rivista anarchica
anno 41 n. 359
febbraio 2011


cinema

At the movies
by Bruno Bigoni

 

Why it is important to see documentaries

More and more unnecessary film in theaters, fewer images can provoke curiosity. This is the harsh reality that governs our audiovisual market (and not just the Italian one). Then you must exit from the logic of a simple entertainment cinema and go and look for a film far more of thought, a simple reflection.
The documentary film has always been the mission to act on reality, revealing secret aspects, unknown or simply hidden. It has an in-depth and sometimes even direct intervention. The documentary now has its own specific vocation. It is no longer to make things visible to an external eye, but transparent. It takes the ability to provide access to new, amazing or just engaging, because the image (in the broadest sense) remains, above all, emotion and thought. Therefore, it could advance the suspect only where does the idea of cinema (for those who have or think you have it), there begins the real world of research, especially a world of voices (there will never be enough of soundtracks ...), shadows (the cinema as a form of light) and ghosts (you can not not think about the great masters of cinema if not in the form of tribute).
You can not tell no story without surprise, that is, without that feeling of wonder and curiosity that opens us to the question. And in this documentary film is separated from fiction. It allows a freedom and courage that moves contamination, new forms and unpredictable jumps. This cinema, so little consideration and respect, with its affections, its illusions, its surprises, seems to lie in close proximity to a new world. But which world? This phrase of Henri Bergson, well I think illuminate the substance of the speech. "The momentum of life consists in the existence of creation. It can not create an absolute, because the material meets in front of him, that is the opposite movement to the right, but it takes hold of this matter, that is pure necessity and tends to introduce it in the most possible amount of uncertainty and freedom.”
All this to say that the authorship is one important aspect, determining the construction (and choice) of an image, but it is not the main problem. The film exists in the authorship of fiction and documentary, even if the film is more recognizable because in the cinema tends to make the same film. In the documentary, this is more difficult, partly because the language changes each time you change the situation or issue addressed.

In the world of image production, television has killed any possible form of ethics. Only the documentary keeps it still, because it reflects and makes sense.
The truth is this precipice and we are all there, lined up on the brink. Our object of contemplation is the banality of everyday life. Our desire is no longer the subject of sex or voyeurism, but curiosity and the penetration into the sanctuary of banality.
A process that leads to the annihilation of seduction, the symbol, irony. A phenomenon of gradual extermination of the real world in favor of a hyper-real world that is just and perfect playback. Even the historical facts are isolated from their context and become the subject of news trivial or dangerous revisionism. The past is a kind of amusement park, the understanding of this useless, boring if you need to reflect on the present and future, or if it helps us grow.
This is not an automatic and inevitable process, but a deep disappointment, a disillusion. Television (and all that brings with it) has disintegrated not only the imagination (and the political consciousness would add) of who sees her, but also of those who produce images and tells stories. It canceled or severely weakened the presence and political reflection, social and cultural life has made the surface reality, transformed and maybe, finally killed her. That's why documentaries, seen as free spirits, which by their nature are not governed nor governable, are so annoying on TV, hence they should disappear from the schedules and never appear in theaters. Great is the threat facing: to restore the sense and feeling to the images, thereby promoting awareness.

Since the mirror, which reflected our identity, we passed the time of the opaque mirror which scatters our identity. Maybe it's also why we so hard to think of a story, a story worth telling. Starting with what we see around us, relationships, love, affection, work, politics, society, family. I struggle to understand how everything has become so anonymous, with no momentum and courage, cool, usual, worn-out. And I find it hard to understand why there is a film that manages to tell everything in a new way.
The documentary on the site - news and information about the real world of cinema.

Bruno Bigoni