On May 12, a crowd gathered in the DGA’s Theater in New York to attend a stimulating discussion of the role of the documentarian at the DGA’s 75th Anniversary event: “From Observation to Instigation: The Documentarian as Game-Changer.”
The evening’s two panels examined the transition from traditional, observational documentaries to modern, agitational documentaries - moving from documentaries whose purpose is to observe but not influence, to highlight but not instigate; to documentaries that stretch the boundaries, advocating for change and making the documentarian part of the story.
DGA 75th Anniversary Committee Chair Michael Apted kicked the evening off by noting that as a documentarian himself, he considers the genre to be his “home ground and the source of inspiration for whatever genre I work in.”
“Tonight, we’ll examine the work of directors who have been evolving the more traditional forms of observational documentaries with the help of new technology, and those that have pushed the envelope to make films that are radically different in style and content, to the extent that sometimes the documentarian becomes part of the story,” said Apted. “All have the same intent: to inform, illuminate and influence.”
Director Marc Levin (Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags) moderated the first of the evening’s two panels, guiding a discussion between Albert Maysles (The Beales of Grey Gardens), Barbara Kopple (Shut Up & Sing), Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp) on the evolution of the observational documentary. Levin also curated the two captivating clips reels that led off each panel.
“What we’re doing tonight is celebrating directors of documentaries with a point of view who bring their creative vision to this world,” said Levin. “Werner Herzog was recently quoted in the New York Times as saying ‘I insist that even if you make documentaries, we are filmmakers. We must never be ‘flies on the wall,’ unobtrusive and just registering.’”
Apted (49 Up) continued the deliberation by moderating the second half of the dialogue with Alex Gibney (Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer), Errol Morris (The Fog of War) and Morgan Spurlock (The Greatest Movie Ever Sold) on the ever-blurring boundary between documentaries and fiction.
CLICK HERE to read a write-up of the event by Kristin McCracken of TribecaFilm.com, who described the evening as a “fascinating master class on documentary filmmaking.”