What makes documentary political and poetic?

The marriage of politics and poetry is what creates a memorable and timeless documentary.

To me what makes traditional documentary political and poetic is the way that human stories fit into the frameworks of society throughout history. Events are made meaningful by the people involved in them.

China Doll (1998) directed by Tony Ayres discusses the uncomfortable discrimination and stereotyping of gays in Australia and is made poetic by Tony’s own unique perspective as a queer, Asian-Australian growing up as a “double minority” in a  predominately white environment. One thing that stood out to me is the title breaks. Tony emphasises in his narration that he was constantly pushing away his culture, he would avoid Chinese restaurants etc so as to appear more Western. However, the documentary is stylised with red and gold screen titles in Chinese which ironically but proudly bring in a strong Asian aesthetic that he was so ashamed of in the past. Furthermore these titles have double meanings. “Forbidden fruit” refers to how homosexuality is frowned upon and not allowed by the Chinese community.

The film opens with a childhood story of how his mother would feed him vitamins that would make his urine more ‘“yellow” and that at the urinals he boys would torment him with remarks of “Chinese pee.” It was something that he struggled to conceal, like his culture and his sexuality. The bright yellow also alluded to a derogatory term for Asians and referred to the yellow ‘inside him.’

The documentary includes heartbreaking history of the AIDS crisis side by side with photos of Tony trying to “blend in” with white friends which blends. While losing friends due to the disease he was also struggling with his own identity as a minority. Interviews showcase the humour and striking personalities of queer asian men which, paired with the film’s upbeat and unapologetic style make a documentary that is both sensitive and politically relevant to this day.  

For documentary, a distinctive style becomes the voice. For our film Breathe we used a disturbing, erratic style to create a sensory exploration of anxiety. Shooting consistent footage underwater was very challenging so ended up creating visual consistency by upping the contrast and using a monochrome filter.

As we group we faced many challenges in every part of the production process. Reviewing the footage after the shoot, we realised the pool tiles were too visually prominent for the abstract look we were going for.  It distracted from the our intended non-specificity of the location, making it seem like it was meant to be about pool safety. To pull focus away from the tile background we picked close ups and low camera angles with no tile shots from our raw footage. We then went with black and white and edited with fast cuts and changed the aspect ratio. Black and white also helped subtly remove the subject from the familiar blueness of the swimming pool.

Having a 4:3 aspect ratio matched the grid – like pattern of the pool and created a sense of claustrophobia and somberness.

No interview, no voice over.

Taking away voice also took away our ability to directly say what our message was. But this allowed us to create a more vague message that the audience would have to think about. The point of our film was that everyone is susceptible to external sensory experience, especially distressing ones. By removing words, viewers fill in their own internal dialogue about anxious experiences.

Taking away specificity of time and place was removed another. 

What happens when we take away a direct reference to politics/ time place event from a documentary? Poeticness is when the style reflects the meaning.

Non- narrative, non- specific. 

Removing the constraint of specificity and historical accuracy lead us to create a “documentary” without the politics.Traditional documentary often depicts a specific time in history. Our documentary doesn’t discuss an event, it instead explores a state of mind. The meaning of this film will undoubtedly change over time without our control which is what makes it more interesting. It is the imagination of viewers that might make our film meanigful. 

 Although particular laws or governance of a countries end, poetry is what makes the politics forever relevant.