Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary (2008) User Reviews

A must for documentary lovers.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 20 December 2011]

This film was quite the undertaking--getting all these documentary makers together for all the interviews. And, on top of this, some were very, very important names in the industry. I am impressed by this and strongly recommend the film to anyone who likes documentaries and wants to find out what these filmmakers think of their craft.

Mostly, the film consists of these interviews as well as a few clips of their movies. Many times, certain topics were answered by the filmmakers--and sometimes they disagreed. For example, one said that the only way to make a documentary is to film everything EXACTLY as it is in life--while Errol Morris (one of the top names in the genre) admits to actually creating the set used by the boss of the cemetery--digging the trophies out of the attic and arranging them to give the office a certain look. Another strongly objected to Michael Moore's style of films and calls them '...crimes towards the art form of documentary'. Even seemingly mundane topics as sound and music as well as the importance or unimportance of narration are discussed. It's like having a microscope that can peer into the minds of these directors--and it's interesting to documentary film lovers--though I could imagine it would be VERY tough going for the average person.

Solid

[Cosmoeticadotcom · 6/10 · 21 June 2012]

Many people confuse truth with reality, and given this film's title, it would have behooved Ferrari to explore the very difference between reality and the truth so many of the interviewees declaim. The two words are not synonyms. Truth requires an act of volition whereas reality does not. If I am wearing a blue shirt, that is reality. If you say to me, 'Dan, you are wearing a blue shirt,' that is a truth. Reality doesn't care if it is noticed or not, but a truth always requires an act of notice, but the reality is that reality is sometimes best gotten to via the use of falsehoods, many of the like that Herzog and Morris employ. What separates a propagandist like Moore from Morris and Herzog is that Moore is not even aiming for reality; he is simply pushing an agenda; and one that may contain elements of truth.

When Kevin MacDonald speaks of his making of Into The Void, wherein re-enactments constitute the bulk of the film, the documentary then turns over to the special effects, sound, and technical aspects of the documentary film, and the film picks up the interest level because, frankly, too much of the film is wasted upon mediocrities preaching about whatever philosophic or political ax they have to wield. Instead, masters like Herzog, Morris, and Maysles had far more to offer. Jessica Yu, as example, whose 2004 documentary, In The Realms Of The Unreal, chronicled the debauched life of psychotic unpublished hack author Henry Darger, shows why the film needed to stick with the masters more than the wannabes, for her film was larded with hyperbole that ultimately gave no insight into the warped mind of Darger, nor any insight into why Yu obsessed over this character who, by all rights, should have been sucking on his toes in a mental institution. Yu's idea of a story is merely anything that interests her, and in watching the film it's instructive to note the solipsism by which these filmmakers operate.

It is little wonder that the documentary film has fallen into such banality in the last decade. Yes, more people make these films than ever, but more make bad documentaries than ever before. This is because, like Ferrari, they pick poor subjects to film, they do not enliven those subjects with their craft, and they follow their own compulsions over material that will interest and inform a wide audience, not merely satiate their own picayune 'visions.' Capturing Reality: The Art Of Documentary is not a bad film, but it's not good, either. Had it paid more attention to details like story, editing, visuals, scoring, then it may have scored well. As is, it's a wannabe, which is a reality all too real in this art form.