Insights on documentary film: Interview with Bill Nichols

During the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival, I had the opportunity to meet Bill Nichols, an American film critic and scholar renowned for pioneering the study of documentary film. He is a prominent scholar in the field of documentary film studies, introduced the influential concept of the "six modes of documentary." These modes categorize documentaries based on their formal techniques and the filmmaker's approach to the subject matter, offering a framework to understand and analyze documentary films. The six modes he defined are Poetic, Expository, Observational, Participatory, Reflexive, and Performative. Each mode offers different methods for representing reality and truth, influencing how audiences perceive and engage with the film.

Nichols also developed the concept of "voice" in documentaries, which refers to how a film's narrative is constructed and presented to convey the filmmaker's specific perspective, style, and intentions. This concept emphasizes the importance of recognizing the filmmaker's influence in shaping the narrative, guiding viewer interpretation, and engaging with the documentary's subject matter. Through voice, Nichols highlights the active role of filmmakers in crafting their documentaries, making it a crucial aspect of understanding documentary as a creative and subjective form of expression.

At the end of the interview, I asked Professor Nichols to share his top three documentary recommendations to better understand and appreciate this genre. A recommendation from such an expert is indeed a treasure!

Arina: Professor Nichols, as the President of the documentary section at the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival, what aspects do you prioritize when you evaluate films?

Professor Nichols: Well, I'm delighted to be here, and it's a very good question. We as a jury haven't talked about that yet in terms of how we all approach things the same or differently. So we will see how it all works out as a jury. I largely look for whether a film engages me, the topic, or the people that are in it. And that's often a matter of the skill of the filmmaker in doing that. It could be through music, editing, and the personality of the people in it. So that's the quality I'm looking for most, I think - am I becoming moved and involved in what I am watching?"

Arina: I would like to know your insights from the industry. What are the current trends in documentary filmmaking? What changes are happening there?

Professor Nichols: Well, you know, documentary has evolved over time in a way that has made it far more popular. At the same time, it's what will bring in an audience, not necessarily what will tell us the most about the world or help us understand it the best, although they might go together. So there's also the risk of what you could call 'commercializing,' where there's a search for subjects that are interesting and entertaining, and maybe entertaining at the expense of insight or just more or less spectacle. You know, something that makes you go, 'Oh my goodness.' A good example is a series called 'Tiger King,' which is about a man who trains tigers. It's not of great interest or importance, and not many people will ever do it, but he's a very, very interesting, eccentric person. The series is very entertaining, but, you know, at the end of the day, it doesn't really haunt you."

Arina: Talking about subjects, what topics are the most relevant today for making documentaries?

Professor Nichols: I think in general, the topics that are most relevant are the ones that are most current in terms of current affairs and issues. So, like in the US, now there's a huge amount of concern about pro-choice and abortion. So now, many states are making it impossible to get an abortion even if it's not the woman's choice to have the child. It might be incest or rape or something terrible, or there's a terrible problem with the fetus. But that is beginning to become, you know, a subject for films. Global warming, questions about gender and sexual identity, with, you know, it used to be primarily gay and lesbian life, and now transgender individuals are getting much more attention, both good and bad."

Arina: What ethical considerations should filmmakers keep in mind?

Professor Nichols: There are a couple of things that are really interesting about documentary, because unlike journalism, anthropology, or sociology, there is no code of ethics. You know, you can't, as a documentary filmmaker, say, 'I followed the code and did what was expected.' It's never been codified. Am I dealing with this person in a way that shows respect? Am I respecting them as a human being? Am I engaging with them in a way that's fair? Am I distorting what they say and manipulating what they've claimed? And I think that becomes particularly interesting and tricky with people who have power, because then they have access to the media and may present an image of themselves that isn't complete."

Arina: Should a filmmaker think of the consequences, especially according to his protagonist, what is going to be with his protagonist after?

Professor Nichols: Well, in psychology, and particularly in psychology where you do experiments with people, there's the idea that's called 'informed consent,' that you say, 'Mr. Nichols, you're going to do an interview, but we may treat it to make you look like a very arrogant person, and there may be consequences for you.' You know, then I say, 'Oh, I don't know about that. Let's make a deal.' So that idea of informed consent doesn't fully apply in documentary, because the filmmaker doesn't always know what the consequences will be. It's hard to say. After a film is done, it goes out, and people will respond in different ways. So, to the extent that they can see that there will be consequences, yes, I think it would be useful to make that known. But for example, Fred Wiseman, who is very famous for his films that observe people without interviews, but just observe them. We may see teachers in a high school, about a high school teaching, and he's just seeing how they teach. And he doesn't say, 'You know, people are going to think you're very rigid about how you do this, or you're very inventive,' and he leaves it for the viewer to decide. And he doesn't warn people, and he doesn't, in many of his films, even ask for their permission to be in the film, because they're part of a public institution, like hospitals and high schools. So, it varies a lot, but I think respect, and including respect for the truth, which might be more than the individual, if they have power, for the ethics of the filmmaking should lead to the viewer watching it, feeling that they can trust the filmmaker to present the world they are giving us in a way that we understand how that has been done, and whether things have been distorted or not, or if we feel we can trust the filmmaker to give us a view that may be personal, it may be slanted in some sense, but we understand that, and we can accept that and judge it accordingly."

Arina: Professor Nichols, I have one more question. Probably a challenging one! What are your personal top 3 documentary movies that are important to watch?

Professor Nichols: Well, it would probably change with time, because different times I'd become more fascinated with some than others, but three would be, one would be 'Night and Fog'. A French film about the Holocaust made in the 50s, so it's very old. But it was the first film to examine how the Nazi regime exterminated large numbers of people. We know they killed millions of Jews, but they also killed gays, lesbians, political dissenters, the mentally impaired, and the film is about that process. Another is Werner Herzog's 'Grizzly Man', about a man who goes into the Alaskan wilderness to live with grizzly bears, who are predators, very dangerous, very big, and he goes alone unarmed to become their friend. And for years he succeeds, and he knows them by name and gets intimate with them in terms of watching and observing and being very close and even touching them, until at one point he becomes killed and eaten by a bear he didn't know. And Herzog thinks he's crazy, but he thinks he's right, you know, that this is the sort of thing that makes a lot of sense for him. So he's conflicted, and Herzog's saying, no, and Treadwell, the man, saying, yes, this is, you know, works for me, and he makes his own footage of his life with the bears that Herzog shows us. So it has two views, and it's very complicated in that sense, so that's another. And I think I was thinking of it earlier today, Agnès Varda's film, 'Les Glaneurs', which is about, in English it's the 'Gleaners and I', about people who collect the leftovers, which is originally crops, you know, so they pick the potatoes or the grapes that are left behind after the harvest. So the people that own the field don't care, and then people come in and collect the ones that were ignored for their life, because they need food, but they don't have a lot of money, and it spills into scavengers in the cities who also, you know, go through trash and try to find things that will help them survive with little or no money. And Agnès Varda interacts with them and sees herself also gleaning and catching things that are on the side of life, and not part of, you know, the big picture, important people, but just little people trying to make ends meet. So it's a very haunting film too. No, those would be three.