FS 100 - Non Narrative Film

Documentary

Claims to present factual information about the world, often attempts to persuade the viewer

Real world can be recorded or events can be staged/reenacted

Mockumentary

Fiction films that adopt the style and conventions of documentaries

Experimental film

Can be fictional, factual, or a combination of both modes

Challenges mainstream filmmaking conventions, challenges what mainstream
depict, and often reflects upon the nature of cinema itself

Can be presented in galleries like fine art

Some filmmakers explore mood, the nature of cinematic medium, their personal visions

Can be narrative or non-narrative

Uses associative rather than continuity editing

Documentary modes (3)

Voice of God: guide the viewer with voice-over narration

Observational: fly-on-the-wall perspective with no voice-over narration

Presenter: director appears in voice-over and in the film itself, interviewing subjects

Experimental film modes (4)

Poetic strain: created as visual poem

Minimal strain: engage in a modernist examination of film medium itself

Assemblage strain: constructed from found footage and assembled together

Political avant-garde strain: politically engaged, often in relation to identity politics, and can take any combination of the other two modes

Koyaanisqatsi

Has documentary and experimental features

Ecocriticism

Some sequences are in visual essay structure

Musical score takes the place of narration

Sequences can be considered “mood poems”