Week5 blog2

<penguins: spy in the huddle》

A different perspective to show the special side of the penguin groupA different perspective to show the special side of the penguin group

The animal version of the penguin edition “Bob Animals” produced by the BBC was well received. To say the most special place was not the filming method of this documentary. This ingenious cast sent a “spirit” into the penguin group.

– They hid the camera in a remote penguin, or simply disguised the camera as a stone, a penguin egg. In this unique way, various penguin family members with different perspectives are recorded, and the audience is also shown a very real one in the life of the penguin group.

However, this documentary brings us the greatest insights about human beings and nature. When we truly want to understand nature and become friends with nature, our perspective must be aligned with them and with all things in nature. When we are no longer living in the universe, when we really “bow down”, it will naturally show us her true side. That kind of truth is so beautiful.

Facing the embarrassing emperor’s penguin baby, the rockhopper penguin who kills the aristocratic demeanor, and the Humboldt’s penguin with a small body and great energy, how can you bear to say “no” in the face of such an interesting and moving truth?

Week5 blog1

The Trouble With Merle is a documentary to Merle Oberon in seek for truth. The director explored the birthplace of actress Merle Oberon and her journey to Tasmania and India to find out the truth (Delofski 2002). However, her pursuit eventually led to more questions than the answer. In exposing these stories, the movie reflects celebrities and memories, and the way racism can shape life. Merle was born in in India of Anglo with Indian blood. However, she wanted to explore the truth and identity. She went to different groups and regions. The claims from these people and regions made her much more confused during the whole journey.

Delofski suggested that the storytelling and archival material in The Trouble With Merle is unique (Delofski 2006). The title of this movie is intended to imply that this is very intense story. The way of telling the story often combines the time order of interviewing topics and their peers, together with the sound of archival and illustrative materials. Merle Oberon not only seek for the truth but also showed the condition of different cultures and regions. Although the end of the documentary is obscure, The Trouble With Merle makes viewers want to see more and the ends is far enlightening.

Reference

Delofski, M. 2002. The trouble with merle. Lindfield N.s.w Film Australia.

Delofski, M. 2006. Storytelling and archival material in the trouble with merle. Moving Image, 6(6), 82-101.

Week4 blog2

Stories We Tell is Sarah Polley’s first documentary. In this documentary, she describes the changes of a family. Just as the title of the documentary, the of the former half of the story slowly moved to the second half of the telling (Polley 2012). Half of the truth and half of the consistency led us to a mixed and complicated feeling into the mother’s world. As a documentary, Stories We Tell is full of suspense and self telling, and it is full of the mother’s emotions.

 

According to O Landesman, digital technology was based on the development of a structured camera realism style (Landesman 2008). By using the immediacy and intimacy of technology, various connotation of the authenticity can be created in the digital form. The interaction between digital cinema and the challenge of reality can be combined in the new mixed documentary. Many stories have been heard for hundreds of times, but before the the editing and narrative frameworks of cameras, everything has changed in a new form. Through different people’s memories of family history, we can learn that the complex and mysterious feelings can be created through the whole documentary in his family.

Reference

Landesman, O. 2008. In and out of this world: digital video and the aesthetics of realism in the new hybrid documentary. Studies in Documentary Film, 2(1), 33-45.

Polley, S. 2012. Stories We Tell: A Post by Sarah Polley. Accessed August, 29.

Week4 blog1

Notes on Blindness is a documentary of Britain. In 1983, a few days before his first son was born, the writer and theologian John Hull went blind. In order to understand the great change in his life, the writer began to write diary on cassette tape. When it was published in 1990, Oliver Sacks described the diary as the most unusual, most accurate and the most beautiful description of the blindness. According to Oliver Sacks , this is a masterpiece (Sacks 2003). He enjoys these original records. In fact, the notes on blind people contain life of dreams, memories and imagination, and showed the inner world of the blindness.

According to O Landesman, digital technology is often considered as a documentary statement of complex evidence (Landesman 2008). The evidence can be shown in a new and direct way. And now, this kind of documentary can be used to keep the information in the video and preserve the mixture of facts and genres. Digital technology has recently played an important role in the formation of a lasting facts. In Notes on Blindness, the notes on blind people contain life of dreams, memories and imagination, and showed the inner world of the blind writer.

Reference

Landesman, O. 2008. In and out of this world: digital video and the aesthetics of realism in the new hybrid documentary. Studies in Documentary Film, 2(1), 33-45.

Sacks, O. 2003. The mind’s eye. New Yorker, 28, 48-59.

Week3 blog2

Geri is another TV documentary which showed the roller-coaster career of the former Spice Girl, and it includes a very frank interview with her. Different from the view of male in the Home from the Hill, Molly Dineen acted as both the director and the film maker. This is a great challenge for Molly Dineen. The 90 minute movie Geri records the experience of Geri, one of the members of the former choir group (Dineen 1999). And the reasons and feeling of leaving the singing group.

Because in the view of most people, Dineen, M was good at presenting the scenes about battles and broad scenes, and it may be hard to bring some common scenes to documentary. In fact, its is not a proper description. Bruzzi, S. said, there is a special authenticity in the documentary and performance of Molly Dineen (Bruzzi 2011). People often don’t see the role in the neutral interview. Therefore, Molly Dineen introduced the new way of neutral interview in the documentary. It is a great success and it makes audience to feel and see the real character of  Geri in a familiar way. The characters are shown in a full and complete way among the audience.

Reference

Bruzzi, S. 2011. Documentary, Performance and Questions of Authenticity. On British Filmmakers Molly Dineen and Nick Broomfield. Zürcher Hochschule der Künste ZHdK.

Dineen, M. 1999. Geri, UK. RTO Pictures, color, 110mins.

 

Week3 blog1

Home from the Hill is a TV documentary adapted from one book. The program described the adventurous life of Lieutenant Colonel Hilary Hooke in the colony and his return to England as Lieutenant Colonel. Hilary Hooke was a soldier of the British Empire in India and later in Africa. He was educated at Canford school and served in the Royal Military Academy during the Second World War. After the independence of India in1947, Hilary Hooke went to Aden, Germany, Hongkong and Sultan until he retired in 1964 with the rank of lieutenant (McWilliams 2012). The TV is famous for its documentary feature. This documentary is based on the book Home from the Hill. And the scenes include activities such as pig catch, elephant hunting and polo. Meanwhile, the TV series showed the theme of colonialism, international development and the end of the British Empire, especially through change of his life out from the modern world. According to Molly Dineen, Home from the Hill was a great success because it showed some real scenes from documentary and changed it into TV (McWilliams 2012). The adaptation comes from one book and it was a great success. Meanwhile, it showed the very different culture in each region.

Reference:McWilliams, D. 2012. Molly Dineen, British Documentarian. Journal of Film Preservation, (87), 73.