Food for thought. This text is written by a student from the Zelig Film School for Documentary at the exam in June after one year of the three year long studies. János Richter has chosen direction for his further studies:

Moderne Dokumentarfilme bewegen sich weg von der klassischen Reportage-Form und bedienen sich aller Stilmittel und Techniken, die schon im Spielfilm oder verwandten Disziplinen wie Literatur und Musik verwendet werden. Sie versuchen authentisch, nicht aber objektiv (z.B. in Sinne des direct cinema) zu sein und haben eine eigene Handschrift. Sie verzichten, wenn sinnvoll, auf Interviews, erklaeren nicht mehr als notwendig und lassen dem Zuschauer Raum fuer eigene Interpretationen, etwa durch ein offenes Ende. Fiktionale Elemente oder gar Mischformen aus Dokumentar- und Spielfilm (wie z.B. bei Larry Clarke) koennen bereichernd, sollten aber als solche zu erkennen sein. Filme, die dem nahe kommen, sind z.B. die von Phie Ambo.

http://www.zeligfilm.it/

Food for thought. This text is written by a student from the Zelig Film School for Documentary at the exam in June after one year of the three year long studies. George Bocher has chosen direction for his further studies:

The essence of what documentary can be today is shown in the Canadian  film “Manufactured Landscapes” (Jennifer Baichwal) in the very first shot. A very long shot, a never-ending camera-travel through a Chinese factory-hall.

It’s the most impressive dolly shot I have ever seen. Why is it so great?

Because it shows the conflict between our expectations for fictional representation of reality and the representation in documentaries/reportage.

The usual standard-pan inside the hall we would have seen in a TV-reportage would have made it easy for the viewer to swallow the image, to sort it intohis/her categories. It is through this dolly shot that we experience the full dimensions of the hall and the nature of the labour in it.

The sense of a motivated travel of the eye that the dolly usually promises is turned into a nightmarish caricature as we only see the ever-repeating landscape of people at machines.  Strangely it is the use of means from fiction-films that makes this reality more real for us again. I think this is one of the paradox documentary makers have to live with today.

http://www.zeligfilm.it/

Food for thought. This German text is written by a student from the Zelig Film School for Documentary at the exam in June after one year of the three year long study. Kathrin Dietzel has chosen editing for her further studies:

Ich denke ein Dokumentarfilmer sollte die Faehigkeit haben, Vertrauen zu anderen Menschen aufzubauen. Er sollte bereit sein etwas von sich preiszugeben und eine Vertrauensbasis schaffen koennen, in der auch ein Gegenueber sich trotz Filmequipment und Unsicherheit oeffnen kann.

Ein Dokumentarfilmer sollte offen sein, seine Ansichten und Ueberzeugungen immer wieder in Frage stellen und ueberpruefen und keine vorschnellen Urteile faellen. Nur so kann meiner Meinung nach ein Film entstehen, der einerseits persoenlich ist, wirklich eintauchen kann in die Lebensrealitaet eines anderen Menschen und andereseits diesen Menschen mit Respekt darstellt, ohne sensationslustig oder voyeuristisch zu sein oder zu wirken.

http://www.zeligfilm.it/

The following text was written by a student from the Zelig School for documentary as a motivation from her to go for editing studies in the next two years after the first year of general studies:

Editing is like a balancing act on a tightrope: On the one hand your walk shouldn’t be to rigid – you have to be flexible. On the other hand you shouldn’t be carried away by emotions: both would be fatal. Editing means declarative power, but at the same time responsability – to the protagonist(s), to the director and of course to the film itself. Editing denotes motion, but in certain moments stand still. It needs conscious decisions, but also letting speak the unconscious. Editing means to search the path, not to see the wood for the trees and to find – exhausted, but happy – the way out of the forest of the cutting process. It represents a creative challenge, which demands consistently new solutions and finds fascinating answers. Editing is an activity, which gives me – because of the reasons mentioned above – a lot of gratification and pleasure. June 2008

http://www.zeligfilm.it/