THE CONFLICT OF WORDS AND IMAGE IN DOCUMENTARY FILM
Panel Discussion

Centre of PLUS CAMERIMAGE Documentary Film Section
“Image of the World – World in Images” under the patronage of
Discovery Networks Central Europe

POLONIA cinema, Piotrkowska 67

Friday, December 4th, 2:15 pm – 3:45 pm






Does an image really speak a thousand words? Can images and words coexists in harmony and complement each other in a documentary? Which of them is more honest, and which is more manipulative? Can a non-fiction film avoid manipulation at all? And what is the role of a director of photography in the process of producing meaning within a documentary film?


Speakers:

TERRY SANDERS recipient of 2009 Special Award for Outstanding Achievements in Documentary Filmmaking.

In the documentaries I make, I work hard to have the images alone tell the story as much as possible, with words supplementing when truly necessary. There are big exceptions, of course, particularly in my "portrait/interview" films. I don't think of words and images in documentaries as being in conflict, that is, fighting each other. I think of them in harmonic relationship.

JOHN DYSON a writer and a journalist cooperating with Rider’s Digest

Can documentaries compel attention without scaring people half to death? We will discuss how documentaries can be more persuasive by emphasising affirmatives and cutting back on gloom and alarm. Don’t programmes which take a cue from Bing Crosby and ‘accentuate the positive’ gain authority and credibility?

LUIS-PHILIPPE CAPELLE cinematographer on fiction features and documentaries

What is the difference between documentary filming and “news gathering”? Could the cinematographer be called “coauthor” of the film maybe this more the case in documentary filming than in feature films? Does restaging some actions if missed or badly filmed, change the content and the interpretation of reality?

MICHAEL NEUBAUER a head of bvk – German Society of Cinematographers

You cannot trust in the words you hear and not in the pictures you see. There is a lot of manipulation in the media - even in documentaries. If words do increase sensibility and awareness they might be helpful. But the pure telling with the camera delivers the deepest impressions. And the value of silence has increased with the inflation of lies...

JACEK PETRYCKI cinematographer on fiction features and documentary films

I was lucky to start my career during the age when documentary film was saying farewell to the voice over commentary. An image and live words won. Then there was a time for a struggle to express and add meaning with the sole use of images. Then we learnt that a multi-dimensional depth of composition is a key solution...

JON BLAIR director, writer and producer of documentary films

With documentaries, the fact that the audience responds to a film’s images as much as to its words is too often forgotten. Many documentary makers make a fault that the cinematography simply becomes a kind of wallpaper for the words. The perfect documentary does none of this. It is where the images neither conflict with nor simply illustrate the spoken word, but each compliments the other. The right picture with the right words can speak much more than each of them could ever do on their own.