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Direct cinema is a documentary genre that was born between 1958 et 1962 in North America, chiefly in Canada (Quebec) and in the United States. If it was characterized initially by a desire to directly capture reality and restitute it truthfully, it will be in a more durable way a mean to pose the question of the relationship of reality with cinema [1], going so far as to attempt to modify reality by using politically charged cinema. Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to document reality. ...
Motto: Je me souviens (French: I remember) Capital Quebec City Largest city Montreal Official languages French Government - Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Duchesne - Premier Jean Charest (PLQ) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 75 - Senate seats 24 Confederation July 1, 1867 (1st) Area Ranked 2nd - Total 1,542,056 km² (595...
The Origins
Many technological, ideological and social aspects need to be understood if one is to understand this event in the history of the moving images. Here are some brief historical references.
Light cameras To create direct cinema one need portable cameras, allowing the hand held camera movements that will be its visual trade mark. The first cameras of that type were German cameras, designed for ethnographic cinematography. It is generally recognized that the company Arriflex [2] was the first to commercialize such cameras, that were bettered for arial photography during the WWII. In itself, the existence of these cameras will not trigger the birth of direct cinema. Direct cinema is a documentary genre that was born between 1958 et 1962 in North America, chiefly in Canada (Quebec) and in the United States. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Direct cinema is a documentary genre that was born between 1958 et 1962 in North America, chiefly in Canada (Quebec) and in the United States. ...
Objective truthfulness The idea of cinema as a ontologically objective space exists since its very birth. Mechanical objectivity is seen as warranting its truthfulness. The kino-pravda (litteraly "Cinema Truth") practice of Dziga Vertov, that one can trace back to the 1920's, gave an articulated voice to this notion, where one can also see the influence of futurism. Dziga Vertov Dziga Vertov (Russian: , January 2, 1896–February 12, 1954) was a Russian documentary film and newsreel director. ...
Futurism (or Futurist) may refer to: Futures studies, the philosophical or academic study of the medium to long-term future (also known as futurology). ...
It is only with this in mind that one can understand today how before the 60's, and the advent of Direct cinema, the concepts of propaganda, film education and documentary very so loosely defined in the public. Cinema in its ontological objectivity was seen by many viewers as reality captured, and a mean of universal education. One only needs to look today at a documentary of the 50's to grasp the level of understanding that viewers of that day had of manipulation, mise-en-scene and the such, in films shot on "documentary sets". One can then also better understand what is happening with direct cinema, grasp the importance it has in the perspective of the popular evolution of ideas about reality and the media. Direct cinema is a documentary genre that was born between 1958 et 1962 in North America, chiefly in Canada (Quebec) and in the United States. ...
Sound before the 60's Before the Nagra [3] sound recording is either done on extremely heavy, or unreliable machinery. Many attempts are made at solving this problem during the 50's and 60's. At the NFB for example a system called SprocketapeTM will be designed, but will not impose itself. Nagra is a generic term referring to any of the series of professional audio recorders produced by Kudelski S.A., based in Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland. ...
The National Film Board of Canada (usually National Film Board or NFB) is a Canadian public filmmaking organization established to produce and distribute films that inform Canadians and promote Canada around the world. ...
In the best case scenario, documentary sound is recorded before, in interviews, or much later on location, with a portable studio located in a sound proofed truck. The sounds that were captured are later synched in sound editing, providing the film with sound. In other cases the soundtrack was built like in fiction films : with layers of ambiance sound, archival sound effects, foley, and post-synched voices. Truth-like is good enough.
In other cases the documentary subject will be brought in studio. If the sound take is then direct, the very documentary nature of the captation recording is arguable. Production would for example reconstruct a stable in the studio, under its heavy lighting. Close by stands the sound engineer in a sound proofed booth, directing the boom : this is the way it was done for studio films, and is still done today on some TV sets. It is this very surrealist situation of cows in a studio, for a documentary on farming, that is believed to have triggered an awakening by the then young lighting technician Michel Brault working at the NFB. The National Film Board of Canada (usually National Film Board or NFB) is a Canadian public filmmaking organization established to produce and distribute films that inform Canadians and promote Canada around the world. ...
What is new in Direct cinema Now that the Magnecord, Sprocketape or Nagra are just about there, that light cameras exists, the technical conditions necessary for the advent of Direct cinema are present. But what about the social and ideological conditions? The ground is set on that level too. In fact, seen from a distance, this is where the Direct cinema revolution seems most relevant. Nagra is a generic term referring to any of the series of professional audio recorders produced by Kudelski S.A., based in Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland. ...
Around 1960. With the ideas of Fanon emerging, decolonialisation is becoming a World trend. Old discourse, habits, white man privileges, and imperial traditions are questioned. The civil rights movement is getting organized. We are only 15 years after WWII, yet an extremely critical view of propaganda, of ideology, is emerging in journalists, artists, and intellectual minds. For the author, see Frantz Fanon. ...
It has been suggested that Benign colonialism be merged into this article or section. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Above and beyond anything else, Direct cinema seems to precisely reflect this. It will be a desire to test common opinion with reality. It will be an attempt to show how things really are, outside the studio, far from the editoral control of the establishment -- be it governmental or big press. But what is critical, and new here, is that this desire to test common opion and show reality will be constantly kept in check with an acute conscience that it is so easy to lie with sound and image. This tension is at the center of Direct Cinema, at will give its form and method. Direct cinema is a documentary genre that was born between 1958 et 1962 in North America, chiefly in Canada (Quebec) and in the United States. ...
The elusive recipe of reality captured This will result in every filmaker trying very precise ways of shooting. For Brault, who is believed to have invented modern Hand-held camera work (see Quotes), it specifically meant, for example, going amidst the people with a wide angle.[4] Other filmakers will develop very different methods. They will insist, before they start any real shooting, that their subject need to get used to them, to the point of their camera being ignored[5]. Still, another group of Direct Cinéma filmakers will claim that the most honnest way is for a filmaker to accept the camera is a catalyst, that it provokes reactions -- and might even feel free to ask their film subject to do something they would like to document[6]. Hand-held camera is a film and video technique in which a camera is literally held in the camera-operators hands--as opposed to being placed on a tripod. ...
This will even lead to question the ability of filmakers to properly film someone they cannot fully understand. For example, can a man understand woman isssues? All this trigged after Jean Rouch handed the camera to the 'subject' (and co-author?) of "Moi, un Noir". Yet regardless of these specific choices of practice, in the end one thing is sure : the revolution of Direct cinema has more to do with the ethic considerations in documentary filmmaking than with the technology. This may explain why this movement will start in two North American societies that are in social and ideological mutation, French Canada (Quebec) and the USA, spreading later on to South America and France. Jean Rouche (31 May 1917 - 18 February 2004) was a French motion-picture director and ethnologist. ...
ONF P.Q. Direct Cinéma will begin in 1958 at the NFB/ONF in Québec (Canada) during what is called the Quiet revolution, when the majority of French citizen reacted to minority English rule in Quebec. To understand the special outlook of Quebec filmakers on their society one needs a bit of social perspective. The National Film Board of Canada (usually National Film Board or NFB) is a Canadian public filmmaking organization established to produce and distribute films that inform Canadians and promote Canada around the world. ...
During the 1960s, a terrorist group known as the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) launched a decade of bombings, robberies and attacks on government offices. ...
The Quiet Revolution (French: Révolution tranquille) was the 1960s period of rapid change in Quebec, Canada. ...
At that time, a university education is a rare thing for a Québécois. Public life is English. The people of Quebec is seen by its young emerging intelligentsia as alienated, and abused. This period of complex cultural and economical change for French speaking Quebecers can be summurized by the convergence of three phenomenons:
1)The advent of a Welfare state in Quebec accompanying its institutional laicization [7] There are three main interpretations of the idea of a welfare state: the provision of welfare services by the state. ...
2)A nationalist and social movement fighting racial discrimination against Canadians of French origins [8]
3)The important industrialisation and socio-economical change brought both by the baby boom and by the extraordinary post war wealth (1945-1975) in Quebec (and Canada) meant the end of a more traditionnal rural life. My white haired-crooked fingered Social Studies teacher was a baby boomer. ...
The consequence of theses three movements, that will deeply modify Quebec society, resulted in a myriad of perspectives on its reality for intellectuals, and artists delving with the camera in their colonized society. Filmakers will simultaniously try to share their social conscience, help better the living condition of the Québécois, attempt to bring national independence -- provoking, documenting this transformation, while at the same time keeping a record of what was, of disapearing traditions, in a society so rapidly changing. The landmark film Les Raquetteurs, almost made by accident by Michel Brault (camera), Marcel Carrière (sound) and Gilles Groulx (editing) exemplifies this. [9] Gilles Groulx ( 30 May 1931, Montréal, Quebec, Canada - 22 August 1994) grew up in a working-class family with 14 children. ...
U.S.A. In the United States, Robert Drew who had tried journalism with Life Magazine during the war, decided he wanted to apply the photojournalistic method to movies. He founded Drew Associates (which included Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, Terence Macartney-Filgate, and Albert and David Maysles[10]), and started experimenting with technology, synching camera and sound with the parts of a watch... In 1960, this group produced for Time-Life Broadcast three films: Yanqui, No!, Eddie (On the Pole), and Primary. Robert Lincoln Drew (born February 15, 1924) in Toledo, Ohio) is an American writer and director. ...
A cover of Life Magazine from 1911 Life has been the name of two notable magazines published in the United States. ...
Richard Leacock (born July 18, 1921, London) is a documentary film director and one of the pioneers of Direct Cinema. ...
D. A. Pennebaker speaking at the University of Florida in February 2003. ...
David and Albert Maysles Brothers Albert and David Maysles were a documentary filmmaking team whose films include Salesman, Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens. ...
Primary is a 1960 cinema verite documentary film. ...
Yanqui, No! was on South-America, and its tensed relation with the U.S.A., and it documented the underlying anti-american sentiment in the population. Primary (a documentary about the 1960 Wisconsin Democratic presidential primary campaign between Senators John F. Kennedy and Hubert H. Humphrey) help defined Direct Cinema style, and made it known to a wide public with the help of Time-Life Broadcast. The film reveals how primary elections worked in the U.S. at the time, and raised profile of Direct cinema. But after these hotly debated experiments, Time Life Broadcast will decide to withdraw. Drew Associates will continue on its own. And it will. Primary is a 1960 cinema verite documentary film. ...
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also referred to as John F. Kennedy, Kennedy, John Kennedy, Jack Kennedy, or JFK, was the 35th President of the United States. ...
Hubert Horatio Humphrey II (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was the 38th Vice President of the United States, serving under President Lyndon Johnson. ...
When on June 11, 1963, the Alabama Governor George Wallace [11] blocks the entrace of the University of Alabama, it rapidly becomes a nationnal issue in the U.S. George Corley Wallace, Jr. ...
Drew Associates has a camera in the Oval office, and records the meetings over the crisis. The result played on T.V. in October 1963: In Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment did not only fuel discussiuons over the Civil-Rights movement, it also triggered a profound questionning over the political power of Direct Cinema. Access to politicians for documentary filmakers will never be the same after it.
Feminist Cinema Techniques of direct cinema were also frequently used in early feminist cinema. A whole studio known as "Studio D" was dedicated to women issues at the NFB in Canada.
Direct Cinema, Cinéma Direct, and Cinéma Vérité Some find it useful to distinguish Direct Cinema from Cinéma vérité. It must first be said that Cinéma Vérité has many troubling resemblance with Direct cinema. The style of camera work (hand-held) is the same. There is a similar feeling for the viewer that real life is unfolding before his eyes. There is also a mutual concern with social and ethic questions. And both Cinema Verité and Direct Cinema rely on the power of editing to give shape, structure and meaning to the material recorded. It's not uncommon for relative shooting to finished film ratios to be 40:1 or even as much as 100:1 (for this reason many see the editors of documentaries as co-authors). This article is about filmmaking. ...
Hand-held camera is a film and video technique in which a camera is literally held in the camera-operators hands--as opposed to being placed on a tripod. ...
Film editing is the connecting of one or more shots to form a sequence, and the subsequent connecting of sequences to form an entire movie. ...
Yet some film historians have characterized the Direct Cinema movement as a North-American version of the Cinema Verité movement, an idea that crystallized in France with Jean Rouch's Chronicle of a Summer (1961). For these historians Cinema Verité is characterized by the use of the camera to provoke and reveal. Jean Rouche (31 May 1917 - 18 February 2004) was a French motion-picture director and ethnologist. ...
Jean Rouch (1917-2004) created many process driven film works. ...
Direct Cinema, on the other hand, is then seen as more strictly observational. It is said to relie on an agreement among the filmmaker, subjects, and audience to act as if the presence of the camera does not (substantially) alter the recorded event. But such claims of possible non-intervention (made mostly by critics and historians) have been severely criticized (by critics and historians)).[12]
Filmakers opinions on this subject In a 2003 interview (Zuber), Robert Drew explained how he saw the difference between Cinéma Vérité and Direct Cinema: "I had made Primary and a few other films. Then I went to France with Leacock for a conference [the 1963 meeting sponsored by Radio Television Française]. I was surprised to see the cinema vérité filmmakers accosting people on the street with a microphone. My goal was to capture real life without intruding. Between us there was a contradiction. It made no sense. They had a cameraman, a sound man, and about six more--a total of eight men creeping through the scenes. It was a little like the Marx Brothers. My idea was to have one or two people, unobtrusive, capturing the moment." [13]. Robert Lincoln Drew (born February 15, 1924) in Toledo, Ohio) is an American writer and director. ...
To confuse this distinction even further, it should be noted that Jean Rouch claimed Cinéma Vérité comes from Brault and the NFB (original quote below).Yet the NFB pioneers of the form Brault, Perrault and the others, never used the term Cinéma Vérité to describe their work, a term they found too pretentious. They preferred "Cinéma direct". And if they at times served as catalysts for situations (asking for example people to start traditionnal fishing again), they always worked in small crews (3) that were very close to their subject. Cinema vérité, the phrase (taken from Dziga Vertov )and the form, can thus be seen as France's spin on the idea of the Cinéma direct of Brault and his colleagues of the French section of the NFB in Canada. Jean Rouche (31 May 1917 - 18 February 2004) was a French motion-picture director and ethnologist. ...
This article is about filmmaking. ...
Dziga Vertov Dziga Vertov (Russian: , January 2, 1896–February 12, 1954) was a Russian documentary film and newsreel director. ...
Toronto offices for the National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (or NFB) is a Canadian public film-making organization organized to both fund and produce films that educate Canadians and promote Canada around the world. ...
Yet with time it seems these two French words started to mean in English just about anything an everything from a school of though, to a film style, or look that can be applied to commercials[14]
Examples of Direct Cinema Documentaries Robert Lincoln Drew (born February 15, 1924) in Toledo, Ohio) is an American writer and director. ...
Robert Lincoln Drew (born February 15, 1924) in Toledo, Ohio) is an American writer and director. ...
Richard Leacock (born July 18, 1921, London) is a documentary film director and one of the pioneers of Direct Cinema. ...
Richard Leacock (born July 18, 1921, London) is a documentary film director and one of the pioneers of Direct Cinema. ...
This article is about The Rolling Stones song. ...
David and Albert Maysles Albert and David Maysles were a documentary filmmaking/brother team whose works include Salesman, Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens. ...
David and Albert Maysles Albert and David Maysles were a documentary filmmaking/brother team whose works include Salesman, Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens. ...
Further reading - Dave Saunders, Direct Cinema: Observational Documentary and the Politics of the Sixties, London, Wallflower Press, 2007.
- Jack Ellis, The Documentary Idea: A Critical History of English-Language Documentary Film and Video. N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1989.
- Claire Johnston, "Women's Cinema as Counter-Cinema" (1975) in: Sue Thornham (ed.), Feminist Film Theory. A Reader, Edinburgh University Press 1999, pp. 31-40
- Bill Nichols, Representing Reality. Issues and Concepts in Documentary, Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1991
- Sharon Zuber, "Robert Drew, Telephone Interview, June 4, 2003" in Re-Shaping Documentary Expectations: New Journalism and Direct Cinema. Unpublished Dissertation. College of William and Mary, 2004.
Claire Johnston (1940-1987) was a feminist film theoretician. ...
Bill Nichols is an American historian and theoretician of documentary film. ...
Quotes "It must be said, all that we have done in France in the area of cinéma-vérité comes from Canada. It is Brault who brought a new technique of filming that we had not known and that we copied ever since. In fact, truly, there is a "brauchitis" spreading, it is certain. Even the people who consider that Brault is a nuisance, or were jealous, are forced to recognize it." Translation by Scott Andrew Hutchins
Original text «Il faut le dire, tout ce que nous avons fait en France dans le domaine du cinéma-vérité vient de l'ONF (Canada). C'est Brault qui a apporté une technique nouvelle de tournage que nous ne connaissions pas et que nous copions tous depuis. D'ailleurs, vraiment, on a la "brauchite", ça, c'est sûr; même les gens qui considèrent que Brault est un emmerdeur ou qui étaient jaloux sont forcés de le reconnaître.»" Jean Rouch, June 1963 Cahiers du Cinéma No.144. Jean Rouche (31 May 1917 - 18 February 2004) was a French motion-picture director and ethnologist. ...
Cahiers du cinéma is an influential French film magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Lo Duca. ...
"But in order to go and film people, to really go with them, amidst them, they must know you are there. They must accept the consequence of the presence of the camera and that means using a wide angle. The only legitimate process is one that relies on a tacit contract between the one who films and the one who is filmed, where the is a mutual recognition of the other." (Michel Brault)
Original text «Cependant, pour aller filmer les gens, pour aller parmi eux, avec eux, ils doivent savoir que nous sommes là, ils doivent accepter les conséquences de la présence de la caméra et ça nécessite l’utilisation d’un grand angulaire. La seule démarche légitime est celle qui sous-tend une sorte de contrat tacite entre les gens filmés et ceux qui filment, c’est-à-dire une acceptation mutuelle de la présence de l’autre. (Michel Brault) [3]
References - ^ "The type of cinema that poses the most profound and difficult problems converning illusion, irreality and fiction, is indeed the cinema of the reel, its very task being to face the most difficult problem asked by philosophie for two thousand years, that of the nature of reality." (In the 1980 festival catalog of Cinema du Réel, Centre Pompidou, Paris) Original text of Edgar Morin on this topic here (in French)
- ^ This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia. http://www.arri.de/infodown/other/broch/histor_e.pdf
- ^ http://www.nagra-france.fr/histoire.htm
- ^ http://cinema-quebecois.net/01_hiver_2004/entretien_cornellier_frigon.htm Original interview in French here. Relevant excerpt in the section "Quotes"
- ^ See here Albert and David Maysles
- ^ Like Pierre Perrault's Moon Trap
- ^ Roman Catholic Church was a very powerful institution in Quebec society up until the 60’s.[1]
- ^ Intelllectuals were using Fanon decolonialisation discourse to explain their situation. See here for reference on 'Nègres blancs d'Amérique' (White Niggers of America) (1968) by Pierre Vallières. Also Front de libération du Québec
- ^ See here the French wiki article [2]
- ^ "The Hollywood film is an escape of one sort or another. But our films make it damn near impossible to escape. We're interested in what you can't escape from and presenting it... Some people get a little edgy when they see something that is so personal. They don't know where to turn to look for the kind of buffer that most movies give them. In fiction you can say 'it's only a movie' and forget it. You can't do that with reality" –Albert Maysles to The New York Times, Oct. 18, 1987
- ^ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1294680
- ^ "Clearly, if we accept that cinema involves the production of signs, the idea of non-intervention is pure mystification. The sign is always a product. What the camera in fact grasps is the 'natural' world of dominant ideology." -- Johnston
- ^ See also, Ellis, Chapter 14
- ^ "Today, we see the influence of vérité in everything from music videos to feature films to TV news. Yet these things are not vérité films. The key difference, I think, is that today's contemporary image industry is almost wholly devoid of thoughtful content; it is pure image (even, or maybe especially, the news) without the sense of social self and social responsibility that vérité filmmakers brought to their work. I am proud that filmmakers in Quebec and the rest of Canada and institutions like the National Film Board of Canada were able to give voice and vision to the vérité movement. Perhaps the next wave of documentarians and their audiences can re-visit some of the lessons learned from cinéma vérité, and adapt them to the challenges of the future." Filmaker Peter Wintonick, about his film *Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment"
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