American Scenes

Some of the most direct and unique expressions of this country's social and cultural realities have appeared within the documentary genre of recent American cinema. With the zeal of anthropologists discovering a strange new tribe, modern documentary filmmakers have turned their cameras toward their fellow citizens and have success­fully stalked them through their urban environs.

Perhaps one of the most unusual filmmakers to emerge in the last ten years is Errol Morris. In his documentaries Gates of Heaven (USA 1978) and Vernon, Florida (USA 1981), Morris presents a view of a society which is seemingly adrift. The small town citizens of Vernon, Florida attempt, in their rambling monologues, to create a meaningful context for their lives even though they are totally awash in a massive accumulation of banality. The subject matter of Gates of Heaven, a film ostensibly about pet cemeteries, actually deals with the content of the American soul.

Throughout both of his films, Morris uses a technique which could best be described as reflective passivity. Using static camera compositions, and refusing to interject himself into the film, Morris allows his subjects to discuss their concerns and feelings without adding any judgmental commentary. As a result, Morris captures a haunting sense of the fears and deep despairs that lurk beneath the placid exteriors of the people caught by his lenses. For Morris, the documentary film is a mirror which reflects the strange alienation of his fellow countrymen.

While Morris operates like an observant sociologist, Les Blank throws himself into his subject matter with overt affection and an easygoing sense of enjoyment. Blank's films have covered a remark­able range, from the problems of film making (Burden of Dreams -- USA 1982) to gastronomy (Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers -- USA 1983). Music and the various ethnic subcultures of America are, however, Blank's chief concern. During his career, he has made documentaries about Cajun music (Hot Pepper), Polish-American polkas (In Heaven There is No Beer?), Appalachia (Sprout Wings and Fly), Mexican-American society (Del Mero Corazon), and Afro-American culture (The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins and A Well Spent Life).
With his production of Always For Pleasure combines his ethnic concerns, his interest in music, and his taste food into a single cinematic extravaganza.

Blank's Always For Pleasure is a collage of the sounds and images of New Orleans. Though Blank partly centers the film around the Wild Tchoupitoulas (a group of Blacks who annually dress as Indians for the Mardi Gras), he captures the dynamic and highly anarchistic feel of the entire city. In the process, Blank recreates the joyful energy of a community rich in its own traditions and identity.

A very different part of the South is viewed in Space Coast (USA 1979). Filmmakers Ross McElwee and Michel Negroponte went, in the late 1970s, to the towns and shopping malls of Cape Canaveral, Florida. What they found were the curious, and very Southern, residents who lived amidst the fading remnants of the Apollo Moon Program.

The film presents a series of sharp contrasts as it observes the lives of such Cape Canaveral citizens as Papa John, an aging biker who also plays music for his church group. Other local residents attempt to form a company that will salvage and sell parts from disused launch pads. The local reporters follow, with diminishing interest, minor rocket tests and all the while, the camera probes the process by which a hi-tech boom created a sun­drenched ghost town.

One of the most important documentary filmmakers of the American cinema is Frederick Wiseman. Beginning with his production of Titicut Follies (USA 1967), Wiseman became a crucial figure in reshaping the style and content of contemporary documentary cinema. His original training as a lawyer provided Wiseman with a sharp insight to how the internal structures of social institutions really work. Repeatedly, in his films, he critically observes the inherent contradictions of such social institutions as education (High School -- USA 1969), the police (Law and Order --USA 1970), the Army (Basic Training -- USA 1972), and religion (Essene— USA 1972). Most recently, Wiseman has examined the commercial processes of consumer manipulation and image-making in the documentary film Model (USA 1981) and the narrative film Seraphita's Diary (USA 1982).

Working with a small crew, hand-held cameras, natural lighting, and location sounds, Wiseman makes himself as unobtrusive as possible. In turn, he succeeds in photographing the subject of his films in an amazingly off-guard manner. In Model, he captures the sense of mad perfectionism and, often, wasted energy which takes place during the laborious task of making an ad. The film does more, however, than merely capture the essence of an observed process. Through the images he portrays, Wiseman brings into question both the means and the purpose of manufacturing fantastic images in order to sell products. By directly exposing the dream merchants of advertising, Wiseman reaffirms the independent moral values and integrity of the documentary cinema.