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Topic: Documentary film makers – where are you ? Why not one on 'Gay Marriages' ?
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Kamakshipalya Dhananjay
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 190
From: Bangalore, India
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 03-02-2004 08:19 AM
The Documentary films' industry has seen buoyed success in recent years. A number of innovatively themed and thought provoking films have come and so too have the audience been more willing to prefer these over regular films, in increasing numbers.
But one complaint has always been that documentary filmmakers do not have a sense of timing. That is, they produce films on topics long after such topics have ceased to engage the minds of the people or of the policy makers. If documentaries ever strived to or even pretend to offer information or insight on topics they tackle, then their utility is entirely tied to whether they are on 'time'. If not, they are another source of passable entertainment at our Multiplexes.
One issue that is exploding within the American people is the issue of 'Gay Marriages'. Raging over several weeks and likely poised to become one of the biggest, if not the biggest itself, issue this election year. The turn of events across the US, so far and in the next few weeks or months, is anything but predictable or its ramifications well containable to news stories, television talk shows or Congress debates.
Now, am I suggesting that somebody should come along, make a documentary film on 'Gay Marriage' for the ensuing season, make a killing at the Box office and then, disappear into the dark ?
Absolutely Not. Never.
All I am about to say is – a documentary may very well be made on the topic of 'Gay Marriages' in the future. That is, next year or in one of many ahead. Who knows, such a film may even be honored with a nomination or an award at the Academy.
But, is not the time right Now ?
What impact or utility may a documentary have if it is neither current nor relevant to the time it is seen in ?
While recognizing that producing a documentary may often be more difficult or time consuming than even to put together a promising blockbuster, I wish to ask, 'Should not a documentary on Gay Marriages come sooner?'
This summer ? To provide a perspective right at the time the nation is expected to reflect on this issue ?
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 03-02-2004 09:35 AM
On the subject of gay marriages, this article gave me a giggle: a rehearsal for a 'straight' marriage in which a male 'actor' stood in for the bride attracted the interest of the authorities, who got the wrong end of the stick, so to speak. Problem - this happened in Saudi Arabia!
quote:
Saudis quiz 'gay wedding' guests
Saudi investigators are grilling some 50 people for allegedly attending a gay wedding in the city of Medina, a newspaper reported on Monday. The suspects deny they were attending a gay marriage and say they took part in a ceremony to mark the wedding of a Chadian friend, Arab News said.
The accused Chadian told the police he was rehearsing for his legal marriage, which was planned for last Friday. The incident has shocked Saudi Arabia, where gay marriage is banned.
An initial newspaper report last Friday claimed that police arrested guests at the wedding of an all-male couple from Chad. Police raided a rest house where the ceremony was under way after advice from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or religious police, Arab News reported.
Investigators say that invitations to last Wednesday's ceremony indicated it was a gay function and point to the suspicious behaviour of guests. They fled the venue at the sight of police cars and left some 30 vehicles behind, according to security sources. But one of the two Chadians involved told the police that he was rehearsing for his legal marriage, to be held at a wedding hall last Friday. His Saudi sponsor confirmed the man's story and said he had given him money to meet the marriage expenses.
Link to story.
Not the ideal place to make that mistake!
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Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God
Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002
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posted 03-02-2004 04:04 PM
quote:
But one complaint has always been that documentary filmmakers do not have a sense of timing. That is, they produce films on topics long after such topics have ceased to engage the minds of the people or of the policy makers.
Sure they may produce the final product after the topic has seen its first time in the public spotlight, but it doesn't mean that the project hasn't been in motion for quite some time.
You're not saying that documentary film makers need to develop their sense of timing, yet develop their skills as a prophet, foreseeing the future so that they can have a documentary on it, on time.
quote:
If documentaries ever strived to or even pretend to offer information or insight on topics they tackle, then their utility is entirely tied to whether they are on 'time'. If not, they are another source of passable entertainment at our Multiplexes.
I disagree. Any worthwhile topic is never a one-time event, that requires no further thought. Everything is revisited at some point, by someone, again and again.
Even if something was never to be revisited again, the documentary still serves its purpose as a way of, you guessed it, documenting events in history. Some people claim that documentaries aren't very good accounts of history since they are influenced by the makers of the documentary. However, every other traditional historical account is coloured just as much by its writer(s), or story teller(s).
Further, documentaries are just that. Documents of history from the perspective of an observer (the makers). If you were to complete a documentary in time for it to be exhibited while the topic subject is still unfolding or has just completed unfolding, it wouldn't be a documentary but propaganda.
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One issue that is exploding within the American people is the issue of 'Gay Marriages'. Raging over several weeks and likely poised to become one of the biggest, if not the biggest itself, issue this election year. The turn of events across the US, so far and in the next few weeks or months, is anything but predictable or its ramifications well containable to news stories, television talk shows or Congress debates.
Sure, it's been a popular topic over the last few weeks, but it has been by no stretch the first time it has been a popular topic, or even close to it. Nor will it be the last time. Whether someone were to produce a documentary on the topic today or two years from now, it would still be a worthwhile endevour that would be more than merely entertainment at your local plex.
quote:
All I am about to say is – a documentary may very well be made on the topic of 'Gay Marriages' in the future. That is, next year or in one of many ahead. Who knows, such a film may even be honored with a nomination or an award at the Academy.
Wow, what a prediction. Heck, there have already been documentaries on the topic, surely there will be more.
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But, is not the time right Now ?
Once again, I believe timing has more to due with economic potential rather than utility or value.
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What impact or utility may a documentary have if it is neither current nor relevant to the time it is seen in ?
To the narrow minded, not much I suppose. However, documentaries don't need to be on time as you continue to stress. That's what the nightly news is for.
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While recognizing that producing a documentary may often be more difficult or time consuming than even to put together a promising blockbuster, I wish to ask, 'Should not a documentary on Gay Marriages come sooner?'
Once again, there have been documentaries made in the past. I've seen some on TLC and the History channel. Unfortunately I can't recall any titles. Perhaps someone else knows.
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This summer ? To provide a perspective right at the time the nation is expected to reflect on this issue ?
Now that is totally unrealistic unless, of course, you are a participant in the New York City Midnight Moviemaking Madness contest and like to finish editing your project in the taxi cab on the way to the lab.
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Kamakshipalya Dhananjay
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 190
From: Bangalore, India
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 03-03-2004 02:30 AM
Well,
1.Take 'Bowling for Columbine'. This documentary is not the only one on the topic of Gun/weapon proliferation in America. Yet, there are factors that render this one to stand out from the rest. So, not all documentaries are created equal. Some stand out while the rest fade into oblivion. So, I never asked anybody to give a start by first venturing to make a documentary on the subject of 'Gay Marriages'.
2.As to documentaries that are made for or are screened in the Gay and Lesbian film festivals, it may safely be said that they are not really made for the mainstream audience. They are made more for the enthusiasts that flock to the Gay and Lesbian film festivals.
3.Are people here saying that a documentary on the subject of 'Gay marriages' cannot be made to rank as a professional and an extensive delve into the subject matter, muck like are titles 'Fog of War' or 'Bowling for Columbine'. Or even that any documentary on the subject of 'Gay Marriages' cannot be made on a emotional canvas as wide as covered by films such as 'Touching the void' ?
Just consider some of the disciplines that have to be touched merely to give any semblance of professionality to such a documentary on 'Gay Marriages' – Evolutionary biology, anthropology, geo-political history, contemporary psychology, modern genetics, comparitive and contemporary Sociology, Socio-political legislative history, legal jurisprudence, religion (comparitive, contemporary and historical adaptation), current state of marriage legislation (jurisdiction centric) and cultural factors that influence the formation and sustenance of marriage to state a mere few. A thousand other disciplines will need to be touched to make a documentary that will stake claim to a wider audience than is presently served by what has come before.
4.As to timing being not that important except for economic reasons, I wonder if we are required to look down on a documentary that is made with any expectation of monetary returns at the Box office ?
5.That Box office returns for documentaries have steadily been growing over the past few years, are documentary makers required to wear a blind mask to the Box office potential of their works, or be disorganized or detached from Commercially motivated organizations/studios ?
6.What if a studio were to, sensing the opportunity that lies ahead, finance a documentary on such subjects ? Would that be good enough to call them as becoming untrue to their tradition ? Who is to delimit the sphere of activity of any other ? Who is also to allot the scale of ambition for another's works ?
Are 'Gay Marriages' all there is to end a grand documentary ambition with ? What about other subjects as 'Genetically modified foods', 'the dilemma of cloning', 'food supply chain in the world', 'ever rising hunger in the good old parts of the world' and many more ?
There can be no denying of the dis-organised state of the 'documentary film industry' at present. It merits such observation as long as they are not motivated or are constrained from doing things at a time that would yield greater economic returns. Anybody who will trace the rise of independent cinema in America will surely notice that definite parallels may be drawn between the earlier stages of speciality/independent cinema and the state of the documentary film industry at present.
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