Isaac Candelario

Shaky Camera

Verisimilitude is one characteristic of art that claims to be realistic, and is an obsession of filmmakers trying to represent people. Perter Loizos creates a history of how ethnographic filmmakers have dealt with this obsession. It all starts with a search for cinematic truth, which proves difficult to achieve for Jean Rouch and Edgar Martin who are trying to determine the extent to which the camera alters behavior in people. Nichols (1991) determine that documentaries and fictions differ in that documentaries are more caught up in historical argument. Documentaries differ from fiction in their representations and not in their form. I find this claim to be false.

Fictions can be given the same form as documentary, and can even be driven by similar themes, motives, and certainly historical commentary/argument. The work of several directors could be mentioned hear, but perhaps the best would be directors from china’s underground guerilla film making scene. The current political mileu of china is responsible for the censorship of all kinds of media, but none are more heavily regulated and confined than film. Throughout history film has proven to be the most successful form of media in shaping public opinion. Perhaps this is why it has been regulated so harshly in a country whose identity is shaped by its control of large amounts of people. Now, with the emergence of new editing software and the affordability of film making in a digital age, a new wave of film makers is arising that operates outside of China’s censorship bureau. Ying Liang is one of these filmmakers. His film The Other Half (2006) is a good example of why fictions are just as caught up in historical narrative as documentary while also holding a form that lends itself to the appearance of verisimilitude as documentary does. Liang’s use of alianation effects, minimal editing, and long stationary shots made with a commercially accesable camera all make for a convincingly real film. Even the stories in it are real, but played out with unprofessional actors. The sound work is done with the in camera microphone. These factors along with other subtle alienation effects make for a convincing piece of realist art that is not ethnographic film, but plays with the line between reality, art, and fiction.

The politics of production are what ultimately label a film. The context from which it was made aids it, and the viewers experience with it ultimately leads to its identity and further labeling.