Hito Steyerl /// The Uncertainty of Documentarism
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Jorgen Leth&Lars von Trier /// Five Obstructions
“The Uncertainty of Documentarism,” written by the German filmmaker Hito Steyerl, provides a great framework with which to think about the affective aspects of visual media. Her thesis is that new forms of mass media, such as the documentary forms that are ubiquitous today on the news, are “expressive” as opposed to “representative.”
This media, which gains its power through conscious decisions about its construction, is made up of abstract and low resolution images that “bear no similarity to reality.” In turn they are intended to stir excitement and can lead to “false intimacy and even false presence.” This is in contrast to what we expect of the news, which is to be a close representation of the truth of a situation.
In the context of our animation project, this may be useful for considering the affective components of the work and how to achieve our goals without being too literal in our translation of our chosen texts. It is an incredibly interesting perspective on modern documentary practices.
- Steyerl talks about how the “unbroken belief” of the documentary form is challenged. How are Steyerl’s ideas about truth and fiction represented and expressed in Abbas Kiarostami’s film? How does truth inform the fiction in Close up? How might fiction inform the truth?
- What is the significance of the authenticity and representation of the truth in the media that you consume on a daily basis? What is the role of a live broadcast?
- Steyerl talks about how the “unbroken belief” of the documentary form is challenged. What does Steyerl mean by this? Certain movies and films are based on a true story. How does truth inform fiction? How might fiction inform the truth?
“Paradoxically, documentary images are so powerful because there is no more unbroken belief in their truth. The uncertainty that documentary truth provokes is a central component of general incertitude that is becoming stronger and stronger. Its consequences are ubiquitous: they manifest themselves in the form of military interventions, mass hysteria, global campaigns, and even entire world views that can take on a global significance within a matter of days.”
“Their truth lies in their expression. Those CNN images still vividly and acutely express the uncertainty, which governs not only contemporary documentary image production, but also the contemporary world as such. They are perfectly true documents of that general uncertainty, so to speak. “
The Five Obstructions is a 2003 Danish documentary film directed by Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth. The film is conceived as a documentary but incorporates lengthy sections of experimental films produced by the filmmakers.[1] The premise is that von Trier has created a challenge for his friend and mentor, Jørgen Leth, another renowned filmmaker.[2] Lars von Trier’s favorite film is Leth’s The Perfect Human, and von Trier gives Leth the task of remaking The Perfect Human five times, each time with a different “obstruction” (or obstacle) imposed by von Trier. (From Wikipedia)
Many documentaries stand back from their subject, to portray it ‘objectively’, or else throw themselves into it with a fervour with which they hope to carry along the audience. The Five Obstructions is very different, turning in on itself to examine the creative process of film-making in a self-revelatory way that packs both instructive, artistic merit and emotional punch.Five Obstructions is not a ‘Dogme’ film: but it looks at the idea of rules as a means of stimulating the creative process.
Through successive shoots, Trier makes Leth confront that which he most dislikes. He compares the process to when he is directing an actor, forcing a performance from the actor that the actor didn’t know was within them. In the first four takes, we see Leth produce something that is artistically worthy with even the most daunting physical and psychological obstructions, but it is in the final obstruction that Trier produces a cathartic effect, turning the tables so thoroughly on Leth and himself that the result is greater than both of them. Instead of a documentary about a film about how a perfect human being works, it becomes a documentary about how a perfect film maker works.
The ending justifies the rather long and mentally tiring prelude. The overall result is a lasting testament on a particular way of reaching the creative process, and also a documentary testament to Trier’s own particular genius. There is no artifice, no hype, only two people of great artistic integrity working together to pull something from their subconscious of lasting greatness.