Shooting scene recreations
Scene recreations are a common form of documentary technique that is often used when there is a lack of archival footage or the archival footage is not adequate quality. There are many issues that arise with the use of reenactment. Some people consider it to be untruthful, but others argue that if the truth is already known, re-enactments can deliver it cinematically.
In 1988, documentary filmmaker, Errol Morris released a documentary that proved the innocence of a death row inmate and resulted in his release. The New York Film Critics Circle named A Thin Blue Line the best documentary feature of that year. On top of that it received numerous awards and recognition. Despite this film’s praise when the Oscar nominations of the year came around, this film was nowhere to be found. Roger Ebert, a top film critic, was outraged. He called it “the worst non-nomination of the year,” and blamed it on the academy’s “inability of academy voters to appreciate innovative filmmaking.”
This film was made in 1988 about a crime that took place in 1976. Morris’ signature style of filmmaking is his use of dramatic reenactments. A Thin Blue Line was one of his earlier films, but today he is known for these reenactments. Morris attributes this technique as to why A Thin Blue Line was overlooked, “Critics don’t like re-enactments in documentary films – perhaps because they think that documentary images should come from the present, that the director should be hands-off.” Although the crime occurred in the past, Morris was not given a pass for his use of reenactments. He even had one confused Dallas Morning News reporter ask him, “So, how is it that you managed to be on the roadway (the crime scene) that night?”
Morris disagrees with the academy’s decision to not acknowledge his film as a true documentary because of the techniques chosen. Re-enactments, like any other type of film, photography, or communication, can be used to search for the truth or subvert it. It is not the use of re-enactments itself that is wrong, but how they are used. Morris and the Texas Court of Appeals believe they were used to uncover the truth.
Morris disagrees with the academy’s decision to not acknowledge his film as a true documentary because of the techniques chosen. Re-enactments, like any other type of film, photography, or communication, can be used to search for the truth or subvert it. It is not the use of re-enactments itself that is wrong, but how they are used.
One of the most impressive documentaries that uses scene recreation with a terrifying and revelatory result is The Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer and co-directed by Christine Cynn and an anonymous Indonesian and produced by none others than Werner Herzog and Errol Morris among others.
ReplyDeleteReenactments, like anything else is part of the language, we tell stories. Even when confronted with an "occurrence" the fact that we are present and we have chosen a POV makes it a record of being there, physically or mentally in the case of the reenactment.
BTW, you have a repeated paragraph at the end of the post.