According to legendary filmmaker Ken Burns, documentary filmmakers "take a vow of poverty and anonymity." Burns' documentary on the Civil War has been seen by over 100 million people worldwide. So much for anonymity. Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine has grossed over $40 million. So much for poverty.
Gone are the days when documentary filmmaking was considered the "second cousin" of the movie business. Festival founder Nancy Buirski, who will be moderating a panel on "the heyday" of documentaries, believes this phenomenon of popular documentaries represents the ushering in of a new era. Audiences across America are realizing that documentary films are art in their own right, and deserve to be seen on the big screen just like any other movie.
Duke Political Science professor David Paletz pointed to the "death of narrative in Hollywood movies" as the cause of the documentary boom. Buirski, however, commented that perhaps people are finally realizing that "truth really is more exciting than fiction."
With the age of reality-TV, it's easy to dismiss popular documentaries as just another outlet for America's voyeurism. After all, one of the films at this year's festival, René's Story: the Opposite Sex follows a character undergoing the transformation from woman-living-as-man to full-out man, "big dick" and all. Although footage of the genital reconstruction surgery might seem too reminiscent of "Extreme Makeover," Buirski explained that the difference between this type of film and reality shows on Fox is the complexity with which the story is told. Rather than offering what she called "a capsule of reality," documentaries such as René's Story follow their characters over an extended period of time.
Additionally, Buirski pointed out that several big documentaries have gained large audiences with less flashy subjects. An early festival favorite, Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me, uses the gimmick of a thirty-day all fast-food diet to breathe life into its subject of weight gain and fast food. Other high-profile documentaries, such as Moore's Bowling for Columbine, have successfully used unique narratives to give policy issues mass appeal. Buirski noted that in these types of films, "whether you agree with [the filmmaker] or not, you're seduced by the storytelling."
What the documentary craze really comes down to is our fascination with the human condition. Buirski concluded: "If you have a true story told well, people are going to be grabbed by it."
The panel discussion "Docs in their Heyday: Coming to a Multiplex near You" will be held at the Durham Arts Council tomorrow at 1 p.m.
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