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Essay / Objectivity of documentary film: Cinéma Vérité
IntroductionThe idea of objectivity remains a very controversial subject among philosophical elites. Some philosophers might argue that human understanding of objectivity depends on the scope of understanding of the term and exposition (Livingstone & Plantinga 10). When the term objectivity is mixed with realism, it gives rise to a complex ideation that remains highly controversial and less agreeable among scholarly authors (Livingstone & Plantinga 23). However, to understand and appreciate the concept of realism and objectivity in cinema, it becomes essential to adopt a precise definition. First, the term reality in cinema is used to describe concepts visible in nature as experienced on a daily basis by one or more individuals (Livingstone & Plantinga 24). The term objectivity in this case is used to define a set of ideas or perspectives incorporated into the film (Livingstone & Plantinga 24). Documentaries are used to create a form of reality, an experience or an idea of the person or group of people experiencing an event or phenomenon. The argument of this analysis is that it is impossible for documentary films to objectively capture reality. Objectivity in Script and Structure Traditional ideas in cinema and documentary have been about creating storylines which are structures for realizing a defined idea. The challenge of screenwriting an idea is that the screenwriter(s) have a subjective vision of the documentary. The vastness of documenting a situation is limited by the storyline, making it impossible for a documentary film to capture objective realism in its work. To understand the subjective ideation of a film's storyline, one must consider the different possibilities for changing a section of a scene. There are countless po...... middle of paper ......heila Curran. Documentary narration for videographers and filmmakers. United States: Focal Press Publications, 2004. Print. Das, Trisha. How to write a documentary screenplay: a monograph. United States: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print. Livingstone, Paisley & Carl Plantinga. The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Cinema. London: Routledge – Taylor & Francis Group. 2009. Print. Nichols, Bill. Introduction to the documentary. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. 2001. Print. Rivers, Tina. “From Alienation to Hallucination: Peter Whitehead’s Fall and Politics of Perception in the 1960s.” Frames 52. 1 (2011): 426-457. Print.Tarkovsky, Andrey. Sculpting in time: the great Russian filmmaker talks about his art. Russia: Soviet State Film School. 1986. Print. Williams, Linda. “Mirrors without memories. Truth, history and new documentary. Quarterly film 46.3 (1993): 9-21.