This week’s reading discusses observational approach in a documentary, specifically on the movie Our Daily Bread. Hughes (2013) explained how the movie is democratic, and with no narration nor interviews whatsoever, the movie gives the audience an immense freedom in making meaning out of it.

My project will not be observational, thus I cannot apply this in my own project. However, the idea on making an observational documentary itself is interesting as it is challenging. Thus, what would I do to create an observational documentary?

I think most documentaries, if not all, that I’ve watched includes some sort of interviews or narration that gives information, perspective or tell a story. While “Our Daily Bread” may omit words in the movie, doesn’t mean it doesn’t provide argument. It’s true that arguments might differ from each person, but there is still something that is conveyed. My personal take from it is how  unattractive the food industry really is, with the emotionless workers doing repetitive movements.

If I was to do a silent documentary, I would probably do it about food waste. I would film people eating in restaurants, cooking at home, and how their food is being wasted without them thinking much about it. There would be close up shots of food being left uneaten on restaurants table, food being shoved down into the trash bin, close ups of people eating. I would even include juxtaposing shots of people starving on the street begging for food. There would be close ups of a banner with writings like: spare change for food, or archival clip of anorexic kids who didn’t have much to eat. Despite using no words, I feel that this movie would still have an argument, for example to encourage people not to waste food. Without words though, it is definitely more subtle than with a narrative/interviews/on-screen texts. In this way, audience is given freedom in making meaning out of the movie and yet still given a certain idea of what the movie wanted to argue.

“The decision to use words minimally represents an attempt to match the film aesthetic to the footage, recognizing that the audience’s focus on creating their own mental representations of the objects represented in the image is in itself the most meaningful goal.” (Hughes 2013, p. 335).

I definitely find the statement above interesting, because to some extent I agree that it is powerful how silence can do a lot in evoking imagination and emotions form its audience, which is exactly what Our Daily Bread has done as we are not told to think a certain way rather thinking with our own perspectives on what is shown. Yet, I believe it is really hard to tell a story without narration or interview, because in words is someone’s journey and personality which in the end brings more to the essence of the film.

 

reference list:

Helen, H 2013, ‘Arguments without words in Unser täglich Brot (Geyrhalter 2005)’, Continuum, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 347-364, viewed 10 April 2019, Taylor&Francis Online database.