Amy

• Amy (Asif Kapadia, 2015)
• Filmmakers' theories


  • Peter Watkins
  • Nick Broomfield
  • Kim Longinotto
  • Michael Moore
• Peter Watkins


  • Established his reputation with two docu-dramas from the 1960s, Culloden and The War Game
  • Both document events from the past using actors and reconstruction
  • In asking questions of conventional documentary, Watkins reflects his deep concern with mainstream media, which he has called the 'monoform'
• Peter Watkins' films


  • La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000)
  • Evening Land (1977)
  • Punishment Park (1971)
  • The War Game (1965)
  • The Battle of Culloden (1964)
• Nick Broomfield


  • He has developed a participatory, performative mode of documentary filmmaking
  • Broomfield is an investigative documentarist with a distinctive interview technique which he uses to expose people's real views
  • He keeps the filmmaking presence to a minimum, normally with a crew of no more than 3
  • Over time Broomfield's approach to documentary has shifted and he is either completely absent from screen, or occasionally only heard posing questions
• Nick Broomfield on his style of filmmaking: '"If you're making a film, it's more honest to make your presence felt than to hang back furtively on the other side of the room, because no-one really benefits from that. That approach really is, to use the dread word, voyeuristic. You're there with all your equipment, but pretending you're not there."'
• Nick Broomfield on his style of filmmaking: 'The reason why he uses a more participatory approach, he has explained, is because "what's important is the interaction between the filmmakers and those being filmed, and that the audience is aware of that interaction so they can make decisions of their own."'
• Nick Broomfield's films


  • Whitney: Can I Be Me (2017)
  • Ghosts (2006)
  • Aileen: Life & Death of a Serial Killer (2003)
  • Biggie and Tupac (2002)
  • Kurt and Courtney (1998)
• Kim Longinotto


  • Her films often focus on women, she has said that she empathises with the outsiders, the people struggling
  • To avoid aiming for a preferred reading, her work is often said to belong to observational films, also known as cinema verite, popularised in the 60s
  • These kind of documentaries tend to use light cameras to offer freedom of movement
  • They try to be impartial and be more honest with the absence of voice-overs and interviews
• Kim Longinotto was born to an Italian father and a Welsh mother; her father was a photographer who later went bankrupt
• At the age of 10 she was sent to a draconian all-girls boarding school, where she found it hard to make friends due to the mistress forbidding anyone to talk to her for a term after she became lost during a school trip
• After a period of homelessness, Longinotto went on to Essex University to study English and European literature and later followed friend and future filmmaker, Nick Broomfield to the National Film and Television School
• Kim Longinotto's films


  • Dreamcatcher (2015)
  • Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go (2007)
  • Sisters in Law (2005)
  • Gaea Girls (2000)
  • Divorce Iranian Style (1998)
• Michael Moore


  • Moore, like Broomfield, is a very visible presence in his documentaries, which can thus be described as participatory and performative
  • His work is highly committed – overtly polemical in taking up a clear point of view, what might be called agit-prop documentary
  • He justifies his practice in terms of providing 'balance' for mainstream media that, in his view, provides false information
  • Part of Moore's approach is to use humour, sometimes to lampoon the subject of his work and sometimes to recognise that documentaries need to entertain and hold an audience
• Michael Moore's films


  • Where to Invade Next (2015)
  • Capitalism a Love Story (2009)
  • Sicko (2007)
  • Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
  • Bowling for Columbine (2002)
• None of the filmmakers here are academics with a set of theories to explain their work as documentarians
• It is better to think of these 'theories' as a set of ideas/approaches that underpin their work stylistically and contextually as esteemed documentary filmmakers
• These might be reinforced in relation to the film as a whole or to individual sequences however it might also be, that these ideas may well be contested also
• Using the ideas behind the work of Kim Longinotto, Nick Broomfield and Michael Moore it is hoped will enlighten the study of one of the following chosen documentary films: Sisters in Law, The Arbor, Stories We Tell, 20,000 Days on Earth, Amy
• Two of these filmmaker's ideas will be debated alongside the specific study
• Documentary


  What is the purpose of documentary
• Six modes (or sub-genres) of documentary

  • Poetic
  • Expository
  • Observational
  • Participatory
  • Reflexive
  • Performative
• Poetic Documentaries focus on experiences, images and showing the audience the world through a different set of eyes
• Expository Documentaries aim to inform and/or persuade — often through omnipresent "Voice of God" narration over footage devoid of ambiguous or poetic rhetoric
• Observational Documentaries aim to simply observe the world around them, giving first hand access to some of the subject's most important (and often private) moments
• Participatory Documentaries include the filmmaker within the narrative, as minor as the filmmaker's voice being heard behind the camera, prodding subjects with questions or cues
• Reflexive Documentaries draw attention to their own constructedness and artifice, making the audience aware that what they are watching is a representation of reality, not reality itself
• Performative Documentaries emphasize the subjective experience of the filmmaker, often in relation to the film's subject
• Observational Documentaries


  Direct engagement with everyday life of subjects with unobtrusive camera
• Observational Documentaries


  • Aim to simply observe the world around them
  • Originating in the 1960s with the advances in portable film equipment
  • Much less pointed than the Expository
  • Attempt to give voice to all sides of an issue by giving audiences first hand access to some of the subject's most important (and often private) moments
• Participatory Documentaries


  Interaction between filmmaker and subject, interviews and archival footage
• Participatory Documentaries


  • Have elements of Observational and Expository
  • Include the filmmaker within the narrative
  • Could be as minor as the filmmaker's voice being heard behind the camera, prodding subjects with questions or cues
  • All the way to the filmmaker directly influencing the major actions of the narrative
• Reflexive Documentaries


  Calls attention to conventions of documentary filmmaking, increases audience awareness of the constructedness of the film's representation of reality
• Reflexive Documentaries


  • Similar to Participatory in that they often include the filmmaker within the film
  • However, unlike Participatory, they make no attempts to explore an outside subject
  • Rather, they focus solely on themselves and the act of them making the film
• Performative Documentaries


  The expressive aspect of the filmmaker's own engagement with the subject and the audience's responsiveness to this engagement
• Performative Documentaries


  • An experimental combination of styles used to stress subject experience and share an emotional response to the world
  • Often connect personal accounts or experience juxtaposed with larger political or historical issues
  • Sometimes called the "Michael Moore" style, as he often uses his own personal stories as a way to construct social truths (without having to argue the validity of their experiences)
• Asif Kapadia on award-winning documentary Amy | Film4 Interview Special
• Asif Kapadia talks about Amy - Film4
• COMPONENT 2 - Written Exam 2 hours 30 minutes (total 100 marks) - Section B: Documentary film (20 marks) - Study of one documentary text with a focus on critical debates and filmmakers 'theories'
• Amy is a documentary about the life and death of British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse