the human reality of existence: a highly impressionistic and perspective driven reality that is diverse and contradictory in its very nature.

It is this human reality that we try to bring forth from our interviewees, by engaging with them through certain techniques, framing our questions in ways that will draw from them the human narrative that we wish to display. I think documentary is one of the purest examples of narrative and shows why it is that we created such a concept in the first place. We draw stories from people and develop meaning in the process… and eventually, once put together through hours of filming, and editing, and b roll, we have stories that help us make sense of each other; stories that help us make sense of a senseless world.