{"id":715,"date":"2019-02-16T15:01:33","date_gmt":"2019-02-16T22:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/?p=715"},"modified":"2019-03-02T16:28:58","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T23:28:58","slug":"directors-close-up-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/2019\/directors-close-up-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Director\u2019s Close-Up: Another Type of Narrative: The Truth of Docs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This has been\na stellar year for documentary film. From fresh new voices telling compelling\npersonal stories to veterans who continue to push the boundaries of\nstorytelling, the form continues to evolve and grow into an exciting canvas for\nfilmmakers to represent the world we live in. Join us as we discuss many of the\nquestions and challenges inherent to nonfiction films, with the directors\nbehind some of the most acclaimed documentaries of the year. They\u2019ll explore\nhow they go beyond letting reality unspool on screen to carefully crafting\nnarratives that bring us closer to the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director\u2019s Close-Up: Another Type of Narrative: The Truth of Docs
By Gerry Orz, KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, age 16<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the world of cinema, there is a division between jobs,\nbetween mediums and between genres. Yet, no bigger division exists than that\nbetween the world of fictional films and the world of documentaries. The third\nweek of Director\u2019s Close Up examined the documentary world by creating a panel\nof some of the most premier documentarians of the last year. It featured Alexandria\nBombach<\/strong> (director; On Her Shoulders<\/em>, Frame By Frame<\/em>); Talal Derki<\/strong> (director; Of Fathers and Sons<\/em>, The Return to Homs<\/em>); Bing Liu<\/strong>  (director, Minding the Gap<\/em>); Morgan Neville<\/strong> (director; Won\u2019t You Be My Neighbor?<\/em>, 20 Feet from Stardom<\/em>); Sandi Tan<\/strong> (writer\/director, Shirkers<\/em>) and was moderated by Lisa Leeman<\/strong> (director; One Lucky Elephant<\/em>, Out of Faith<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Each documentary had its own unique challenges. Alexandria\u2019s documentary is about Nadia Murad, a victim of\nsexual violence that was abducted by ISIS. The\nstory had to carefully tell her story and discuss her career without\nvictimizing the heroine and making her relive the nightmarish experiences that\nshe suffered. Talal perhaps had the most dangerous experience where he gained\nthe trust to follow a radical Islamic family for two years. Bing\u2019s journey to\nmake his documentary was brave and complex as he examines three friends living\nin volatile families in a small rust-belt town. Morgan, a highly seasoned and\nOscar award-winning documentarian took up the challenge of telling the story of\nFred Rogers and revealing the depth of what everyone assumed was a simple two-dimensional\nTV personality. Lastly, Sandi chronicles the discovery of  16mm tapes for a film she made over two\ndecades ago, that were stolen by the film\u2019s director and her journey of\nreconnecting with old friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Talal told\nmany stories of his experiences portraying the level of dedication he had to\nhis project. He talked about how he had to delete photos from social media and\ngo on pro-jihadist syndicates in order to seem supportive of radical Islam.\nThis sacrificed many friends, but he succeeded. His troubles did not end there\nthough. He explained that he could never have too much cash on him out of fear\nof being kidnapped, and had to cut his stay in dangerous territory after he\nlearned that bloodthirsty leaders began hearing about him and his filmmaking.\nDuring the entire project, it was simply him alone in very dangerous zones with\na camera. He had no crew, no backup and no friends in the foreign land. His\njourney is a prime example of the levels of danger and dedication a\ndocumentarian needs to have in order to get the access to material needed to\nmake the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Many of the\npanelists discussed changes they made in the process of creating their films. Neither\nBing nor Sandi planned on being in their own films, until very late in the\nproduction process, with Sandi having to use every second of footage of her\navailable. Bing\u2019s film features skateboarding often and he discussed his style\nof filming skateboarders, where he keeps the camera at eye-level, causing the\nfocus to be on the skaters and their emotions instead of on the footwork and\nthe skateboard. Morgan stated the importance of sound in Won\u2019t You Be\nMy Neighbor?, <\/em>due to how meaningful music was to Fred Rogers. He also\ndiscussed the editing process and how to establish a certain mood, flow and\nstyle. He explained that \u201cThe Instructions for the film you are making are in\nthe film you\u2019re making.\u201d Morgan also discussed how he wished to show the\nconcept of nature leading to harmony and, at first wished to include many\nnature shots, but ended up deciding on one simple shot of a bird at the\nbeginning to communicate his message. Their stories demonstrate so clearly just\nhow much a documentary can change and how many elements must be considered in\nthe filmmaking and editing process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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These five\ncreators opened the eyes of the audience to the remarkable art form of the documentary.\nBy bringing together such a varied group of filmmakers, Film Independent was\nable to show that, not only is each documentarian unique in their craft and the\nstory they choose to tell, but also how unique their challenges are. Talal, in\nthe Middle East had very different challenges from Sandi or Alexandria. It also shows how any scale of a\nstory can be eye-opening. Alexandria\u2019s\nstory about Nadia should be listened to by all equally to Morgan\u2019s story on\nFred Rogers. The most captivating films are not ones of mass proportion, but –\njust as this panel demonstrated – are ones that are real, emotional, relatable\nand natural. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This has been a stellar year for documentary film. From fresh new voices telling compelling personal stories to veterans who continue to push the boundaries of storytelling, the form continues to evolve and grow into an exciting canvas for filmmakers to represent the world we live in. Join us as we discuss many of the questions and challenges inherent to nonfiction films, with the directors behind some of the most acclaimed documentaries of the year. They\u2019ll explore how they go beyond letting reality unspool on screen to carefully crafting narratives that bring us closer to the truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[19,21,24,22,23,20],"class_list":["post-715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-critics-blog","tag-alexandria-bombach","tag-bing-liu","tag-lisa-leeman","tag-morgan-nelville","tag-sandi-tan","tag-talal-derki"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":725,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions\/725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}