documentaries

documenting everyday life

thinking about:

• meticulous attention paid to the unfolding of everyday life
• relinquishing the pretence of objectivity historically ascribed to the omnipresent, authorial documentarian
• subjectivity that inscribes meaning on everyday scenes
• the deliberate and continual interruption of the narrator
• self-reflexivity: the act of documenting or watching becomes the film
• unclear boundary between exploitation and empathy - how the relationship between subject and filmmaker comes into focus.
• first-person experiences of the world - close-up, cluttered, “raw” shots filmed on the go
• vulnerability of subject in an intimate setting, where the subject may be the filmmaker
• video diaries

film log:

• weather diary 3 - 1988 - george kuchar
• the amazing johnathan - 2019 - ben berman
• walden - 1968 - jonas mekas
• portrait of jason - 1967 - shirley clarke
• grey gardens - 1975 - albert & david maysles
• news from home - 1976 - chantal akerman
• fiver year diary - 1981 - 1997 - anne charlotte robertson
• the gleaners and i - 2000 - agnès varda

watchlist:

• overnight - 2003 - Tony Montana and Mark Brian Smith
• history of concrete - 2026 - john wilson
• you can see everything - 2026 - lance oppenheim and nathan fielder

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hybrid documentaries

thinking about:

• fictional narratives embedded in documentary subject matter
• use of or play with genre conventions normally used in fiction

film log:

• the last angel of history - 1996 - john akomfrah
• john and jane - 2005 - ashim ahluwalia
• the final insult - 1997 - charles burnett
• give it back: crimes against humanity - 2025 - adam khalil, zack khalil
• bamako - 2006 - Abderrahmane Sissako
• sitrep - 2025 - blair barnes