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02 Poetic Documentary

Poetic documentary is a subgenre of documentary filmmaking that emerged in the 1920s in response to fiction films. While the term was not coined until 2001, poetic documentaries focus on evoking emotion over factual accuracy through experimental techniques like disjointed editing, abstract visuals, and subjective interpretations. They lack traditional narratives and instead create moods and feelings using elements like music, camerawork, and editing. Examples of poetic documentaries that illustrate these characteristics include Rain, Man of Aran, and Koyaanisquatsi.

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251 views2 pages

02 Poetic Documentary

Poetic documentary is a subgenre of documentary filmmaking that emerged in the 1920s in response to fiction films. While the term was not coined until 2001, poetic documentaries focus on evoking emotion over factual accuracy through experimental techniques like disjointed editing, abstract visuals, and subjective interpretations. They lack traditional narratives and instead create moods and feelings using elements like music, camerawork, and editing. Examples of poetic documentaries that illustrate these characteristics include Rain, Man of Aran, and Koyaanisquatsi.

Uploaded by

Vaibhav Ahire
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Poetic Documentary

The poetic mode of documentary film making originally emerged from the City Symphony film
movement in the 1920s was a retort against the style & content of the predominant fiction film
genre. While Poetic Documentaries have existed since 1920s the actual term ‘Poetic
Documentary’ wasn’t coined, until 2001, in documentary theorist Bill Nichol’s book Introduction
to Documentary. In his book, Nichols classified poetic mode as one of the six modes of
documentary film making – along with Observational, Expository, Participatory, Reflexive &
Performance mode.

Points:

● Poetic documentary ultimately aims to create a prevailing emotion or feeling from the
audience rather than-for example, facts or truth- which may be presented in a
historical/event documentary.
● The documentary considers a subject matter that is personal to the people involved as
they focus on experiences, mostly between the presenter & the interviewee.
● This type of documentary points out inmportant elements of a person’s life through not
only the content & dialogue but also through the use of music, camera shots, angles &
editing. By carefully & artistically constructing these aspects the film maker expresses
their personal feelings to influence to tone & mood of the story in the documentary. This
allows the audience to feel personally connected to the presenter& film maker as the
values & messages conveyed through above elements.

Characteristics of Poetic Documentary:

Poetic documentaries tend to focus on triggering emotional responses in the viewer & they often
have several unifying characteristics.

1. Visual rhythm over continuity:


Breaking from standard editing rules, poetic documentaries are avant-garde in that they
aren’t concerned with maintaining continuity from scene to scene. Instead, the goal is to
emphasise rhythm, composition & shot design to create visuals that show the viewer the
world through new point of view.
2. Lack of traditional narrative:
Since poetic documentaries are primarily focused on creating a particular mood or
feeling, establishing a linear narrative is not necessary. This means characters don’t
progress through arcs & storyline doesn’t move towards resolution.
3. Subjectivity:
Rather that arguing for an objective fact-based truth, poetic documentaries provide a
subjective interpretation of a topic. They approach subjects in a more abstract &
experimental way than traditional documentaries.

Examples of Poetic Documentaries:

● Rain (1929):
Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivans’ Classic City Symphony uses disconnected shots to evoke
how it feels to experience a rainstorm in Amsterdam.
● Man of Aran (1934):
Directed by documentary pioneer Robert Flaherty, Man of Aran is a poetic vision of the
daily life of people living on Aran islands off the coast of Ireland. Flaherty was not
concerned with obeying the standard non-fiction documentary restraints & fabricated
scenes in order to romanticize life on the island. Flaherty’s fellow filmmaker John
Grierson actually coined the term ‘documentary’ in 1926 to describe one of Flaherty’s
earlier films, Moana.
● Koyaanisquatsi (1982):
Godfrey Reggio’s wordless poetic documentary juxtaposes slow motion & time-lapse
footage of cities & nature with a haunting score by Phillip Glass to show the effects that
cities & modern technology have on human life.

● Sans Soleil (4 examples of poetic documentaries):


This French documentary directed by Chris Marker is a poetic meditation about the
complexitiesof human memory. Lacking a character-based narrative, the film consists of
a dreamy collection of travel footage & memories that are only loosely connected by a
mysterious voiceover.

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/guide-to-poetic-documentaries#what-is-poetic-
documentary

A poetic documentary eschews linear continuity in favor of mood, tone, or the juxtaposition of
imagery. Since poetic documentaries often have little or no narrative content, the director of
photography is often asked to capture highly composed, visually striking images that can tell a
story without additional verbal context. Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia (1938) is an example of a
poetic documentary that focuses on visuals and artistic style to help reveal an inner truth.
Poetic documentary is a subgenre of documentary filmmaking that uses avant-garde techniques
to evoke a certain mood or feeling rather than prove a point through a traditional linear
narrative structure. Poetic documentary filmmakers provide the audience with an emotional
perspective on a subject through the use of rhythmic visuals that provide an abstract and
subjective interpretation of reality.

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