Some thoughts on SXSW, part 1

First let me begin with a disclaimer. I went to far less screenings than usual, and most were chosen with my own limited availability in mind. I didn’t get a wide sampling at all, so my impressions are likely colored by that narrow scope. That said, here are some thoughts on what I saw, and how it made me think about documentary work.

WHEN I RISE

http://vimeo.com/groups/secondstory/videos/2408371

http://www.whenirisefilm.com/

Short version: It’s the 60s. UT pulls a young black music student from their opera because she’s black. Said opera singer then becomes a world-renowned opera star.

This was the most accessible piece I saw, and the one I’d recommend that someone off the street see, the one I’d tell my own mother to go and see. Driven by an incredible and expressive character, it was also a strong narrative, well shot, and emotionally complex. I found myself tearing up at her story, getting thrilled when she meets Harry Belafonte, and cheering her on as her hard work and raw talent translate into a long career on the stage, all of which means that I was engaged in the experience of watching.

The treatment of archival material was compellingly animated and made me rethink the Ken Burns/tried and true ways we usually feature such material. The one issue I had was that there were long sequences of VO where the visuals were empty performance halls—and it just didn’t work for me in those moments. All the momentum just died in those scenes. Finally, the ending felt a bit stagey, as she is honored by UT and then by the Texas legislature for her achievements. It wasn’t exactly the real apology from the legislature that had pulled her from the performance and the university who went along with it. I wasn’t what I had hoped for her, and it therefore rang a bit false, as if the filmmakers were trying to smooth everything over at the end. But, smoothing things over isn’t exactly the story of discrimination and civil rights in this country. Perhaps we need to be reminded that everything isn’t fixed yet, and maybe that’s the filmmakers’ job too.

THE WORK OF ALAN GOVENAR

Three pieces:

1. STONEY KNOWS HOW. A profile from the 1980s of an old tattoo artist in Appalachia, who comes from ‘the old school’ of vaudeville/circus tattooing. Camera by Les Blank, and an appearance by Ed Hardy.

http://www.docarts.com/stoney_knows_how-video.html

2. THE DEVIL’S SWING. A portrait of the Texas/Mexico border towns, their traditions and culture.

http://www.docarts.com/devils_swing.html

3. THE POETRY OF EXACTITUDE. A look into a French artist who makes miniature carnival/roller coaster rides.

http://www.docarts.com/poetry_of_exactitude.html

The first and last short pieces were best, I think primarily because they were short and sweet, didn’t need the backbone of a bigger story to hold them together. They were about ordinary folks who, as Govenar said himself in the screening, made something out of nothing. Their creativity was about making something because they had to, not for money or for self-interest, but because that is who they were.

It seemed to me that backbone was what the middle piece on the border was missing. It rambled from topic to topic, without every letting the audience where we were going next, and what was the overall premise or driving force behind this documentary as a work. I’m all for surprising your audience, but I felt lost while watching this, and it made me think that folks who come to documentary from the anthropology/ethnography/social sciences world really need a lesson in storytelling. At least in PARIS IS BURNING or other films that have a more anthropological bent to them, there’s intention at the outset, an implied narrative that moves us forward, keeps us watching.

I must also say that this small retrospective did get me thinking about the intersections among written ethnography/ie books, photographs, and documentary. There is so much that is lost about a subject when we try to tell a story, and a story that is told in sound and moving picture only. Maybe the best way to truly document is to produce works in many media about one subject.

Also this screening made me admire the breadth and depth of his work; that he has sustained a career doing this fieldwork for decades, and has been able to traverse so many different subjects, making an essential archive of living history for our state and our nation. His oeuvre is the heart-soaked, sustained work of memory and culture that will be examined by generations to come.