The truth about Documentaries...

well... here we are... it's 2:30 am here in the post-production studio known as my attic, and I find myself re-experienceing the most difficult day that happened on the trip. On this particular day, (for background) we had arrived at a distribution point to drop off our supplies. Well... after a few hours, the mood went from lite and celebratory to down-right ugly. Fights broke out between everyone of the most inconsequential things... some arguments involved people that were not doing the fighting... everyone was pissed, and i had to keep rolling. For the film, even though this particular fight eats time, I have decided to leave it in it's uncut form for not only the emotional value, but also for the purpose of truth. Fighting can be and is a very ugly thing... unfortunately, when you watch reality television, thats all you seem to see. the thing is, they don't let it play out. They use quick editing to get to the point... however, when they do this, they comepletly rob the scene of any emotion. Now, am I saying that cutting itself robs the emotion, no, of course not. There are some instances when the mood and discomfort would not exsist without the editing. However, the way that most of these tackle it is to make a 5 min fight last 30 sec. And thats not right... sometimes, you gotta leave the camera running to catch everything. This is why I advocate shooting on DV, or another cheap medium. Let the moment play out. As a director, you have a responsibility not only to tell the over all story, but also to capture the truth.
Now, before anyone says anything, no, I do not believe that documentaries should be considered the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. If you believe that, you are either too idealistic, gullible, or just never have either been behind a camera or in a post prod. enviroment. The truth in documentaries and all filmmaking in general. push it out of your mind. You may not control what happened in front of you, you do however control what is shown. The fact of the matter is, everything has a POV behind it. it is a simple fact, no matter what you do, you're POV will be all over it. You could set up a camera, point it somewhere and let it roll, and your pov is still there simply because you chose where to point the camera, and when to roll and cut. Thats it.
Don't become disheartened yet, we have so much more to talk about, not all of it now... but soon. Listen, there is truth in documentaries, there will always be, but you should never regard documentary as an absolute truth. However, are there moments of truth in them? Yes. and that is what we should strive for. Please I beg you, sometimes the best editing you could do in film is holding the shot. Watch irreversable to see that I am right, the rape scene will kill you.
Thats is for now.... If you don't agree, comment if not, pass it on....