This blog is dedicated to highlighting my interpretations and analysis of the documentaries: The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone (2022) and The Digital Divide (2024)
The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone follows Georgie, highlighting her personal experience being trans, as well as her fight against Australia’s Family Court to amend laws that prevent trans youth from accessing hormone treatment. (Human Rights Law Centre 2017).
The documentary tackles the issue area regarding the lack of visibility, empowerment, and support trans youth experience. It is meant to grant visibility to trans youth, and to increase awareness of the support available to them, as stated on the film’s website (The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone n.d.).
Nichols (2017:149) states that the underscoring of the complexity of knowledge through the emphasis of its subject is most common in performative documentaries, defining this documentary’s style the most. It asks the viewer to sympathize with Georgie’s struggles and celebrate her victories. It unequivocally asks us to support trans youth, and work against the stigma of transphobia and societal obstacles that harm trans youth.
Nichols (2017:151) also argues that a performative documentary “wants us to feel on a visceral level” which can be seen when the music of the documentary ebbs and flows to help us feel what Georgie is feeling. When we celebrate Georgie, triumphant music plays. When Georgie gets emotional, the music follows.
An ethical dilemma that could have emerged was the misrepresentation of Georgie’s experiences. It seems that the filmmakers had taken this into consideration, as the documentary showed the crew asking Georgie about appropriate language, if she should be referred to as a girl before her transition, etc. Ruby (2005:211) believes that the producer has a moral obligation to their subjects, and I believe this is indicative of them doing their due diligence.
The Digital Divide follows the stories of Bel, Joel, and Jeanette’s, and the problems that come when access to the internet is taken away or withheld. The issue area it tackles is the lack of support for those living in a state of digital exclusion experience, seeking to emphasize the importance of the internet in our modern lives.
Like The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone, this documentary utilizes the performative mode. Again, we are meant to sympathize with the subjects, and music is used to evoke a sense of dread, helplessness, and anxiousness so the audience can better sympathize with the subjects’ experiences.
The poetic mode is also utilized. As Nichols (2017:112) points out, images gathered for the poetic mode are meant to form an organizing rhythm and tone. Notably, all visuals are staged visual representations of the subjects’ stories. The visuals are used not to represent historical reality, but to act as a conduit for the audience to feel what the film intends them to feel.
Ruby (2005:212) emphasizes that images are polysemic, and that the context in which they appear heavily colors how it is interpreted. As the visuals are fabricated, it could lead to the possible misrepresentation of them as historical reality. The filmmakers seemed to understand this and put a clear message at the start of the film to emphasize the fictional component of its visuals.
Overall, I believe both documentaries show how modes are used to evoke feeling, as well as the ethical concerns of filmmaking that will be relevant to me in the future.
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References:
Human Rights Law Centre. (2017). Historic Family Court win for young transgender people, Human Rights Law Centre, accessed 21 March 2024 https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2017/11/30/family-court-win-for-young-transgender-people
Newell MD (2022) The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone [documentary], Closer Productions, Australia
Nichols B (2017) Introduction to documentary, third edition, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 112-159
Ruby J (2005) New Challenges for Documentary: The Ethics of Image Making, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 211-212.
The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone (n.d.) About, The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone, accessed 21 March 2024. https://dreamlifefilm.com/take-action
The Guardian (2024) The Digital Divide: could you live without the internet? [documentary], The Guardian, United Kingdom https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2024/mar/13/the-digital-divide-could-you-live-without-the-internet