Letting the Story Unfold

While I was reading Adventures in the Lives of Others, Herbert Terrace, a documentary filmmaker, wrote about how he liked to let a story tell itself. While he was gathering information for his documentary, Project Nim, he found a lot of evidence that would paint the professor who led Project Nim in a bad light. This would have made the documentary dramatic and stayed true to the factual nature of documentaries; however, Herbert decided to omit this information from his documentary because he didn't believe it was part of the story that was naturally unfolding before him. Though he sees no problem with documentary filmmakers making films that have agendas, Herbert doesn't believe in imposing his creative vision over a film. Instead Herbert believes that if he gathers enough evidence for his films, the story that wants to be told will reveal itself.

Walter Murch, a famous editor and author of In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing, had the same opinion about his role in the film-making process. He never sought to impose his vision on a film by making artistic and flashy cuts. He believed that there were moments that the film wanted you to cut at, revealed by tells such as an actor blinking. He viewed films as rivers carving their way naturally through the landscape, rather than forcefully clear a path for the river he would clear a few rocks and make sure that it;s flow was undisturbed but natural.

Writers often believe that their characters take on a life of their own. Last year, I remember Sadie complaining that the protagonist of her novel had "decided" to fall in love with another character in her novel against her wishes. Filmmakers seem to have similar feelings about their stories and how they can unwind themselves.

The wrinkle in this for documentary filmmakers is that the story they unfold may not show the subjects of the film in a favorable light and these are real people. It comes down to the filmmaker to decide the ethics of releasing films that have impact on real lives and it is maintaining that balance that keeps many documentary filmmakers like Herbert Terrace in the game.