Documentary Spectatorship and Production

The documentary genre has a reputation for its supposed function as a medium of informing audiences and sharing nonfiction stories. As a result, documentaries are often used in educational settings as a form of teaching and broadening student knowledge and perspectives. Thinking about our own educational experiences we decided the place of this genre in our coursework would be a significant and fruitful question to consider. Our original goals included looking at specific documentaries and seeing if we could find patterns in how the discourse around them changes across different academic departments and what purpose was behind their use in the curriculum. Could the same documentary and therefore the same lived experience be presented and discussed through two entirely different lenses? Or does that documentary retain its integrity and offer a singular view that will permeate regardless of the context it is presented and discussed?

With these questions in mind, we began to look more broadly at the relationship between documentaries and the larger campus community itself. We considered various screenings by groups on campus and then we sought out more individual-level data. We wondered if by asking students about the documentaries they have watched and where they saw them then maybe we could potentially begin to draw conclusions about our earlier questions. From there we broadened our search once more and considered what types of documentaries are students and alums making themselves? What questions are they asking and what do they expect the role of documentary making to be?

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survey data

The following survey was done to get more information about documentary viewing habits at Wellesley. We gave them the names of some films that we thought many have seen like “Paris is Burning”. Towards the end, we had space for the participants to enter any documentaries they have seen along with giving the name of the class they saw it in.

The documentary that over half of our participants saw either out or in class is “13th” (2016), made by director Ava DuVernay, which tracks and examines how the 13th amendment has led to mass incarceration in the United States. In an interview with the Atlantic, DuVernay highlights how much this film is covering “We’re giving you 150 years of oppression in 100 minutes. The film was 150 years in the making.” (Lantigua 2016).¹ This statement appeals to the idea that documentaries do not necessarily cover anything new but bring century-long problems into the public eye.

“We’re giving you 150 years of oppression in 100 minutes. The film was 150 years in the making.”

The problems with mass incarceration in the United States have been at the core of many documentaries, each of them bringing a new perspective. Seen with the docuseries Time: The Kalief Browder story(2017) that explicitly looks at the story of Kalief Browder who at the age of 16 was sent to Rikers Island for allegedly stealing a backpack(Alfred 2018).² This documentary focuses on a personal story in comparison to the 13th which focuses on a longer timeline. All of this demonstrates the multiple approaches one can take when making a film about the same issue.

IMDb ³

The WRIT 185 is a part of the First-Year Writing program that is required for all Wellesley students to take. This class specifically focuses on documentaries and how they define what’s real and what’s fake in the film industry. In the course, students are examining the complexities of what’s “real” to improve the way they write about “real” topics. In the survey this course accounted for 50% of the documentaries participants reported watching in class. One film that ⅜ reported watching is  “The Thin Blue Line”(1988).

This documentary is about the director Errol Morris convincing the viewer that Randall Dale Adams is innocent though he has been convicted of killing police officer Robert Wood in 1976(Flores and DiSessa 2012).⁴ It has been argued by many film critics that in the end, he is successful which brings to light the power of persuasion when it comes to what we consider the truth. This documentary is a very interesting addition to WRIT 185 as I can only imagine the conversation that could be had when thinking of how we construct the truth in our head, therefore, making what we consider real a personal experience.

A snapshot of Student & alum work

Dawn Marie Barnett’s The Town of Wellesley’s Recycling & Disposal Facility: A Documentary (2013) highlights the facility’s role in the town through a blend of interviews and thoughtful cinematography.⁵ Premiering at Collins Cinema, the audience was filled with about 100 guests including many of those deeply involved with the project. Wellesley resident James Hollister writes in a letter to the Wellesley Townsman describing the documentary as “something of a love story between the town and its 40-year-old-facility.”⁶ Through the process of recycling the community is not only doing good for the environment but is also coming together and raising funds for the city they call home. Speaking off those in the audience, Barnett says “this is their baby. Most of [the residents] would tell me stories about when their friends would come into town, and [the Recycling and Disposal Facility] is what they would talk about.”⁷

“A love story between the town and its 40-year-old-facility.”

Town of Wellesley Recycling Documentary from Sienasun on Vimeo. ⁸

Read more about recycling in the town of Wellesley here: http://wellesleyfriendsofrecycling.weebly.com/3r-tips.html

Jalena Keane-Lee’s The Construct: Female Laborers and the Fight for Equality (2017) focuses on a group of women who work as construction workers in Myanmar. The short documentary considers questions of human rights and feminism through different socio-economic lenses.⁹ The short was awarded Best Student film at Impact Docs and won Best Short Film at the Albany Film Festival.¹⁰ Speaking of her inspiration behind making the film, Lee explains that “the Albright Fellowship exposed me to world leaders and international issues, but I noticed the profound lack of personal narratives in the global decision-making process.” ¹¹

The Construct: Female Laborers and the Fight for Equality from Jalena Keane-Lee on Vimeo.¹²

“The profound lack of personal narratives in the global decision-making process.”

Wellesley Alum Fazeelat Aslam Co-Produced the documentary Saving Face (2012) which chronicled the attempts of a plastic surgeon to help those scarred by acid attacks.¹³ The film was awarded both an Oscar for Best Documentary Short as well as an Emmy for Best Documentary.¹⁴ In her own words Aslam explains, “I choose stories, not to [cultivate a] big viewership or to feed a hungry audience, but to see if I can expose an injustice that, if remedied, would make the world a better place for somebody.”¹⁵

“To see if I can expose an injustice that, if remedied, would make the world a better place for somebody.”