Documentary Films, man

Documentary filmmaking has, as I have recently learned, a very long and fascinating history dating back to the 1920's and 30's. While this seems like information that should be readily observable, I never picked it up before. So there I was in class this week realizing that despite my Netflix viewing history, when it comes to documentary, I'm a novice.

To be fair, novice may be too strong of a term. After all, I have seen Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera about 6 times since I started school at CU. However, it is still easy to miss the film's documentary value until considering the film as a documentary, as Kino Pravda (Cinema of Truth) as the Russians of the time would put it. The film contains an almost encyclopedic collection of images tied to the place and time of it's production. It is masterful in its own way, and yet, this blog isn't about that film.

This blog is about Perfect Film, by Ken Jacobs. This film represents another that I did not think of as documentary when I saw it. However, in hindsight, it is fairly obvious that in some way this film continues in the tradition of "Kino Pravda" or "Cinema Verite." How this is can probably be best explained by Jacobs himself. "For the straight scoop we need the whole scoop, or no less than the clues entire and without rearrangement." (http://zine.artcat.com/2008/10/ken-jacobs-perfect-film.php)

The scoop presented in Perfect Film is that of the assassination of Malcolm X. Jacobs accidentally discovered discarded footage of interviews conducted on the day of the shooting and decided to present them in their entirety. In between sets of interviews, Jacobs shows the "B reel" with images of the neighborhood surrounding the event in question.

This style of exposing an event without gratuitous editing ignores the prevailing pressures of "entertainment" and industry. Jacobs gives us a true picture or a "straight scoop," therefore allowing us, the viewers, to interpret the meaning of these events in our own way. You know, when it's written out that way, it's hard to imagine ever seeing this film as anything other than documentary. I'm embarrassed, but I digress.

Perfect Film is perhaps a perfect film. It reminds me of Jean Rouch's Chronicle of a Summer with its street interviews. In this film, the audio and the image are shown to us from one angle with which we may learn what we can from the interviewed. However, there can only be one perfect film, and Jacobs takes precedence over Rouch in this case. Perfect Film is raw, uncut, and poignant even today.