The Urban-rural Dichotomy in the Indonesian Documentaries Nona Nyonya? and Untuk Apa?

The media play a pivotal role in the democratization process in Indonesia and this is among others apparent in the surge of films, both fiction and documentaries that have been produced after the end Suharto\u27s decades of control over the media. It is important to note, however, that compared with fiction films, the documentary genre remains rather unpopular in Indonesia. Indonesian documentary films struggle to depict stories of the subaltern and those living in the “periphery” in order for them to be seen and heard by the greater masses and by those in power – the ones in the “centre” or Jakarta. This paper discusses the connection between urban and rural voices and its impact in the documentary films Nona nyonya? (Miss mrs?, 2008) and Untuk apa? (What\u27s the point?, 2008) produced by Kalyana Shira Films, an organization well-known for its work on gender issues using film as medium. Departing from the notion that the film industry itself is still largely Jakarta-centred, this article focuses on the way urban settings and voices are used to create rhetoric, and the impact of the domination of these urban voices over the rural ones

Ambient Multi-Camera Personal Documentary

Polymnia is an automated solution for the creation of ambient multi-camera personal documentary films. This short paper introduces the system, emphasising the rule-based documentary generation engine that we have created to assemble an edited narrative from source footage. We describe how such automatically generated media can be integrated with and augment personally-authored images and videos as a contribution to an individual’s personal digital memory

Finnish history documentaries as history culture

This article approaches Finnish documentary films as part of current history culture and ‘sense of history’. Through three examples of Finnish documentary films, it examines the relationship between history documentaries and academic history with reference to the modes of documentary filmmaking and to history theories. In analysing the films, the ‘orientation’ of the films as well as their ‘organization’ is of interest. The article is particularly interested in national history representations and media memory. It emphasizes the production context of the films. The article suggests that in order to understand history documentaries as a part of history culture means taking into consideration the particular history culture in question, the documentary tradition of a country, and, first of all, the production context of a documentary.This article approaches Finnish documentary films as part of current history culture and ‘sense of history’. Through three examples of Finnish documentary films, it examines the relationship between history documentaries and academic history with reference to the modes of documentary filmmaking and to history theories. In analysing the films, the ‘orientation’ of the films as well as their ‘organization’ is of interest. The article is particularly interested in national history representations and media memory. It emphasizes the production context of the films. The article suggests that in order to understand history documentaries as a part of history culture means taking into consideration the particular history culture in question, the documentary tradition of a country, and, first of all, the production context of a documentary.Peer reviewe

'Experts in the Field: Rhetoric and Aesthetics in the Agricultural Documentary'

Mark Broughton, ‘Experts in the Field: Rhetoric and Aesthetics in the Agricultural Documentary', paper presented at the Borderlines Film Festival, Hereford, UK, 28 March – 13 April, 2008.We will watch both Ditching, made in 1942, and Foot and Mouth, made in 1955. These films belong to a subgenre of agricultural documentary – the instructional farming film, the dominant form of agricultural documentary in the 1940s and 1950s, when these two films were made. An analysis of these two films will raise historiographical questions, both about the specific cultural contexts within which the films were produced and about the way in which the canons of documentary film are constructed. In developing this analysis, the paper aims to re-examine the aesthetic contribution that key films in the subgenre made to the British documentary and agricultural discourses.Peer reviewe

Social Justice Documentary: Designing for Impact

Explores current methodologies for assessing social issue documentary films by combining strategic design and evaluation of multiplatform outreach and impact, including documentaries' role in network- and field-building. Includes six case studies

Using FSA Documentary Films

Intended to be used with the Indiana Farm Security Administration Photographs Digital Collection - [LINK]http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/IFSAP[/LINK].This curriculum activity has students watch two documentary films funded by the Resettlement Administration/Farm Security Administration, The Plow that Broke the Plains and The River, written and directed by Pare Lorentz. Students compare the films to FSA photographs

[Review of] Elizabeth Weatherford, ed. with Emelia Seubert, Native Americans on Film and Video

This is an extraordinarily impressive and thorough compilation of primarily documentary films made by and about Native Americans. The Museum of the American Indian, the Heye Foundation and Elizabeth Weatherford and Emelia Seubert are to be commended for their effort and industry. Native Americans on Film and Video grew out of a major exhibition, The Ancestors: Native Artisans of the Americas, where more than one hundred and twenty-five films and video tapes were shown by the museum

Documentary Films for Preservation: Representation Techniques for the Field

This thesis examines and analyzes engaging representation techniques used in documentary filmmaking both within and outside of the preservation field. It traces the fundamental theoretical disputes that are central to non-fiction, historical documentary filmmaking, and provides a context to how preservationists have utilized the medium for documentation, advocacy, and education. Referring to seminal documentary theorists’ texts such as John Grierson’s First Principles of Documentary Filmmaking and Bill Nichols’ Documentary Modes of Representation, I extrapolate crucial categories of engaging representation strategies and put these into dialogue with presently executed audio visual narratives in films. In my analysis, I investigate three films, each of which have a particular narrative agenda. Documentary filmmaking is utilized to convey historical facts while providing a compelling and persuasive storytelling narrative. All the techniques used within documentary filmmaking thus should then collectively inform, support, and augment the overarching narrative. As I analyze, this is not always the case in the three films. In some moments of the films, audio and visual content is executed in a manner that detracts from the narrative by adding conflicting or distracting imagery and dialogue. This thesis takes a close examination of both engaging and disengaging moments in documentary films. I will propose how filmmaking techniques can be utilized to create more effective representations when actively engaged with narratives in preservation documentary practice

Bentuk Film Dokumenter Ekspositoris Menggunakan Open Caption untuk Audiens dengan Keterbatasan Pendengaran

The form of documentary film created in this this research is a documentary film art entitled "Berujar Dalam Sunyi". This is a documentary film with an expository style of exposure, using a comparative narrative style. This research is a creative process creating a documentary film of which applies the use of open caption to give access people with hearing impairments in Indonesia to documentary films. The issue of this research is the reality of the life of people with hearing impairments in Indonesia. This film uses koentjaraningrat’s seven elements of culture to explore the visual potential of the life of a deaf-deaf community. Access to films, especially documentary films for people with hearing impairments in Indonesia is still very limited. The form of access in question is open caption, which can help people with hearing impairments enjoy and understand the contents of a film which is an audio-visual art form. This research is a creative process of making documentary films applying the use of open captions to provide access to documentary films for deaf people in Indonesia. In its application, a combination of voiceover and open caption is used, so that this documentary film can be enjoyed by both hearing audiences and audiences with hearing impairments.The results of this study illustrate how to present the reality in the life of people with hearing impairments into a documentary film that can be enjoyed by audiences with hearing impairments.Keywords: Documentary Film, Expository Style, Comparative Narrative Style, Open Captio

Selling Genocide II: The Later Films

In this essay I take up the later major anti-Semitic propaganda pieces, all of them released in 1940. They were produced under Goebbels explicit orders to each of the three Nazi-controlled studios to produce an anti-Semitic film. The three films produced were: The Rothschilds Share at Waterloo; Jud Suss; and The Eternal Jew. These films were much more powerful propaganda pieces in intensifying anti-Semitic feelings—those feelings of difference, disgust, and danger. For each film, I point to the scenes that arouse the feelings even more profoundly than did the earlier films. The Rothschilds’ Shares at Waterloo put forward the conspiracy theory (widespread to this day) that Jewish bankers form a conspiratorial cabal bent upon world domination. Jew Suss (which was presented as historically true) pushes the narrative of Jews using money to take power, and of their boundless lust for young Christian women (hence the danger of “racial pollution”). Of all the anti-Semitic propaganda films the regime produced, the top regime figures considered this to be the most powerful—about 40% of German adults of the time saw this film. It is banned in Germany to this day. Finally, The Eternal Jew—perhaps the most infamous of the group—is presented as a truthful documentary. While this sham documentary was a comparative box office flop, it was widely used as a training film