Truth and lies in cinema verite

Abstract

1985 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Visual Studies. This thesis consists of two sections: Truth and Lies, and the making of Everything Must Change. Truth and lies traces several developments made in the evolution of the documentary cinema (both technological and ideological) and explores their effect upon the manner in which the world before the camera has been transformed onto film over the course of the past ninety years. During this period, the documentarian has labored under the constraint of having to present a more or less objective view of his subject, and historically this objectivity has been considered synonymous with "truthfulness"; the filmmaker has not been allowed to present subjective truth. In the eyes of critics, subjectivity and bias were lies. The premise throughout this discussion is that documentaries indeed are subjective statements, and that as the tools available to the documentarian become more and more transparent, this inherent subjectivity becomes increasingly masked. This paper contends that a possible solution to this dilemma might be for filmmakers to include contextual clues to subjectivity within the scope of their work . The second section, the making of Everything Must Change, outlines the process of shooting and editing my thesis movie, and examines how a certain degree of contextualized subjectivity has been included specifically within this work. The thesis is comprised of a written text and a 42 minute video copy of my thesis film, Everything Must Change.