There are two things that I have had mini panic attacks about every day this week. One is the thought of what I’m going to do after I graduate. The other is whether or not such-and-such a film is a documentary or not.
This is my senior year of high school. I’m turning 18 in a couple months, which means I will never again have a half birthday without a diploma. Every day there’s a new reason that pops into my mind why I can’t graduate, or move out, or go to college, or have a career. I start hyperventilating and yelling at my mom. Stupid things like, “I CAN NEVER HAVE ROOMMATES BECAUSE THEY WILL TRY TO BRUSH THEIR TEETH AND TALK TO ME AT THE SAME TIME AND I DON’T THINK I CAN EMOTIONALLY HANDLE THAT KIND OF DISGUSTING BEHAVIOR ON TOP OF THE STRESS OF MOVING AWAY FROM MY BELOVED FAMILY!!!” or else, “How can I be expected to pick a major if I can’t even pick a favorite color? Obviously I can’t go to college,” or just the standard, “Mom, I have no idea what I’m doing with my life.”
During this tumultuous period in my life, for some reason Will and Josh thought it would be a good idea to pose the question “What is a documentary?” to my class, and essentially explode my brain.
Honestly, think about it. Think about the question. It’s freaking hard to answer. You think that you know what a documentary is, at least I did. I was all like, “Man, I have been in two different documentary classes all term long. I’ve got this.” But then Josh and Will showed us a whole bunch of movies that sort of hover around the edge of the documentary genre, and asked us to decide whether we thought they belonged or not.
The one that really ruined my life was Richard Linklater’s 2011 film Bernie. Although it stars the famous actors Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, and Shirley MacLaine in the lead roles, the film also showcases interviews with real townspeople who were around when the events depicted in the film were going down. They give their real opinions on the things that happened, which are honestly depicted in non-interview scenes.
So, is Bernie a documentary? Well, no, but it has a lot of similarities. It adds to the conversation of the expanding definition of the genre. I think this movie is the bomb, and this documentary-fiction blend is a killer storytelling technique.
I would LOVE to make a movie like this. It gives you a lot of the good of documentaries: a true story, interviews with real humans who were involved, and the social impact thing. At the same time you get a lot of the convenient and beautiful parts of a traditional fiction or narrative film. You can show scenes you wouldn’t have been able to capture on camera in a true documentary. You can get different shots of the same thing, which makes your film more beautiful and easier to watch.
Okay, so I am obviously still terrified to grow up. I don’t know exactly what school I’ll go to next year, or what I’ll study there. I don’t know the exact form my career will take. I also don’t have a precise, simple answer to the question “What is a documentary?” What I do know is that this week I have felt more inspired than ever to try making documentaries. This is such an exciting time to get in on the documentary filmmaking scene because the genre is changing so swiftly. Even though I am anxious and confused about my future, I am also really stoked to continue watching and making radical documentaries.
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